Volunteers needed

Despite the sunny weather today, we had a low turnout of volunteers for our first work session. Therefore we have arranged to hold volunteeer sessions until the work is completed. NB We are unable to plant flowers until the ground had been dug over, so please try and come along. Tools and refreshemnts provided.

Saturdays 2-3pm
Sundays 2-3pm

See you there!

Snow delays installation

You've probably guessed that the recent snow has prevented further work on the site. Fingers crossed the weather improves soon!

Installation - day 2

Thankfully it was a sunny day today - cold, but sunny. Not sure why I was so grateful, as I wasn't the one doing all the work, though I did sweep up at the end!

Paul and Mark pegged out the levels and added the scalpings (I find it difficult using the term 'hardcore'!)
Of course I had the most important job - making tea and coffee, and treating the guys to Danish pastries. I know how to look after the workers!

Sky should be paying us for advertising on the blog!

Very impressed by their work ethic - nothing is too much trouble and they make it look so easy! I'm always impressed when contractors take care to clean up at the end too.

We also had a drive-by from Rob Jones of Cardiff Council Parks Dept. Luckily he drove by when I was on site, so thinks I was hard at work, not drinking cups of tea!

The work has inspired me to start work on my own garden which I haven't touched for several years. I've decided to start afresh, so removed all the plants in the main border and dug it over. Better get my skates on now and do a planting plan!

My new Xmas gardening gloves! A bit fancy for me, but they were the last pair left

Gloves afterwards

Disposable Gloves for cat-poo territory!

Making progress...(I LOVE my soil!)

Installation begins!

Well, after several months, our silver medal winning garden is being installed!

Broxton and Moruzzi Landscaping are installing it for free for us!

Work started yesterday, in the rain and freezing conditions. the topsoil was removed and the tarmac surface underneath broken up and removed, along with 4 of the bollards. The site was marked out ready for more work today. Paul Moruzzi and his colleague Mark worked from about 8am - 6pm (and had to put up with me being in the way in the afternoon)! Thank you! Thanks too, to LNRA committee member Louise Hughes who made sure they were well fed and watered, and ran some errands in the morning while I was in work.

HSS Hire have sponsored the security fencing.

Utility searches complete

Great news - the utility (gas, electric, water etc) searches are back! Cardiff council kindly did this for us - which involves contacting the utility companies with the site location, and they informed the council if the utility is run on the site. I picked the paperwork up last week. Thanks to Will for organising, and putting up with my pestering!

Oh, and I'm giving a talk and slide show about the show garden in work tomorrow! Slightly nervous. I have one hour with no notes so will have to wing it.

What an eventful day!

Billy and John

I left the house at 8.15am to meet Billy and John, and only just got home!

We placed the planters on station Rd and I've had no complaints (yet!). We have Pelagonium 'Apple Blossom' and an as-yet-unknown central plant! I'll try and find out what it is.

Felt a little bad because this year I bought the guys tea and cake, whereas in previous years all Colin and Johnny got was grief ;-)

 I went to the nursery for 1.30pm and while Fred loaded up the truck with the pavers etc, I did some dead-heading - mind you I was only allowed after a tutorial from Nigel, and to be fair, it was needed! It was amazing to see the nursery in full bloom, with planters etc waiting to go out on display.

Fred and I dropped off the pavers etc to Broxton and Moruzzi's yard. Some of the pavers fell off the pallet, so I re-stacked them into a crate while Fred was otherwise engaged (don't ask!)

So I got my hands dirty twice today. However I have no photographic evidence, so you'll have to take my word for it!

Latest

Met with Murray from Broxton and Moruzzi Landscapers and gave him the drawings and discussed plans for the installation. They are a business at the end f the day, and we'll gladly fit into their schedule as they are installing the garden for free! Just waiting for the utility searches to come back and a gap in their schedule.

Tomorrow the planters arrive. I caught up with Lewis from the LN Traders Association and agreed where to place the planters, which are coming at 8.30am. No lie in for me!

Then at 1.30pm I'm heading off with Fred to take the pavers to B&M's yard in Caerphilly.

A busy day ahead. Maybe I shouldn't have just gone to the pub then! I've spent my day off cutting my hedge and trimming my balls, which always gives me a thirst. Here are the results...Not a bad attempt with my new topiary shears. I'm sure one is bigger than the other, but that's not unusual apparently ;-)

Finally...

Things are moving quickly!

I have a site visit at the garden with Broxton and Moruzzi Landscapers today, so should have some news later on. Rob and Will have also been in touch about moving the pavers from Bute Park nursery up to B&M's yard, which I'm sure Nigel will appreciate, as they'll finally be out of his way!

And the Llandaff North flower planters are being delivered tomorrow! Always exciting to see what arrangement the nursery has planted up for us. Previously there was a mix up with their locations in LN, (not the council's fault, by the way!).  Will recently informed me that it was Colin and John that had to re-place them. Whoops!  So I'm liaising with them this year - it'll be Billy and John I'll be annoying tomorrow...apparently Colin said he couldn't go through it all again...;-)

Site visit planned

Just a very quick update before I go to bed!
I have a site visit arranged with Broxton and Moruzzi for Tuesday! Also hoping for the paving etc to be moved from the Bute Park nursery too, so fingers crossed things should start moving (literally!) this week.

Pelagonioum 'Lord Bute'

I've been doing some reading/research and came across a pelagonium 'Lord Bute' (pictured).
I sent the details to Alex who is going to show the Parks dept bosses (ie Rob).

Who knows, perhaps we'll see some in Bute park?

Our community garden is going to have to have the dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff'...!

