The Pennington Patch

Some of you are probably aware that I am a reasonably regular user of twitter. Mostly I use it to find and interact with gardeners and people who share my love of flowers. last summer in Barton I noticed that an area known as The Meadow had suddenly sprouted huge swathes of wildflowers. This couldn't have happened without a bit of help so I decided to find out who had done it . After a bit of research I was put in touch with a lady called Gill who, along with a load of local volunteers, spent most of 2015 sowing and maintaining wildflower meadows in Lymington and beyond. It wasn't long before I found myself helping as well. 

Late last year Gill told me about a huge abandoned allotment she had acquired from New Forest District Council. Her plan is to turn half of it into an orchard and use the other half to grow flowers for cutting and , teach anyone who wants to learn, all about the joy of a jam jar posy. "Would I help" she asked. You don't have to guess my answer. 

You may have noticed I said it was an abandoned allotment.. It hasn't been used for 5 years and is now a tufty grass and bramble filled patch. There was no way we would be easily able to dig it all, so on a particularly wet day in Mid December I met her and a few of her volunteers to peg down some huge sheets of black plastic to try and suppress the weeds. It was certainly extreme gardening I was wet all the way to skin level!! 

You may be able to see at the far end of the plot is an area of scrub, bushes and bramble about 15 feet deep. It needed to come down to see what was under it and stop it invading into the growing area any further. 

So last Friday I asked Jim if he would mind coming along to help with his rather impressive collection of Stihl chainsaws and tree cutters. We loaded up the car, sat Gibson in the back and off we went. It was a gloriously sunny but very cold day, I had a bit of trouble taking pictures as I could only take them into the sun but hopefully you will be able to see what we did. The area that needed clearing appeared to have two very large bushes in the middle and were completely surrounded with brambles and weeds. Jim quickly started to make an  impression, with Gill and her husband and Gibson and I on clearance duties.

We only had two hours but in that time managed to cut back all the brambles and rescue a very pretty flowering bush that had been swamped. 

There was also the remains of a bench, which with a bit of TLC may be brought back into service. 

There is a huge amount of work to do before we even start planting things but hopefully with enough time, people and sunny days, you will see the Pennington Patch take shape over the summer. 

Gibson enjoyed his trip and is looking forward to the next visit when we plan to start rotavating the beds, A quick inspection revealed a very heavy clay based soil so keep your fingers crossed we can get it all turned over.