Digging in the Rain, Like we're in a Chaingang

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The day was cold, windy, wet and miserable. Only the select few turned out for the work party on 26th April.
 The task was to dig over the subsoil and mix in the mushroom compost so that we could sow a meadow before the end of April.
 The sub soil was solid, impacted clay, and as you can see, in places we had to use a pick ax or a mattock.

A great deal of banter made the task a lot more fun - recollections of famous chaingang movies - (aimed at the person behind the camera - I don't know why - I promised them a reward of moving stone at the end of the digging - did  I miss something there)?

We learned about Nelson Mandela's method of breaking up stone - going as slowly as possible, but never actually stopping. It was too cold that day to emulate.

Martin gave us a little talk about when digging was necessary to improve the soil structure and when No Dig was appropriate. Not sure what the conclusions were about this plot, though it was strangely disappointing to find the plot looked exactly the same at the end as when we started. Cliodhna said, 'But we KNOW it's different.'

Ann and Jaz offered us tea halfway through and the chaingang immediately voted to stop. Voting? Chaingangs? I think I would call it a consensus to have tea and cake.
The team practised Leaning on Spades, a time-honoured builders' tradition, taught by Chris.

You can easily identify The Ham Actors in this troupe.

Eric and Jessica joined us in time for raking and trampling - evening and flattening the soil with tiny sideways steps. We did this instead of hiring a roller, which seemed over the top for such a small area, though we did hire one 2 weeks ago for sowing meadow seed on the verge between the houses and the riverside path.

Eric thought we looked like Space Invaders taking these silly sideways steps, so we did the arm movements too.

Then Geoff's alarm went off - work shift over - all downed tools - well, they condescended to put them away in the tool shed.

Diana and Kate sowed the seed, and raked and trampled again the next day.

Working on the land

Although I moved into Lancaster Cohousing last year I work away at least half the week, which usually means setting off back to Glasgow on a Sunday. A few weeks ago, instead of our usual monthly meeting, we had a day of work-groups, and this novice gardener was very pleased to get a chance to help in a tree-planting session - the 'land group' events usually happen on Sundays so it's been months since I was able to take part in one. Here are three of us helping to prepare the orchard for our new little trees.

Catriona is in charge and showed me what I needed to do to make our beautiful big rowan tree happy in a new pot in the pedestrian street. And this is a small sample of what you get when 30 or 40 households pool their garden tools!


While we were planting trees in the rain, another group looking at the wellbeing of the community and its members was meeting in Pam's house.

Fiona


 That Sunday we planted more trees in their new home on Butterfly Bank, a piece of meadow land by the river where we are encouraging a diversity of native flowers, grasses and trees. 





The Land group was out in force and with willing helpers we planted six oak and six alder saplings that we had saved and now are transplanting into this site.

We are also cutting back invasive non-native buddlleias and rooting out the masses of himalayan balsam that has invaded the meadows.








Despite the rain, we kept ouselves warm digging, planting and staking then repaired to the cosy Common house for tea and had a fabulous cake made specially for us by Pam.

Another busy weekend in the Lancaster Cohousing project. Come and join us - we still have one flat and 2 houses available to buy!

Rosemary

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Extreme Gardening - Sunday 16 September

Kitting up

Many people wanted to take part in this, as it sounded so much fun. In the end, for safety reasons we chose our experienced and qualified climbers, Steve, Robin and Becky. And though they all remained incredibly cheerful, it was cold and poured with rain, so maybe the fun aspect was somewhat diluted.

Getting started

Having seen the complexity of the climbing skills needed, on top of the dangers of stanley knives in operation near security ropes (very counter-intuitive for climbers), this was definitely the right decision.

Sowing seed

The retaining bank north of Terrace D was seeded as a meadow last spring as it is the plant roots which will really hold the soil in place long term rather than the green matting. Some of the soil washed out within a few weeks taking the seeds with them and leaving bare patches. We thought we would try and reseed the bare bits this September, by cutting small slits in the upper matting and spreading a mix of seed and sand behind and then repegging.

The bare bit

Becky said, 'This was a great new experience. I have never tried to garden from a rope before.' However in some areas all the soil has gone, which is useful to know as something else will need to be done there, and we could only have found out in this way.




 Kate

  www.lancastercohousing.org.uk

 Vertical Gardening Continued, Steve: 

To add to Kate's blog I have added a couple of photos taken hanging off the rope. From the big grin on her face it's obvious Becky just loves dangling from ropes in the pouring rain!

Hopefully the reseeding will take effect before the winter weather draws in. I suppose we will have to wait until spring to see how effective it was.

Its all about the roofs - and the orchard

Here are some photos of the Terrace A roof going on... first the blue liner, then the tiles are placed in handy piles, and finally on Wednesday 29th Feb it looked like the final tiles were being put in place.

Meanwhile the solar panels are going on to the mill roof...

... and Terrace F is rising above the ground at the upper carpark level, with one storey completed at ground level on the other side.

See the St Valentine's Day and St David's Day updates for much more detail on the build.