A familiar streetlight

While out on my bike ride today (a 15-miler to Caerphilly and back) I took a detour from my usual route through Forest Farm (I'll own up and admit I was on my way to Whitchurch Tesco for a Finest chocolate mousse!), when I noticed the same model of streetlight as the one in our show garden! Ours had a '17' on it, where this one had a number '1'. Thankfully ours wasn't as bent!
 

A welcome early phonecall

Great news - Paul Moruzzi phoned me this morning (it's not often I'm glad to be called at 8am!) to say he's extremely busy but hasn't forgotten us. Hoping to have a site meeting with him soon, and plan to arrange taking the paving etc to his yard for storage once one of his staff is back from leave next week.

Cardiff in Bloom

LNRA was invited to a Cardiff in Bloom reception held today at Roath Park Cafe. Myself, Derek and Margaret attended. We are hoping to enter - possibly this year, definitely next!

Margaret, Derek, me and Cllr Thomas

We met new Exec member for Culture Leisure and Sport, Cllr Huw Thomas. It was his first official event, and hopefully not too taxing; though I think he did get lobbied...;-) Garden designer, Gaynor Whitchard attended in her role as CiB judge and it was great catching up with her a month after the show. Thanks to council officer Ruth Mumford for organising the event. We had a big group photo, so goodness knows where that'll turn up! Here's just one of us schmoozing. (Where's Alex...?!)

I also bumped into Colin and John who were busy installing the 'Captain Scott' centenary garden into Roath Park. It won a silver gilt at Chelsea a few years ago, so will be well worth a visit!

Afterwards I dropped copies of the photos I've collected over the past few months into Wedal Rd Parks dept for the show garden team. Then it was back to work at UHW processing 100s of smelly urine samples. Lovely.

Over 1000 hits!

We've done it! We've had 1031 hits on the Blog!

Just logged on to update the blog, and what a pleasant surprise! It must have been the letter in the Echo on Saturday, which included the blog address.(Unfortunately I can't find a link on the media Wales website.)

Still no news on the re-installation. Paul is back at work this week, so fingers crossed...

I'm ashamed to say that I've only just cleaned out my car following the show (its been a month now), which was full of soggy leaflets, soil (don't ask!) and general rubbish. I had a flat tyre yesterday and a full boot made it so much harder to get the spare out (yes I changed it myself!), so I resolve to sort it out today.

Just about to watch Chelsea (ie the flower show, not a bunch a fellas in blue) on iplayer...a serious case of exhibitor envy expected I think!

Update

Just a quick update as I haven't posted for a while.

Last week I was due to meet Paul Moruzzi from Broxton and Moruzzi Landscaping about reinstalling the garden into Llandaff North, but he was tied up with a paying client who obviously took precedence! I'm hoping to meet Paul this week.

Before we can proceed we have to undertake a utilities survey of the site (gas, electric. drainage etc) and Cardiff council are very kindly doing this for us. Just waiting for all the data to come back.

I'm also waiting to arrange moving the paving, seat and noticeboard, as I know that the nursery is getting busy now and want rid, but I've been waiting to have the meeting with Paul first. It's a bit of a catch 22 situation, but I'm hoping next week will see some progress.

I can't believe that it's almost a month since the show!

We are only 16 hits away from 1000 visits to the blog!

Still going through the photos, and will add some randomly until they are all ready for publishing.

The Lord and Lady Mayor with Cardiff Council Parks OM, Jon Maidment

Blog interest

We're only 40 away from having 1000 hits on the blog! . We've had hits from the USA, Russia, Germany, France and Ireland! Oh, and Cardiff council parks dept ;-)!

Thank you to Cardiff council parks dept

Paid a visit to Wedal Rd parks dept today to drop off a thank you card, chocs and the RHS medal card to Rob Jones and Will Power. Rob made a cracking cup of tea (that was my job onsite!) and it was great to catch up and have a chat. I held it together and didn't blub (thank god!)

I still have to arrange to pick up the paving, seat and noticeboard and have some other stuff to follow up with them re the Llandaff North site. Will keep the blog up to date as promised...

We're on S4C (briefly)!

Just took a look at S4C gardening programme Byw yn yr Ardd which covered the RHS show. Good god, we're on film! Luckily not for long though! (see 1.30 mins and 13.49 mins in. Press 's' for subtitles)

Luckily they didn't critique our garden, because they were so rude about the others! Even the best in show got a slating!

Update

Just a quick update on what's been happening over the past few days.
On Saturday, LNRA held a volunteer event at our Cow and Snuffers garden. Margaret and I went to a stables in the morning to get some manure, but it was so wet it was difficult to put onto the truck and we were sliding down the mountain of muck and I nearly lost my wellies! Good job we had no cameras! At the event itself, we forked in the manure we did manage to get, raked over the soil prior to planting and Margaret cut the grass. We just need to plant up and re-stain the benches now. The event was facilitated by park ranger Gareth Stamp, who commented that as we have a tree on site and the benches will be black, the C&S garden could win a gold medal (refer to the judges comments on a previous post)! Touché! Made me laugh though.

I'm hoping to arrange to pick up our seat, paving etc from the nursery this week.

It's been a weird few days following the intensity of constructing the show garden. I've dreamed about the garden several times and would wake up at 6am thinking 'what have I got to do today?', then realise that it's all over. Going through all my paperwork and accumulated stuff was hard too. I'm a bit sentimental.

I'm just going through a load of photos of the show, and will post here soon.

Collecting sponsorship cheque

Today I met Ashley Drake from our sponsor The Co-operative Cymru Wales, to pick up their cheque for plants. He also brought lots of packs of Co-op wildflower seeds for the Cow and Snuffers garden.

We have a volunteer event this Saturday 28th April 1-3pm. The plan is to dig manure into the new border and put in some plants. However, with all this rain, the ground might be too wet to work.