Lost in the Border

Traditionally, there have been herbaceous borders along the outside wall of the secret garden but maintaining these borders has been labour intensive. CIP were considering grassing over the borders as a cost-cutting measure but, fortunately, we managed to gain their support in clearing and replanting the borders instead.

Starting to Clear 2003

Our first attempts to clear the border by digging and weeding were hard work and the ground elder always returned! Pictured are FoBM members working together on this project.

With Youth on our side!

Fortunately, we were assisted by pupils from Gunnersbury R.C. School who volunteered to work on community projects.

Putting it in Perspective

On 17th April, FoBM started replanting the border after the border had been cleared and the ground elder and weeds had been treated many times with appropriate weed-killer. As you can see from this photograph, a lot of plants were required to refill the border and many hands were required to complete the planting in one day. Sadly, the roots of lots of the plants we had cleared from the border and put into temporary storage were so intermingled with the ground elder, we decided we could not replant them and they had to be destroyed. This unfortunately meant that the carefully calculated planting plan had to be reworked at very short notice, and we were totally reliant on only those plants purchased from the benefit of a kind donation by GlaxoSmithKline.

Replanted Herbaceous Border in Summer

By the Summer of 2004 we at last started to see reap the benefits from the replanting of the border but maintenance work parties still continue. Please contact us if you would like to help keep this border in good condition. Work parties take place from 2 until 4 p.m. on Wednesdays during school term time and Sunday mornings between 10 a.m. and 12 noon.