Tidying up OTRA Gardens an Update

Our group of gardening volunteers has now visited all of the Old Town Residents Association community gardening beds, but one, and given them a bit of a tidying up, bearing in mind we're not cutting everything down because wildlife needs somewhere to live.
I thought I'd add them to the blog, so here they are, starting with the Mr Cod bed which is looking very good at the moment. I think this is because it's sheltered and a bit of a sun trap, so things are flowering there before anywhere else. These daffs donated in 2018 are tremendous:

also really looking good are the Euphorbias

and here are the happy gardeners

I took this photo to try and show the individual snowdrops, just about visible

And moving on to the bed near Pipers roundabout, by the Marriott Hotel. This bed has been tidied, had a few leaves removed to allow bulbs to emerge, a few primroses have also been added, but at the moment it's hard to see much.

 Looking at potential rewilding sites in this area, I mentioned to Rob Core, South Swindon Parish Clerk, that the path between the trees we planted 7 years ago, was getting a bit muddy. He suggested dropping off some wood chippings to put on the path, which he did within 24 hours.  Here are some of the team who assembled one Sunday morning with 4 barrows to spread the chippings up the path. It was a lovely morning, and most of us ended up taking coats and jumpers off because we got so hot.
Tim tidied up some of the trees which had extra branches on them, but missed out on the photo.

 Here are Jane, Neil and myself on the path

 and here's the path with no one on it. There are still shrubs up there to tidy, and we will probably need more chippings soon.

 Our first bed, on the corner of Devizes Road and Newport St looks delightful in spring with snowdrops, cyclamen, primroses and daffs. At other times of the year, it gets very dry and everything struggles to grow and look healthy.

 These grasses, Stipa tenuissima look absolutely fabulous on the corner, they have been a tremendous success and are spreading around the area, even in the doorway of the Wheatsheaf pub opposite! There's a question about how to deal with them in spring, to cut back or pull the dead bits out? I tend to do a mixture of the two depending on the age of the plant.

 In the photo below you can see some of the snowdrops and some of the bark from the embankment

 And onto the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery beds managed by the Friends, and looking very colourful after the addition of a few primroses and removal of some very thuggish asters

 This is the bed nearer the road underneath the copper beech, like the previous bed which is under a silver birch tree, these beds suffer in summer from lack of water because of the trees taking so much of it. In a few months, we'll plant the primroses to the left of the museum on the rather difficult tree stump area.

 And so to the Station Approach bed opposite Earle's newsagents, space is at a premium in these narrow beds, so the Fuchsia hawkshead had to be cut back, as did the Japanese anenome and oregano taking up lots of space and not offering enough in return.

 I've taken several views of the garden, above from the road, and below towards the road

 and from further back

there's also a small vegetable bed to the left of the gate where broad beans and garlic are coming on well, there's also some Swiss Chard and remains of kale just growing back

 There is a seventh garden behind the bus stop next to the Co-op in Newport St, this needs a bit of a tidy up. The utility boxes are still covered in various posters, so we'll try and remove those when we visit there.
Next sessions are:
13 Feb 2pm at the Marriott and embankment
22 Feb 10am at Station Approach

 25 Feb 10am Co-op bed

 All welcome