But while the contractors struggled with the weather, and walking about on site required boots against the deep mud, cohousers took the opportunity on a Sunday in February to work and socialise on site.

This area is a former piece of field that we are going to turn into a small orchard. The trees will not be planted until next autumn, but putting a weed suppressing barrier down now will make planting easier and give the trees a better chance. Our apple trees have been grafted locally at Middlewood Farm, and most are northern varieties.

We used reclaimed bricks to hold the barrier down, but pushing a laden wheelbarrow of bricks up a steep plank is an acquired art, and some did not acquire it....

We also had to clear a few hawthorn bushes. Shifting the trunk of the largest took 2 people, but the smaller branches were cut up and used to create a windrow - a temporary shelter for small birds and animals, but which will gradually rot down and produce a mulch to be used around trees or hedges.

But in fact, although we do like to contribute towards our long term goals, these work sessions are also a great opportunity to get to know each other better, and having a break and a chat now and again is a very good idea.

Kate

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Scything team in action

All change on Butterfly Bank last week. Having done a days training in the Arnside & Silverdale AONB a few weeks ago we borrowed a set of scythes and hayrakes. On one of the better days, with help from a couple of other would be reapers from LESS we managed to give the whole bank a short back and sides.

The scythes are Austrian and are being promoted in the UK by Simon Fairlie from Monkton Wyld Community in Dorset. They are much easier to use than 'English' scythes - something to do with weight and balance. We borrowed them from The Lancashire Wildlife Trust who are getting together a North Lancs Meadows group and hope in the future to recruit a posse of volunteer reapers who would go out and hand cut small meadows in the area.

While I was sharpening one of the scythe blades a group of teenage lads went by the last one throwing me the comment of "awesome weapon!" as he passed. Next year we may be organising a 'Strictly Come Scything' party as I learnt from a friend at the Glasson music festival that scything was traditionally done to music - the last Piper in the North West being recorded as playing for a scything team in Ulverston in the late 1790's.

Chris

Down at the other end of the site in the mill garden, another set of people has been busy. Pete and Geoff prepared a bed for shrub cuttings, and Kate put in 28 flowering currant cuttings. Other passing cohousing members were surprised to see that flowering currant has berries similar to edible currant. No one tasted them!

Some of these passers-by were tempted to try their hand at some gardening work too. James was found a task which could be done without bending his bad back - cutting privet, and Pam and Gill took over removing the cut branches to pile on top of the windrow, which has suddenly become all green and leafy again as a result.
Kate

Work weekend

Well this is my first blog so I will keep it short and sweet:

Last weekend a number of us spent some time working on tidying up the site before the contractors take over. Our work supervisor was Pete and he soon had us clearing out flower beds, uprooting balsam, clearing out the mill and bagging up fly tipped rubbish.

My work gang (which included Charles and  Judy seen above working hard) spent all day Saturday clearing out the flower beds in front of the mill, placing uprooted weeds on the cleared ground then covering the whole lot with heavy duty plastic. Pete assured us that in a couple of years time we would be able to uncover the plot and start planting.

The fruits of our labour can be seen in the next image which also includes foreman Pete clearing away our tools.

Steve (newbie blogger)

Picnic on site on Saturday 21st May: all welcome!

Lancaster Cohousing is getting under way! Come and celebrate Intentional Communities Day 2011 with us at Forge Bank, Halton, on Saturday 21 May.

We will be having a picnic, games and balsam-bashing* event from 1.30-4 pm on the land upstream of Forge Bank Weir** (or, if it's really wet, in the Centre @ Halton...)

All welcome! Bring any / all of the following: a picnic, a blanket, a ball, your gardening gloves!

More info from 07778 737681 or email info@lancastercohousing.org.uk

Fiona

* We have a lot of Himalayan Balsam on site, an invasive weed which can be a major problem as it smothers other vegetation. Our main method of control is pulling or cutting the plants before they flower and set seed -- known as balsam bashing.

** From the metal bridge in Halton, follow Mill Lane past the new houses along to Halton Mill, follow the path alongside the river past Lancaster Cohousing building site, keep going past the weir, up the steps, along the path, and you’ll find us! There will be a trail of balloons to keep you on the right path.

www.lancastercohousing.org.uk

Land Team at work

Members of the Land Team have been busy over the past three months.
In January and February people were cutting off 30 cm strips of ivy from around tree trunks, as it was a planning condition to clear ivy from the trees. Sometimes this was a challenge, as the ivy stems could be 6cm across, which takes a lot of cutting, and some trees were very close to the river, which was often hair-raising.

In February and March we dug up saplings of beech, alder and ash, to transplant and grow on, ready for replanting once we have moved in, as some of the replacements for all the trees we have had to cut down in order to build the houses.

And recently we have taken our last opportunity to save some herbaceous plants before the demolition crew moves in – daffodil, astilbe, peony, solomon’s seal, primrose.

Since the trees have been cut down, and brambles cut back, more and more of the former planting scheme has become visible.

Some of the cut brambles have been piled up into a wonderful spiral habitat for small animals and insects, which Pete and Diana are calling a windrow.

 Kate

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