The Friends Newsletter

The friends newsletter

Issue No 11December 2013

December in The Gardens

More raking up of leaves this month, this time in the eastern garden where the copper beech had laid a carpet of bronzy crunchy leaves. Sack after sack was filled and hauled away to the compost, where hardly any room was left until the worms and the weather do their stuff and rend it all down for yummy compost. We also attacked the brambly undergrowth surrounding the one-time tennis court in the eastern garden – no small task and one which could take several sessions for several pairs of hands in several pairs of tough gloves. In the western garden the Arboriculturist’s Hut gleams in the winter sunshine and acts as a base for all those useful bin liners, cardboard boxes and other modest bits and pieces so essential for keeping a garden tidy.

The Non-Holly Polygon

This is an unlovely name for the area which I always think of as the Holly Triangle – but now all the holly trees have gone and it is revealed as not a triangle, or any other recognisable shape, that doesn’t seem a particularly appropriate name. Please can someone think of a better name for the small garden area outside the back door to The Storey, which has become the latest addition to the FoSG project. This has now been tidied up and a highly energetic session followed on which has resulted in the cutting back of some of the laurels, a fearsome attack on the bindweed which obscures everything in the summer and the clearing away of the rubbish which accumulated there in the undergrowth. We have requested a rubbish bin from the city council to encourage late-nighters coming up the hill with their Big Macs and pizzas not to heave the detritus over the railings, if they’re too tired to cross the road to the bin outside the Castle entrance - sadly all bin allocation has currently been used up so we will have to keep a careful eye on the area instead. A subsequent and perhaps somewhat less energetic session enabled the planting of 250 tulip bulbs, so there should be a blaze of colour in the spring, complementing the colour of the back door – now revealed as having quite a grand portico over it.

Consultation Exercise

Helen Ryan, Public Realm Officer for Lancaster City Council, came to our last FoSG group meeting on 10 December, to share with us some of the findings of the various elements of the consultation exercise in which we have been taking part. So far there have been questionnaires distributed to the general public, Open Days in The Gardens, a session with Storey tenants, displays in The Storey and the Library (including the Scrapbook to which the public have contributed), and researching the artwork. At the meeting Helen wanted to pick out our ideas for the use of the Gardens and the issues to be addressed and then prioritise these. She produced some newly designed equipment, invented by Lancaster University to be used for indoor or outdoor consultation – circles of brightly coloured polystyrene foam which could be locked together into interesting horticultural or architectural shapes, accumulating ideas and thoughts which could then be rearranged into pyramids of priority. You had to be there to see it work.

Helen also commented that there are some interesting results from the questionnaires but these are not yet finalised so are not ready to be made public. She did note that 20 of the respondents indicated that they would like to join FoSG and she will pass on these names to follow up.

Next Meetings

Group Meeting – 6.00pm, Tuesday 28 January 2014 at NICE

Work Session – 2.00-4.00 Sunday 5 January 2014

The next Newsletter will be out the weekend of 25 January 2014and copy should be sent to Sue on by18 January (please note new email address).

Happy New Year to All