little green fingers

Drawing pins, long grass and village picnics

We have no drawing pins left in the house.  This can only mean one thing: we are in for a very busy June.

Yes, right now, my entire drawing pin collection is holding up a scary collection of notices around the village. And, in true Linda Snell form, I seem to be involved in all three events.  It begins with our NGS garden opening on June 9th. For some reason, I am shocked to find that this is three weeks tomorrow.  I  shouldn't be shocked; we have a piece of new fangled technology in the kitchen - a calender I think they call it - but still, in my head, we're not opening for at least another three months.

A week after this there is the village barn dance, which I won't be able to attend as I shall be gardening and crafting with children at Gardeners World Live but that doesn't excuse me from decorating duties (14 table coverings, four confederate flags, half a dozen strategically placed hay bales and 50 metres of my homemade bunting... in case you were wondering).

And in between the two we have the official opening of our village playground.  Yes, it is complete.  In fact it has been complete for a few weeks but a) I forgot to mention it at the time and b) by the time I remembered I had other things on my mind like broken arms, trips to China and very large tents.

(To be fair I still have very large tents on my mind as one of the marquee stakes managed to go through not only a water pipe but also a waste pipe. However, dwelling on sewerage and cross contamination is not a nice way for anyone to spend a Friday afternoon - unless you are an evil mastermind with a particular interest in pollution I guess - so instead I'll talk playgrounds.)

The latest cause for celebration is completing the work which has been funded by our grant from WREN for £45,000.  This has enabled us to add to the excitement of a mound (which, in these "flatlands", was already quite exciting for the kids) with a climbing wall and double slide.  We also put in a bird nest swing, more picnic tables, a basketball, football goal and cricket stump area and a very cool mini BMX track.

We have also added a couple of features for which I fought quite hard.

The first is a figure of eight pathway across the whole area so that people can walk through and enjoy the playground in all weathers, and which also doubles as a great cycle path. 

The second is long grass.

To be fair, this didn't exactly take much money - well OK, it took none - but it will make a big difference to the space.  Leaving sections of the grass long for the season will bring in insects which will, in turn, bring in birds and other wildlife.  It will give children different, wilder areas to play in, allow flowers to grow and soften the edges of the field to detract from the rigid boundaries. 

In terms of maintenance, the longer grass will be cut at the end of the summer or start of autumn, although each year we will leave one area uncut to give insects a place to overwinter.

So on June 10th we will be celebrating our new playground with a picnic and an afternoon of sports and games.  And, yes, 50 metres of homemade bunting.

Broken arms, blingy trees and very large tents

 

I have been shamefully neglecting this blog of late. I was meaning to write but there appeared to be rather a lot happening in life - some involving children, some involving gardens, but rarely involving both at the same time.

Firstly we had the Easter break - or the A&Easter break as it shall henceforth be known.  I won't bore you with details but in summary it was one pulled elbow, one suspected fractured arm, one broken arm, one operation and one cast.  To add insult to injuries, the catalogue of children's bone issues had nothing at all to do with tree climbing or outdoor high jinks. No - just jumping up and down on sofas and beds (I'm beginning to think that the Ten Little Monkeys song is, in fact, serious Government-sponsored health and safety advice).

Then I went to China for a week's holiday.  The gardening element was limited to planting up some pots for my Beijing-resident friend Claire, my constant criticism of Chinese tree pruning (or branch massacre to give it a more accurate term) and taking pictures of the blingiest tree trunks (above) I've ever seen (which incidentally were outside a karaoke bar which would not have looked out of place in Vegas).

And then we had the birthdays. Yes, I turned 40 and Archie turned 4. This meant I had two parties to organise. Easy I thought.  Lovely time of year I thought.  The garden will be the perfect venue I thought.  Thinking, it turns out, is very over-rated.

Archie's Bugs and Butterflies bash was held during what appeared to be a geographically confused monsoon.  Thankfully it turns out that bouncy castles will also fit in village halls and A Bug's Life on a giant screen along with some strategically placed flowerpots and watering cans is garden enough for most pre-schoolers on a wet Saturday.

My own bash was saved by a very large tent. Now some of you may already know my attitude towards camping (it is WRONG) but on some occasions tents can be jolly useful. In fact this is why, when designing our family garden four years ago, I specifically planned the lawn to be large enough to hold a marquee for 100. Well, you never know when you might need to have a REALLY big party...

You see, sometimes this thinking thing actually pays off.

