The Newhaven Heritage Boat

We have a new boat planter at the east gate on Starbank Road. The boat was donated by Newhaven Harbour while Newhaven Heritage kindly donated funds for paint, plants and compost. Poppy seeds were scattered on 17th May by members of the Wardie Church Youth Group and Newhaven Church Sunday School in remembrance of those who died in the Great War. The poppies are growing fast and should be flowering in August.

Marion Morton

Andrew Morton has generously donated an oak planter and a weigela in memory of his late wife, Marion Morton, former Deputy Lord Provost of Edinburgh. These have been placed near the west wall.

What we did in the past month

• Painted, placed and planted out the boat planter
• Planted the oak planter in memory of Marion Morton.
• Planted assorted herbaceous and nursery plants in the perimeter borders
• And we have weeded, weeded and weeded! Chickweed just loves the rain!

Wednesday and Saturday Volunteering

We have built on our Wednesday volunteering success by starting Saturday gardening sessions. These are going well but more volunteers on either day will always be very welcome so come along and join us for a healthy, friendly and useful morning, Wednesdays and Saturdays 10.00 – 11.30.

Visit our website (www.friendsofstarbankpark.org) and follow us on Facebook (https://en-gb.facebook.com/Friendsofstarbankpark?ref=stream ).

Normal service resumed today with a glorious sunny morning.  We cleared wheelbarrows of weeds, again.  Today we were in the herb borders, planted only a few weeks ago but full of weeds, but at least most weren’t chickweed!

The Park is looking better again after a huge weed removing effort.  We just hope the rain stops.

It rained this morning, the first Wednesday morning since we started.  But there were enough hardy Trinity souls to do a load of weeding.  Almost all the perimeter borders have been weeded over the past 3 weeks and what a lot of weeds!  The park is looking much better and the benefits of all the winter planting are clear to see.

Also, more good news as the Council gardeners were out today, starting to clear the winter bedding for the new summer bedding plants.

It was a good day for weeding.  We attacked the chickweed jungle beside the west wall and the weeds in the fountain.  We made pretty good progress.

Before

After

And the roses are starting to flower

The Queen Victoria had a damp, misty, windy and grey Edinburgh greeting this morning, and it looked a bit bumpy on the launch running from the ship to Newhaven Harbour.

The view from Starbank Park: the Queen Victoria looming through the mist

It was a glorious Wednesday morning .

Despite the weather, the turn out today was a little a disappointing at only six.  dressed the border beside the gate.  Still loads of weeds to attack!  We watered the boat planter  and the northern border which was remarkably dry – thanks Jen for helping!)

The final task for the day was to rescue a baby robin which suddenly landed, with a thud, on the bothy doorstep.  It was stunned and, when it came round, hid in the bothy but we captured it, let it go in the park and it was last seen flying off into the distance.

About 30 local people turned out on Saturday afternoon for our poppy planting ceremony with Wardie and Newhaven Churches.  Justin Taylor, the Wardie Church youth leader spoke for a few minutes on the Great War and its impact on people and communities.  The poppy seeds were planted by the children and Alister Greig, from Newhaven Church, closed with a few words, and an advert for the Friends of Starbank Park!  And all was with a backdrop of a yacht race, so close that we could hear the wind rattling the sales!

Special thanks to Wardie and Newhaven Churches for the ceremony and to Newhaven Heritage and Bill Simpson for their support.

Scattering Poppies

The boat

The yacht race

We had an very promising start to our Saturday volunteering.  There were five busy volunteers who dug out yet more chickweed and almost finished clearing the weeds from the paths at the north end of the park.  Well done and thanks to all involved.

We have, thanks to a boat supplied by Bill Simpson and a generous donation from Newhaven Heritage, a fine boat planter at the east Starbank Road gate.  The boat was painted by the indomitable Stan a week or two ago.  Yesterday we fixed it in its spot near the gate and filled it with soil and compost, ready for planting.  Wardie Church Youth Group and the Friends of Starbank Park have organised short ceremony for 3pm on Saturday 17th May to plant poppy seeds which we hope will be flowering in August to commemorate the start of the Great War.

Ready for Planting

We didn’t stop with setting up the boat planter.  We weeded several rose borders, the new herb borders and the new border at the north fence.  We also trimmed the edges of loads of borders.

Long grass and tidy edges