New Friends Wanted!

Happy New Year!

Did you make any resolutions to exercise more, get out more, grow your own vegetables, reduce your carbon footprint, improve your neighbourhood, learn new skills, meet new people?

We can help!

The Friends of Cuthill Park group aims to improve the park and increase visitor numbers.

We are in the process of creating a Community Garden - incorporating an orchard and dedicated allotment spaces.

The Friends work closely with East Lothian Council to improve the health and wellbeing of the local community and to improve the biodiversity of the park.  The first wildflower meadows were sown in the park in 2012 and we organise regular litter picks and bulb planting.

Planned improvements include the installation of decorative railings in the roadside boundary wall and the provision of a new children's play area.

Longer term aspirations include reinstatement of a path from the park to Prestongrange Museum. 


Our meetings are informal, open to all (we're not all expert gardeners!) and usually take place in the nearest pub, the Prestoungrange Gothenburg. 

Our next meeting is on Tuesday January 15th at 7pm.
Stuart Pryde, Amenity Officer from East Lothian Council will be on hand to answer any questions people might have about allotments.

Join us!

Some tasks for November/ December

1. Dig to prepare ground for next year's crops:

Alan Titchmarsh says: "Alas there's no instant remedy for bedsteads and bindweed, brickbats and buttercups. Only hard graft will rid you of them. It's no use rotovating the lot - every chopped bit of weed root will survive - you may have to dig the lot out by hand [unless you want to find a suitable weedkiller?] Take heart; you'll get there in the end. And rest assured that every gardener on this earth thinks their weed problem is worse than anybody else's".

This is probably a task that would be made more enjoyable if we could do it together and have a flask of cocoa to hand! Before we start, a pertinent question if we do want to grow more vegetables may be: 'What area has been designated for this?'

2. a) Spread compost that has already been made: Lots of weeds were heaped up last year against the wall and might now be ready to cover the open ground within the frames.

b) Make two or three compost boxes: As we don't have a waste food collection in Prestonpans, perhaps people might like to contribute their kitchen waste - not meat, fish or cooked foods - but vegetable and fruit peelings, grass mowings, young weeds, tea leaves & coffee grounds, old flowers and bedding plants, vegetarian pet bedding(!) wood ash, cardboard & compostable packaging. Then this would all get mixed in with weeds from the garden.

3. Prune apple trees (with a shape in mind) when there is no danger of frost but training may have to wait if there are not appropriately-placed supple shoots. Sharp secateurs are needed and best to have someone experienced please?

Check tree ties are secure but not too tight.

4. Sow broad beans and garlic, but not together. Do we want organically sourced seeds?

[Early potatoes grow well with broad beans so we could leave space for some between the rows.] Broad Bean Hardier varieties can be sown in autumn and be protected by cloches made from cut-off 'pop' bottles. The Sutton This is a Dwarf variety (only 30cm high) and at 40 seeds for £1.54 can be sown in a double row. Or Super Aquadulce 40 seeds £1.76. Garlic Vallelado 150g for £4.45, Break up the bulbs and planting the cloves will give a 40m row and is suitable for autumn-early winter plantings. Any aficionados among us? Varieties & prices from "The Organic Gardening Catalogue". 

Fat Hen (picture: Rasbak)

 

5. Get to know the weeds. One of the tall ones with slightly green-grey leaves and spires of small greenish knobbly flowers is Fat Hen (Chenopodium album) of the Goosefoot family and it indicates a good soil. "Once a most valued vegetable for humans it compares favourably in nutritional value to cabbage and spinach. If is a friendly herb to other plants as its deep roots raise mineral nutrients for shallower-rooted companions and its leaves catch and spread water to lesser neighbours." (How to enjoy your Weeds by Audrey WynneHatfield.) So let's not weed it all out.

Work Day - CANCELLED

The work day previously arranged for Sat 17 November has had to be cancelled.
Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Grasslands survey

East Lothian Council are running a number of site projects aimed at improving natural grasslands and it would be really good if some local people could complete this questionnaire to show levels of interest here.

The link - http://tinyurl.com/savingmagnificentmeadows will take you to a 10m minute survey which is a national survey trying to raise public awareness and interest in natural grasslands.

To read more about grasslands, and just why they are so important, you might want to take a look at the relevant Plantlife pages here.

Thank you for making a difference!

We were so lucky with the weather on Saturday 27th October - the last day of British Summer Time.

And, we are so lucky to have so many community-minded individuals, families and organisations to come along and help in the park and make the day such a success.

The 1st Prestonpans Guides did an amazing job clearing the weeds along the borders and between the apple trees.  The Community Garden has never looked so good!

East Lothian Council had kindly supplied a trailer load of bark which our volunteers moved by wheelbarrow to form paths.

We then filled the empty trailer with weeds for the Council to take away.  There was a lot and some of the nettles were taller than us (and given that some of us are 6'3, they were pretty big nettles!).

Thank you everyone for taking part in our third Make a Difference Day event.

The next work day is Saturday 17 November

Make a Difference this weekend!

Following the success of their recent Big Green Weekend, the Friends of Cuthill Park are planning a CSV Make a Difference Day event on Saturday 27 October (11-4) and are looking for volunteers.
 

Friends' Secretary Charlotte Aitchison was confident that the community would support Make a Difference Day and said "We were delighted that so many people turned up to erect bird boxes, dig up weeds and generally improve the park two weeks ago. We are very grateful to the community in Prestonpans and hope they will support us again with a final push before winter”

Charlotte continued “We going to be helped by the 1^st Prestonpans Guides who have been terrific supporters of the park and previously helped plant bulbs. There will be something for everyone and whether you can come along for 15 minutes to gather seeds or stay for an hour weeding, whatever help you can give really does "make a difference" and is very much appreciated by visitors to the park”.

Come along and join us - there will be certificates and stickers for our young helpers and a limited number of t-shirts for the grown-ups!

Further information can be obtained from friendsofcuthillpark@gmail.com, 07847 566 146 or follow @cuthillpark on Twitter.

2012 AGM

On 4th October, the Friends held their AGM in the Prestoungrange Gothenburg.

We are pleased to report that Tom Ewing has been re-elected as Chairman with Zoe Inglis elected as Vice Chair.

Jan Holden remains in post as Treasurer but has stepped down as Secretary.  The new Secretary is Charlotte Aitchison.

We would take this opportunity to thank all the supporters, volunteers, families, community groups and individuals who have helped us over the year.

We always need help - administrative, gardening, organising, fundraising, publicising, tea-making.  There are jobs for everyone and we really would appreciate some more friends!