Pyjama days, high heels and school gardens

Image source: NGS/Palatine Primary School

It's day three of the school holidays and today we're having a pyjama day. For those unfamiliar with this concept, it is a day when we don't bother getting out of our pyjamas (creative nomenclature is not our speciality).  This looks quite sweet when you are a kid, but gives me the appearance of being in the midst of a breakdown. Age is cruel.

It also shows what a difference a week makes.  Last Wednesday at this time I was skipping up to London in a vintage tea dress and heels so high I couldn't walk pain-free for the next three days (in retrospect, the skipping was probably a mistake). The occasion was the launch of the National Garden Scheme.

To any of you unfamiliar with the NGS it was begun 85 years ago by nice ladies in puffed sleeves and flowing skirts who thought it would be a jolly good wheeze to open private gardens to the public and raise money for charity. Today it generates about £2.5 million a year for a range of charities and has over 3700 gardens in its famous Yellow Book (which will also be available as an App - another jolly good wheeze).  This proves something I have always known - never underestimate a woman with puffed sleeves.

However, the NGS has always had a certain 'image' in my book - it is the sort of image that conjures up reading glasses, driving shoes and a firm belief that no good music was composed after 1950.  But the times they are a-changin (you see, right there, is a reason to dump the 1950 rule for a start).  The organisation itself seems keen to get younger gardeners visiting.  Most let children in for free (having said that, I'm not, but that's partly because we are specifically putting on lots of entertainment aimed at kids so, quite frankly, 50p is an absolute bargain!)

Also, there are a number of schools opening their gardens.  I love this idea.  Not only will the children involved have an enormous sense of pride to have paying visitors admiring their plot, but it will be a great place for families to visit and, hopefully, get inspired.

If you are tempted to get out and about garden visiting this year, here are a few of the school gardens opening their gates:

Brighstone Primary School (Isle of Wight) - part of a group opening on Sunday 24th June

Cefn Cribwr Primary School (Glamorgan) - part of a group opening on Sunday 10th June

Cheddington Combined School (Bucks) - part of a group opening on Sunday 24th June

Hayton C of E Primary School (Cumbria) - part of a group opening on Sunday 15th July

Heronsbridge School (Bridgend, Glamorgan) - opening Sunday 24th June

Overthorpe J, I & N School (Thornhill, Dewsbury, Yorks) - opening Sunday 15th July

Palatine School Gardens (Worthing, Sussex) - opening Sunday 1st July

Rhydypenau Primary School (Glamorgan) - part of a group opening Sundays 13 May and 15 July

St John RC Primary School (Beverley, Yorks) - opening Saturday 7th July

And, best of all, they will all be serving cake.  Because an NGS garden opening is nothing without the cake.

Mother's day, wooden kitchens and second childhoods

I am the woman who asked for a swing for her birthday, so no-one should be shocked when I say that for Mother's Day I treated myself to a new wooden kitchen for the garden playhouse.

With accessories... obviously.

I may be entering my second childhood a few decades earlier than planned.

Progressive suppers, sunglasses and paddling pools

On Sunday I was recovering from a progressive supper. 

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, this is when you have a dinner party on the move - starters at one house, mains at another, dessert elsewhere.  And as if having 15 couples traipsing through the village between courses wasn't intriguing enough, you don't actually know who you'll be hosting before they turn up, and no idea where you're headed next until you open the envelope at the end of each course.

They are also called "safari suppers" but this seems a slightly odd name considering there's no big game to spot and not a pith helmet in sight.  "Progressive supper" is far more fitting as you get progressively chattier, progressively squiffier and, as I found out, progressively more likely to misplace your mobile phone as the evening goes on.

So, as you can imagine, I wasn't rising early the next morning, and probably wouldn't have done so before midday had my daughter not bounded into the room and declared "We're going into the garden.  Are you coming?".

Yes, there comes a time each year when the garden rather than the house suddenly seems to be the kids default entertainment space - and Sunday was it.

In no particular order, the children...

• jumped on the trampoline
• sowed seeds
• set up camp inside a crocus ring
• restocked the mud pie kitchen
• played tag
• swung on the hammock
• tidied their gardens
• made lists of crops to sow
• dug in the sandpit
• jumped on the hopscotch
• watered plants
• checked on Bernard the Bumblebee (more on him another time)
• threw frisbees
• splashed in the paddling pool

And in no particular order, I...

• donned sunglasses
• drank tea
• took painkillers
• lay on the hammock
• made rather feeble attempts to suggest that, as it is STILL WINTER (I have two words for you people - Spring Equinox) the paddling pool probably shouldn't come out.  I lost that argument.