Working in the Storey Gardens during December was restricted by some very cold weather and the Gardens being closed between Christmas and New Year.  The cold weather also affected the tasks we were able to undertake.

See below what we were able to achieve. 

• Resumed the task of weeding the paths.  This had been suspended due to other more urgent work.  However we had to stop the weeding when the ground became frozen.  We will resume this work in January
• Removing ivy in The Tasting Garden.  Most of this work was on the boundary walls and had to be done carefully to avoid pulling out mortar between the stones in the walls.  We also cleared ivy growing over some of the old tree stumps
• Removed a wineberry plant growing along the back wall of The Tasting Garden.
• The Lancaster City Council Grounds Maintenance team cut back the yew hedge by Meeting House Lane.  They also cut the hedge in the Copper Beach Garden and trimmed the small box hedges at the top of The Tasting Garden.
• Weeded the back of the Bee and Butterfly border, removed a briar and planted a white Japanese rose (Rosa rugosa ‘Alba’).
• Weeded the border by the wall with the Quaker Meeting House.
• Tidied up the garden at the back of The Storey opposite Lancaster Castle.  Took out creeping thistles, stinging nettles, coltsfoot, wood avens and lesser willow herb.  Also cut back the clematis Montana that was smothering the hydrangeas.
• Planted more cowslips and some cuttings of fuchsia ‘Hawkshead’.
• Fixed a smart new sign to the compost bins to show which of the three bins is currently to be filled. The laminated sign was produced for us by the Visitor Information Centre.

See below some photographs taken in the Gardens during December.

Last month we reported the arrival of much needed rain. In November we had even more. This plus the reduced periods of daylight meant that we were not able to do as much gardening as we would have liked.

However, we did persevere, and this is what we achieved.

• Continued gathering up fallen leaves.  At the beginning of the month this was in the Copper Beech Garden prior to the Light Up Lancaster festival (to read a report of this and to watch a video, click here).  In The Tasting Garden, we focussed on the paths as we don’t want the rotted leaves to fertilise the weeds in the paths.
• Fiona arranged some more flowers from the gardens for inside The Storey.  This included three dry flower arrangements.
• Collected a substantial amount of well-rotted horse manure.  There was plenty available, and you can see from the photograph in the slideshow below how much more is left for another time.
• Did a lot of autumn pruning and cutting back (e.g. honeysuckle, Michaelmas daisies, buddleia, golden rod, briars, brambles and laurel).  The cut branches and stems had to be bagged up for removal by the Lancaster City Council Grounds Maintenance team.
• Removed runner bean canes for storage over winter.
• Weeded and generally tidied up the Herb area.
• Weeded the bed alongside the ramp up into the Copper Beech garden and planted some violas and cuttings of a ceanothus and a purple hebe.
• Planted some crocus bulbs in the Copper Beech Garden.
• Emptied one of the compost bins.  Filled up another and levelled off with a layer of horse manure and then cardboard.  Put some pots of cuttings on top.
• Potted up two sage plants from long stems that had been pegged down.  Pegged down some more stems.
• Weeded around the soft fruit bushes and dug out some of the old raspberry canes.  Put down some compost.  There is more of this to do.
• Two of our volunteers attended a meeting of the Groundwork Northern Network. The aim is to connect green community spaces across Northern England. More about this a future post.

In October we had much needed rain. This saved us the task of watering but reduced the time we were able to work in the gardens. Also, the wet ground made tasks such as scraping the wildflower areas harder work.

So, this is what we did achieve in the Storey Gardens during October 2022:

• Finished scraping the wildflower areas to almost bare earth and sowing yellow rattle seed.  It is the yellow rattle plants that help to create the wildflower areas.  The roots of the yellow rattle are semi-parasitic feeding on the nutrients in the roots of the more vigorous grasses.  This weakens the grass giving more delicate species of wildflowers the opportunity to grow. We will see the results of our efforts next summer.
• Swept up lots of fallen leaves in both the Copper Beech Garden and The Tasting Garden.  The copper beech leaves are stored in a special area where they can rot down into leaf mould.  It takes a couple of years for this to happen.  We will continue doing this into November.
• Weeded the flower beds and cut back some of the perennials that have finished flowering. An ongoing task.
• Fiona arranged flowers in vases for display in The Storey.
• The Bay: A blueprint for recovery group built us another table out of pallets.  We will use this table in the Plants for Sale area of the Copper Beech Garden.
• Sieved some topsoil for potting up plants.
• Planted crocus and triteleia bulbs.
• Planted cowslips where a patch of ribwort plantain had been removed.
• Removed ivy from part of the wall between The Tasting Garden and the Friends Meeting House.
• Cleared the grass and weeds along the edges of the paths in order to show better the shape of the paths.  Another ongoing task.

See below some photos taken of our gardening volunteers in action during the month.

