January was also the right month for us to harvest our crop of willow, and with it being year 2 we obtained a better harvest than the previous year.  The willow has been cut and graded into lengths and it will now take approximately 3 months to dry out in preparation for weaving, after which we hope to learn how to weave our own plant supports, containers and baskets.

While it was quiet in the garden we also took the opportunity to tidy up our pot store area.  We hope to make better use of this space and one of the local veterans has already come up with a design for storage, so watch this space!

After a very kind donation from poppy Scotland (www.poppyscotland.org.uk), we have now commenced renovations to the formal pond within the ornamental gardens at Auchincruive. The pond has been cleared; all the old cement has been removed with a view to relining the pond and stocking it with fish.

We have also been busy in the building this month; windows have been cleaned inside and out! We have changed the seats in the rest room and we have enjoyed some lovely home made soups from the kitchen.

In the garden, winter blooms continue with our Camellia, Sarcococca, Primulas and Hellebores in flower … spring is just around the corner!

Pamela.

For more photos see gallery for Auchincruive

So a brand new very exciting year has started here at Chelsea, and it has been a busy month already. At the start of January the weather continued to be kind to us and the mild weather allowed us to get lots of practical gardening done.

We have been clearing and tidying the garden, removing the general detritus of winter, building paths and creating new borders. Slowly but surely the structure of the garden is really taking shape. Tasks this month have also included seed sowing cabbages, leeks and cauliflowers into seed trays, tomatoes into trays, carrots into pots in the greenhouses, broad beans into root trainers and even been planting broad bean seeds outside (www.thompsonandmorgan.co.uk). Our potatoes have arrived nice and early and have been carefully chitted. Our office shed provides a perfect place to let the tubers prepare for planting out later next month.

We have been preparing for planting out our edible hedging,(already heeled in)  which will consist of hazel, hawthorn, elder and sloe (www.kenmuir.co.uk) and we have been busy making sure the ground is fully prepared for these great plants to be planted straight away. We have been digging and improving the soil with plenty of lovely manure!

The Royal Hospital Gardening Staff have been very accommodating and we have been really fortunate to be able to use their state of the art heated greenhouse. This has allowed us to get seed sowing nice and early, which will help us to get a head start with our salad crops, and has provided us with some extra warm work space, well and truly welcome on a busy chilly January morning. The Gardeners have very kindly donated some overgrown variegated grasses in need of some care that have now been tenderly nursed back to health, divided and given a good haircut by our veterans. We have planted these out already and they will make a great company for the edible hedging, and provide greenery, shelter and food for the birds until the hedge has become established.

It is just as well that we have been busy as just as the month draws to an end, the cold weather has well and truly set in, and the frost and snow has made the soil unworkable, so for now we will stay busy in the greenhouse and the shed with a hot brew and prepare the garden for an arctic blast. The birds are well fed, and we have our windbreaks, cold frames and garden fleece at the ready. Thank you to all those veterans, volunteers and staff who have braved the cold weather to get the garden looking fantastic, and safely weather-proofed.

This coming month we are looking forward to seeing the garden in its full winter glory, as the weather has been mild up to now, and hope that the cold snap will help to keep those aphids and other pests away. With increasing numbers of veterans and volunteers arriving each week, and as the days get brighter, our enthusiastic and hardworking gardeners are really transforming things here week by week, so once the allotment garden is fully functional, the next step will be bramble bashing in the shade garden!

Happy Gardening, and stay warm!

Tara

For more photos see gallery for Chelsea

 The weather may be confusing for the plants but fantastic for gardening and the team has been busy planting and sowing broad beans outside and into root trainers, cabbage seeds into seed trays and sweet peas into deep pots. We have even got the last of the bulbs planted into troughs and containers. We counted around more than 200 bulbs as we planted them, all salvaged from the old site!

We like to be prepared for all weathers, so to prevent any damage from heavy cold rain and frosts; we have been busy moving the more delicate plants and seedlings into the greenhouse. Outside we have built wind breaks and cloches for remaining outdoor crops using fleece and timber salvaged from the old site, harvested seeds from dried wild garlic flowers and shelled runner beans, making the most of every plant we grew during the year.

Even though we should have been taking things a little easier we have had some hard graft to do too including dismantling the runner bean wig-wams in the old site and relocating the raspberry canes and blackberry bushes, (now they have been heeled in at the new site) and the crab apple has been carefully relocated to a temporary home with the fruit currants until it’s new home has been built.

