Hello!
It's time to share what we've been up to at Coleherne Court. In March and April we designed the garden and purchased all of the plants we would need for the summer. We also planned a garden party for June to involve the estate community in enjoying the new space together. On the west side of the garden plot, we extended the flower bed by removing some sod and planted new lavender, peonies, and a small border collection. The kids were often the best helpers with weeding and watering.
We involved many neighbors in the east side of the garden where we planted an entirely new herb garden. Our team especially stepped up when we were out of town for two weeks in April and again in May. Temperatures were high and we needed a lot of help keeping the garden cool and moist. We are now enjoying fresh herbs, strawberries, Fennel, beans, snacking peppers, and are eagerly awaiting the cuttings of our iceberg, romaine and spinach.
The garden party went quite well and we feel that it was a huge step forward in building community at Coleherne Court. Big highlights were the strawberries and cream we served outside our garden door and the ping pong tournament between young and old framed by our beautiful roses and geraniums. The garden committee was grateful for our help and we topped the salads with sage and chive flowers from the garden. We also used mint, rosemary and thyme from the garden in our preparation of recent summer dishes. The kids are loving cultivating and learning about our small garden and their friends now know how to lift up the bottom leaves to find strawberries.
Our last efforts for this project will be to prepare for our autumn beds as most of the flowers we chose are summer plants and our beds will be quite bare once everything dies back.
One last thing to report is that our new gardening skills came in handy for a service project with the RBKC Councillor who we helped revitalize long ridge road by planting some donated plants for residents who are dealing with crime and poverty.
Thank you for this awesome opportunity!
-Candace, Estee, Drew, Carsen, Jenna and Spencer