| A Horticulture update! << previous page |
||
 As those of you who are our prayer partners know, as a result of a riding accident in June in which I broke my collar bone, I have been off sick for a number of weeks. It has been great to come back and since I returned to work, we’ve been having a major tidy up in the polytunnels and surrounding areas. We are awaiting a purpose built potting shed which Mike is making in the workshop and we’re all excited about that being erected. It has been a joy to have some new TFJs arrive; one of them, Jake, from Mirfield Evangelical Church in Yorkshire, is enthusiastic about horticulture. That’s been a real help to me, and he’s already made a huge impact on our project.
Although Supporters Day may seem to some a long way away, being 16th September we’re already in top gear preparing for that. We hope to have lots of plants for sale and everything is looking much tidier than it has done. We have been planting out a variety of violas and pansies, which we hope will be in flower for Supporters Day. The young ladies who are working on horticulture were all given different tasks recently and different areas of responsibility, which they have responded to very well indeed. The various beds and areas are looking much more tidy.
Malcolm comes across regularly from Liverpool to help with conservation work, but has also done a lot of general gardening work, as have a number of volunteers who have helped us for a week at a time this summer.
We have grown excellent vegetable and salad crops in the polytunnels and have had particular succeess with our tomatoes, cucumbers and chilli peppers! There’s an awful lot that seems to be happening now and it’s a joy to begin each day in prayer with our staff, volunteers and young people. It's been very moving to hear those in our care praying not only for each other and for staff members and volunteers we know who are not well, but for an increasing number of people. Do please use the prayer request facility on our website, because we do pray for those people who ask us to pray. |
||
|
|
As always, we are greatly indebted to volunteers who have made a huge impact on our horticultural project and in the work of Caring for Life as a whole. We have three men who help us on this project; Richard comes all the way from Whitby every Thursday, and similarly John comes all the way from Sheffield. Brian is one of our local helpers and has been here for a long time. Brian’s wife, Barbara, also helps us every Thursday with another local lady, Rita. It would be impossible to overestimate the value of these people. Their work has been supplemented by friends from Headingley Rotary Club and a lady called Chris who has been helping me every Monday for the last five years. I don’t know what we would do without her and these other valuable people. Rachel also helps on a Tuesday and has completely overhauled the herb garden so it’s now possible to walk round it again. 
We have had a huge job watering all the plants through the summer. As Rachel said at one point, "We seem to be spending all of every day watering plants!" We have a bore hole but unfortunately the water in the bore hole has a lot if iron in it which discolours the leaves of plants. The discolouration grows out once they are planted out, but it is a problem. It may be that somebody reading this article could give us some advice as to how to remove the iron deposits from the water. It is actually quite a serious problem for us.