So we have reached the end of 2011, and the year has truly flown by. The last few months have been incredibly productive thanks once again to the hard work and commitment of the veterans, the volunteers and staff here at Gardening Leave Chelsea. We must thank the Royal Hospital Chelsea for their hospitality, especially the gardeners, who have been fantastic and have provided us with tonnes of support and useful advice.

So just before the 2011 ends and 2012 begins let’s pause for just a little while to admire all our hard work in the past few months, and to see how much the garden has taken shape. It’s been quite an adventure, that’s for sure!

To our supporters, friends and everyone who has helped us on our journey and to those who hopefully will be joining us in the future, Happy Gardening and all the best for the New Year!

Tara

For more photos see gallery for Chelsea

The five-minute video is designed to raise awareness of the one-to-one help provided by the UK’s Veterans Welfare Service to anyone who has served in the Armed Forces.

The video has been released by the SPVA and is the latest in the Agency’s ‘Veterans Today’ series. It shows how welfare support is provided automatically to those medically discharged and those bereaved by Service, with an ‘on request’ service for all other members of the veterans community, including dependents and families.

There is also a survey available for anyone part of the Veterans community which you can take here http://www.veterans-uk.info/survey/

In the garden, cloches and greenhouses required some DIY due to damage from the strong winds.  After the repairs, they were washed down with Jeyes fluid so we are starting of next year with clean greenhouses.  The other main activity of the month was to make Holly Wreaths, and there was much enjoyment gathering moss and foliage to make them!  Over £300 was made in donations, so well done to Andy and all the veterans and volunteers who took part.

To finish on a positive note, the mild temperatures have seen the emergence of our spring bulbs and snowdrops and winter bedding plants are in flower!

Here’s to the New Year.

Pamela

For more photos see gallery for Auchincruive

Nevertheless we still managed to keep ourselves busy with plenty of chores indoors and outdoors.  Seed sowing continues with tomatoes, catmint and some more sweet peas.  Spring flowering bulbs are starting to poke through and our hyacinths will be looking lovely for January.  (http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/planting/how-to-plant-hyacinth-bulbs/163.html). 

Thanks to Jamie Murray and Veteran Andy Alexander for coming up and helping us make Christmas Wreaths, the place looked very festive after you left!

The birds have been enjoying the bird feeders which we’ve been making for them. The RSPB have a nice wee recipe to follow (www.rspb.org.uk/youth/makeanddo/activities/birdcake.aspx), we slightly adapted ours from the yogurt cartoon to a coconut shell.    

Despite the harshness of the weather,  the Christmas lunch for volunteers and veterans went down a ’storm’ and we would like to thank everyone who helped produce such a beautiful lunch and to all the veterans for the fantastic service!!  We even had a surprise visit from Santa!!

It has been quiet end of December which has given us plenty of time and space for planning the next year ahead…

May we wish everyone a merry festive period and all the very best for 2012.

Wendy

For more photos see gallery for Erskine

Please have a look at the slideshow to see the wreaths being made. No doubt you will agree the quality of the wreaths are great!

Gardening Leave wishes to thank everyone envolved and to all our veterans, volunteers and supporters a merry Chritsmas and a very Happy New Year.

Autumn planting continues; with garlic, onion and shallot sets into the vegetable beds, the summer bedding plants have been removed from the hanging baskets and replaced with winter pansies.  We have also added another 3 varieties to the poppy collection; Papaver orientale ‘Garden Glory’, ‘Ruffled Patty’ and ‘Miss Piggy’. End of season maintenance continues and our 3^rd raised bed has also been built and is ready for planting up next year.

We held our second service of Remembrance here in the poppy beds, and we would like to thank Padre Jim Smith OBE for marking the occasion which was well attended by veterans, volunteers and staff.

As the opening of the next Gardening Leave project at Rosendael fast approaches (www.svronline.org), we welcomed the new HT Kate Treharne and her Assistant Wilma Landgraf to Auchincruive for an introduction to the project…welcome aboard!

