It was another glorious sunny morning in the park today.  Lots of volunteers and, although more weeding and tidying was yet again the order of the day, the burden was greatly lightened by the free runner beans.  The park is looking good, with strong autumn flowering and the terrace hedge breaking away strongly after its summer “crew cut”.

It was a perfect for gardening this morning.  We had an excellent turnout, made a lot of progress (I even managed to get a picture of some folk working!) and had a lot of fun.  We concentrated on weeding and tidying, together with clearing out the dead and dying roses so we’re ready for the planting of four new herbaceous borders in October.  It’s all looking quite good!

Another fine Wednesday morning.  There was an excellent turnout of volunteers and loads got done.  It was the usual tidying and weeding and everything is looking good.  The flowers are even enjoyed by a resident peacock butterfly!

It was a fine bright morning on Wednesday, although very autumnal.  We got a lot done, trimming,  weeding, edging and tidying.  Stan has transplanted the primulas from the SE corner so we now have a large, thriving primula patch in the south border.  Also, thanks to Julie for cutting the hedge at the top of the banking, a great improvement.

And the poppies in the Newhave Heritage boat are flowering!

The star is the centre piece of the park and the Council plant bedding plants in it twice a year.  This year, the Friends have done their best to keep it tidy.  The star is a bit dull this year and this is because almost half of this year’s geraniums have been uprooted or damaged.  We keep replanting them but you can see the gaps, particularly near the top in the photo below.

Vandalism and inadvertent damage are not serious issues at Starbank Park but the star isn’t the only problem area. Many of the rosemary plants round the edge of the terrace border have been flattened since the border was revamped last winter.

After all the excitement with the wine and cheese party and cutting back the terrace hedge, it was back to normal today with aIt was the usual weeding, tidying and digging.  But we are beginning to feel that the weeds are starting to lose and it was a lovely sunny morning.  

After a long exhausting chase, Sandy managed to catch this fine green caterpillar.  I don’t know what it is and, while I’m sure it was not eating the weeds, we still put it back near where we found it.

We had a brilliant wine and cheese evening on Thursday night.  It was a fitting celebration of a year of great progress.  The weather was glorious, there was a great turn-out, almost 50, and we had a great time.  Definitely worth repeating!

Also, thanks to Fields in Trust for their goodie box which certainly added to the occasion.

The terrace hedge has now been cut! We have taken off about 90cm all the way round and the view from the benches of Fife and the Firth of Forth has been restored.  

It was a substantial undertaking by hand and we cut off an awful lot of hedge; you can see it piled up against the wall!

First ever wet Wednesday, and we started about 9 months ago!  Eight hardy souls came along today and, after chatting for a while, we realised that the rain had almost gone off.  We put the time to good use and did some weeding and cut some more of the terrace hedge.  It’s been a pretty big undertaking but it will be finished soon!