This is what we did in the Storey Gardens during September 2022:

• Scraping the wildflower areas to almost bare earth and sowing yellow rattle seed.  It is the yellow rattle plants that help to create the wildflower areas.  The roots of the yellow rattle are semi-parasitic feeding on the nutrients in the roots of the more vigorous grasses.  This weakens the grass giving more delicate species of wildflowers the opportunity to grow. There will more of this activity during October.
• Weeding the flower beds especially around the Swan’s Egg pear.  An ongoing task.
• Clearing the grass and weeds along the edges of the paths in order to show better the shape of the paths.  Another ongoing task.
• Taking cuttings and potting up plants to sell at the Heritage Open Days.
• Picking ripe fruit to offer to visitors at the Heritage Open Days.
• Using a hand mower to cut the grass in The Tasting Garden. A border is mowed around the paths and also the non-wildflower grass areas.
• Planting cowslips with The Bay: A blueprint for recovery group in the wildflower areas.
• Cutting back catnip spilling on to the pavement from the garden opposite Lancaster Castle. The Friends of the Storey Gardens maintain this garden as well as the Copper Beech Garden and The Tasting Garden.

See below some photos taken of our gardening volunteers during the month.

This is what we did in the Storey Gardens during August 2022:

• Weeding the flower beds and the circles around the fruit trees.  An ongoing task.
• Clearing the grass and weeds along the edges of the paths in order to show better the shape of the paths.  Another ongoing task.
• During the dry weather, watering seedlings, vegetables and the plants in pots.
• Clearing around the soft fruit area and removing some of the old raspberry canes.
• Moving the Plants for Sale area in the Copper Beech Garden. Click here to view a separate post about this.
• Clearing brambles from the space between the Meeting House Lane wall and the yew hedge. 
• Lowering and thinning the holly and wild briars in the old hedge between the yew hedge and the Bee & Butterfly border to let in more light.
• Assisting the Lancaster City Council staff strim the wildflower areas in The Tasting Garden. Click here to view a separate post about this.
• Planting out Verbena bonariensis seedlings in the Bee & Butterfly border.
• Planting out cowslip seedlings in the lower part of the wildflower meadow area.
• Picking some of the ripe fruit in The Tasting Garden.

Recently we have encountered three interesting species of moth caterpillars in The Tasting Garden.

The species were:

• Cinnabar
• Grey Dagger
• Elephant hawk-moth

See below some photographs of what we found.

On Monday 22 August 2022 the Lancaster City Council Grounds Maintenance team came to strim the wildflower meadow areas in The Tasting Garden.  Some Friends of the Storey Gardens (FOSG) volunteers were also present to help with the raking.

For a successful wildflower meadow it is necessary to cut the grass annually, rake it and remove it. Now the cut grass has been removed, the next task will be for FOSG volunteers to prepare some areas for sowing yellow rattle seeds.

It is the yellow rattle plants that help to create the wildflower areas.  The roots of the yellow rattle are semi-parasitic feeding on the nutrients in the roots of the more vigorous grasses.  This weakens the grass giving more delicate species of wild flowers the opportunity to grow.

So where there was insufficient yellow rattle this year to inhibit the long grass from growing we will scape these areas to almost bare earth before sowing the yellow rattle seeds we harvested during July and August.

Chris Wright was on hand to photograph the action.  The Council staff are in yellow tops and the FOSG volunteers are wearing their green tabards.

A volunteer task over the spring and summer has been moving the Plants for Sale in the Copper Beech Garden. These were located to the left of the steps sitting on the ground and on a stand made by The Bay: A blueprint for recovery.

The plants needed to be moved to the right of the steps. It was a long process as a large mound of soil and rubble had to be removed first. Once this was complete more tables were required to stand the plants on. Two of our volunteers, Ruth and Clive, constructed three tables out of wooden pallets and old fence posts.

See below a few photographs of the mound being cleared and the tables at the final stages of construction.

After removing some weeds, we positioned all the tables, ensured they were level.  The ground here is tarmac that has become uneven.  We also moved a bamboo plant in a pot into this area to hide part of the wall behind (N.B.  The bamboo is not for sale!).

The final step was to move the plants.  See below some photos of the finished work.  I hope you will agree that the area now looks more attractive.

This is what we did in the Storey Gardens during July 2022:

• We finished removing the mound of soil and rubble in the Copper Beech Garden. This was the mound by the steps coming up from the Storey.
• Weeding along the edges of the paths in order to show better the shape of the paths.  This is an ongoing task.
• During the dry weather, watering the fruit and vegetable plants.
• Harvesting the yellow rattle seeds.  The Bay: A blueprint for recovery helped with this (see photograph below). After Lancaster City Council‘s Grounds Maintenance team has cut the grass during August, we will rake the wild flower areas and sow the seeds ready for next year.
• Weeding the flower beds.
• Weeding around the betony plants in the Copper Beech Garden. Click here to view a separate post about this.
• Training the young espalier apple trees against the Georgian wall in The Tasting Garden along bamboo canes (see photograph below).
• Pruning the plum and cherry trees. This must be done in July.
• Summer pruning the apple trees.
• Further thinning of the apple and pear fruits

Yesterday, 27 July 2022, we had a number of gatekeeper butterflies behind the folly in The Tasting Garden.

Searching the Internet for further information revealed that an alternative name for a gatekeeper butterfly is hedge brown and the butterfly in the photo below is female.