Nature

Here in Campbeltown we have had terrible weather, gales, rain, hailstones, late frosts and glimpses of sunshine. My farming neighbours tell me the weather used to be like this 50 or 60 years ago but not recently so we have all needed to be very 'canny' as we Geordies say.

Campbeltown Community Organic Garden sign

We at CCOG had a few seedlings lost to frost but on the whole have been ok. Our early potatoes, onion sets, lettuce, shallots, leeks, brussels, cabbage, celery and celeriac to name but a few, are planted and growing well. In the polytunnel our Golden Sunrise yellow tomatoes, Gardener's Delight small red tomatoes and Harbinger a new organic red tomato we are trying out, are in place ready to transplant shortly.We have cucumbers, peppers and melons ready to transplant into our newly built raised beds which we have created to enable our less able volunteers to fully participate in our community garden.

I have just completed our new compost bins, our newly created compost heap is heating up well, the liquid seaweed and comfrey fertilizers (which will feed our polytunnel plants) are 'brewing' nicely and will be ready when the tomatoes etc set fruits.

We had our Open Day on Sunday 19 April from 12 - 4 pm and it exceeded all our expectations with over 70 visitors coming through our gate, expressing positive comments on the layout and setting of the garden, the wildlife pond (created by Dalintober Schoolchildren) the fruit and vegetable arch, the vegetable deep bed, the quiet wildlife area, the sensory/herb garden ending up at our Resource Centre for further
information on organic gardening, bio-diversity in the garden and permaculture while enjoying refreshments made and served by our stalwart volunteers, who were magnificent on the day, as they have been throughout our year and a half long garden adventure!

Hard at work in the garden

Our volunteers also put on a raffle, a children's bird spotting competition, face painting and a 'treasure hunt' which consisted of the children's frenzied digging in the large sandpit in our children's play area for Scottish Natural Heritage goodies (kindly donated by Donna Causer of SNH who is, I'm pleased to say, a regular visitor and participant in our ongoing school's activity days).

I was also 'over the moon' to welcome Louise Robertson (GRAB Trust) who set up their recycling/composting stand in our recycling area and had our new wormery for company! Louise's stand attracted a lot of interest and she provided a lot of advice to our visitors on the day. Louise will also be participating in our various activity days at CCOG.

To top the day off we had Ruth, Campbeltown's answer to Lois Lane, from the Campbeltown Courier our local newspaper, covering the day and interviewing our two local councillors John Semple (who had been instrumental in keeping CCOG ticking over prior to my involvement) and Rory Collville who has promoted our current development of CCOG.

Compost bins in the garden

For myself I enjoyed seeing everyone's pleasure at the progress and the long term aims of CCOG but was happy to get into the garden the following day to sow parsnips (late I know but weather dictates), carrots and peas with Junior, while Claire planted out the celery. Heaven!

Look out for the next gripping installment when I will reveal further garden developments!