Another good week, 13 volunteers on a fine morning. There was lots of done, with a couple of garden obelisks put up, a few bushes planted and loads of tidying.
Plenty signs of spring this week! Daffodils nearly out, roses bursting ahead, a frog and caterpillars!
Planted in November
We think it’s rather nice!
It rained. It had to happen.
Unpromising weather!
Nevertheless, 7 of us turned up and we enjoyed our rainbow. We worked at the North wall, digging over all the bare earth just in front of it. The soil is pretty ropey but it should support poppies and other wild flowers.
Before during and after our efforts
It’s the same old start: another fine Wednesday morning. Seventeen fine Wednesdays in a row right through the winter! It’s school mid term and 8 volunteers turned up for a productive Wednesday morning. Edging, hoeing and general tidying was the order of the day. Jen Johnstone, the Council’s North Edinburgh Park Ranger, had good news on insurance so it was an excellent and productive day. The borders are looking very trim and you can see that there are loads of daffodils coming through.
Another two weeks of remarkable weather, now 16 consecutive dry Wednesday mornings. Last week the rain stopped just before we started at 10, this week the rain came on just after 12, not long after we’d finished. 12 volunteers last week and 11 this week. Well done everyone and thanks.
We have been given a load of herbaceous plants and shrubs by Gavin from Urban Utopia. Many thanks Gavin. We spent most of the last couple of Wednesdays planting and what a difference the plants have made already. But we still get stuck into the hard graft and we’ve continued tidying and edging of the rose borders and the borders on the slope (thanks Stuart).
Herbaceous planting at the west wall
New shrubs, west wall
More new shrubs
Very tidy edging
It was a really miserable early morning on Wednesday. It was pouring, windy and cold. Then, just before 10, it stopped, just in time for our gardening session. Ten hardy souls appeared and it was great to meet Jen Johnstone, our Park Ranger, today. We look forward to working with her in our joint efforts to get the park back into shape.we cleared some of the remaining rose borders ready for planting and trimmed quite a few edges. And there was even time to plant a couple of yews.
Well trimmed edges!
Ready for planting
Yew in the Terrace Border
Come and join us on Wednesday for a friendly, healthy and constructive morning
Hard at work
22nd January and ideal weather for winter gardening, again! We’ve had 14 gardening sessions in the Park since October and we’ve not had a bad day yet.
Ten of us cleared the weeds from the last of the perimeter borders, near the Laverockbank Road gate. Weeding will be an on-going activity but the back of it is broken now. Well done to all our volunteers.
The latest cleared area
We were delighted when Councillor Adam McVey from the Leith Ward joined us for the morning and helped plant a fig tree in the east border. He was very constructive and helpful. Thank you Adam for coming along.
Councillor Adam McVey planting our new fig tree
The heavy rain early on Wednesday morning cleared by 9 and it was yet another ideal winter morning for gardening and our CSV Action Earth Event. Councillor Allan Jackson and 15 volunteers turned up. Allan planted a cherry tree in the east border and, altogether, we planted 3 plum trees, two cherries, two witch hazels, 2 clematis and 10 assorted bushes. After a little difficult excavation (thanks Rob!), we also planted a magnolia tree and a few bedding plants right in the centre of the park. 
All the plants were bought with our CSV Action Earth grant.
At 11.30 we retired to the Starbank Inn for tea, coffee and biscuits (all supplied by the Starbank). Many thanks again for their support.
We featured again in the Daily Record’s Edinburgh Now magazine on Wednesday, http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?PBID=764de512-efce-4c16-a5e8-fb6e146a8453. Great publicity, many thanks to the Record and to Callum and Nicola.
Friends of Starbank Park 