Lindsey and her team have been working hard to complete the basics for the 2 new flower beds, lots more flower seeds are being sown and we look forward to selecting our new bare root roses to form part of this new flower cutting initiative. I had much pleasure in cutting some of our helebores last week as they are now really coming into their own after 3 years. We will have some to sell at the shop in the coming couple of weeks.

Becca and I have been busy planning the forthcoming compost workshop on Saturday 25th. I am delighted to say she will be co-hosting the workshop with me so please do sign up if you want to have help with your own composts or, if you are a complete beginner, we will furnish you with enough info to set up one of your own. Composting is very much at the heart of our gardening at Tuppenny Barn. It is what we use to feed our soil and they do say if you look after your soil you will be rewarded with great produce.

Yesterday evening, I hosted a reunion at Tuppenny Barn for my fellow Army colleagues whom I joined up with 40 years ago. We were a group of twenty 16-year-olds enlisted into the Women’s Junior Leaders in Guildford for a 6-month basic training course. Two of our instructors also joined us. I hadn’t seen any of these ladies since March 1977 so, as you can imagine, it was an interesting evening. We all shared our stories of what had happened to us over the last 40 years and I felt quite humbled to hear of some of the adversities they had overcome in this period. It took one of our group 2 years to track down the 14 of us that attended so we have all agreed that we will now keep in touch.

Sarah Hughes will be co-ordinating two hedgerow working parties this week. One on Thursday 9th from 10am till early afternoon and the second on Saturday 11th from 09:30am until around 3pm. If anyone would like to join us, please let us know as all volunteers will be warmly welcomed. We will ensure there are tasty homemade refreshments available, as always.