Despite the fishing season being closed on the River Ayr, Jamie and our fishermen have been busy.  They have been regulars on a weekly basis at 2 local Fisheries; Burns and Dalvennan fisheries  and Jamie after successfully completing the professional game angling instructors course  (well done Jamie) has been making great use of a neighbouring classroom within the estate where he has been teaching the veterans fly tying. Well done Veteran Bobby Jones for winning the Gardening Leave fishing competition at Dalvennan Fishery (6 rainbow trout to 18lbs!!!) Veterans -  2^nd place Tam Anderson, 3^rd place John Sharky, 4^th place Gary Shearer and 5^th was Michael Ranikine.

Looking forward to the month ahead

Pamela

For more photos see gallery for Auchincruive

We’ve also been planting onions, garlic and shallots, and to brighten the site up we’ve planted winter hanging basket and troughs with violas, pansies, wallflowers and cyclamen. For later in the season we’ve planted some prepared Hyacinths and stored them in a dark cool place, hopefully we’ll have some flowering for Christmas.

Earlier in the month we sourced some wood off cuts from Erskine Furniture, (www.erskine.org)  and set about making some more ‘new design’ herb boxes and bird boxes, all are coming along nicely and we should have a good selection for the coming season.

This month we were invited to have a stall at the Erskine Christmas cracker event which like last year was very busy and exciting. We prepared plants and promotional material to offer both free and for donation, many thanks to both the volunteer’s and veterans who helped pull things together, and to Erskine for inviting us.

May I extend a welcome thanks to Paul Hayes of A.S.A.P, (Armed Services Advice Project) (www.cas.org.uk) who has been supporting some of our veterans with advice and information on a range of issues, from benefits to practical support.

May I also extend our thanks to G/L Auchincruive for their hospitality and hosting of a Remembrance service, many veterans commented on the peaceful surroundings and ideal setting for the service.

Finally, as the weather draws in, don’t forget to feed the birds

Regards Brenda

For more photos see gallery for Erskine

Most of this month we have even been eating our bacon rolls and sharing a brew at our new table outside in the sunshine, quite a luxury in November! A big thank you to Mark Smith, from the Royal Hospital Chelsea staff for donating a fabulous table and chairs that have allowed us to enjoy every last bit of the winter sunshine.

Gardening Leave Chelsea has been a hive of activity over the past month, and the allotment garden is looking great as a result. We have been busy planting hundreds of bulbs that were salvaged from last year into troughs and containers, perfect for some spring colour.

Over the past few weeks we have been busy building a number of new planting beds using railway sleepers  and we have even been  putting our bricky skills to good use by  preparing to build a few brick raised beds for growing herbs and wildflowers.

A huge thanks to Scott’s MiracleGro for their very kind donation of well needed compost and manure. Just perfect for our new raised beds! (www.lovethegarden.com)

Thanks to the hard work and persistence of two of our new veterans and volunteers, over a tonne and a half of cockle shells have been moved to the new site. Trekking from one side of the hospital to the other with a full wheelbarrow was no joke. What an amazing achievement!

The old site is looking very empty now and has almost been cleared completely. The fruit bushes have finally been removed from the old site along with any remaining stragglers and then heeled in at the allotment. We will aim to give them a more permanent home once the other beds have been constructed  (www.pennardplants.com)

We are still getting used to the wildlife at the new site and have been lucky to have a number of birds visiting the site, including a sparrow hawk, robins, house sparrows, crows and parakeets. We have also had to settle into the shed with a few house guests too and these bold little mice have been a source of great amusement (but frightful for some) over the last few weeks. With the cold weather drawing in we have really been looking after our birdlife well.

In addition to all the hard work we have been doing here at Chelsea, we have also had a number of briefing events this month held at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and funders, referral agencies and friends of Gardening Leave were given a chance to see the new site and attend a presentation. These briefing events have been a great way to promote the garden and have been really well attended. The final briefing event will take place on the 7^th of December 2011.

Despite the colder and rougher weather, there is still plenty of work to do, and we hope to get lots done before the frost and colder weather to set in next month. We hope to get an edible hedge planted to protect against winds and to provide some privacy to the new allotment site, build brick raised beds, begin building a brick retaining wall, lay paving and excavate a sunken seating area.

Phew, that’s some list, but we can relax just a little as many hands make light work, and with an increasing number of veterans attending the project and a lot of enthusiasm it will take no time at all to get things looking perfect!

Happy Gardening!

Tara

See gallery for Chelsea