Andy's Greenhouse Diary
Drone photo by Frazer Grunshaw
Andy Mather from The Greenhouse Project in Witton Park, Blackburn keeps us up to date with snippets from the project.
Volunteers from The Greenhouse Project with their woven willow compost bay.
25th March - Compost
This week has seen the completion of the weaving of our community compost bay!
This will be filled in soon by BwD green waste compost supplied by John Cooper Recycling, which we share with our volunteers and fellow community food growing projects. The weave is willow which will then sprout and be rewoven into the structure. Food grown at the greenhouses is done so in a mixture of this compost and manure donated by our neighbours at Myerscough College.
A frog in the indoor pond at The Greenhouse Project - Andy Mather
15th April - Frogs and toads
Spring is definitely in full swing in the Greenhouses. Seedlings are sprouting ready to fill up the beds that have been well prepared over winter - some have had the added boost of phacelia green manure plants to add nutrients.
Most excitingly this week has seen the presence of welcome guests in our indoor pond - both frogs and toads! The pond was dug and planted only 2 years ago and yet again has proved that if you create a habitat nature will find it.
Fantastic lino prints from the workshop at The Greenhouse Project
22nd April - Art and seeds
A lovely time was had by all those attending the lino print workshop on Sunday lead by local artist Ian Halawi. We were blessed with some gentle sunshine and the flourishing apricot tree proved a great backdrop under which to relax and learn some new artistic skills.
Some lovely heritage seeds from Real Seeds
We also received our latest batch of seeds from the much recommended Real Seeds who promote rare and heritage seed varieties which will add to the interest and diversity of our herb garden. After last year's success of Aztec Broccoli that we purchased from them we are excited about this year's varieties.
Christine, Sally, Rubina and Karen with their proudly planted tomatoes
28th May - Mulching
In a bid to reduce watering demands and cope with the heat in the top greenhouse, we are experimenting with mulching options this year.
So far, we have used our own leaf mould, flax straw from our friends at Homegrown, Homespun, sheep’s wool and spent hops from Hopstar and Bank Top Breweries. It's an exciting week too because tomatoes made it into the beds thanks to Christine, Sally, Rubina and Karen!