URsTV went back to visit the Heal the Earth Ayrshire group at the walled garden in the Dean Castle Country Estate on Sunday. What a difference from our last visit! The well planned layout is coming together and many of the raised beds have been completed with many already growing a wide range of vegetables to be harvested in the near future!
Rough layout plan for the walled garden
A large number of fruit trees had been planted in December last year and they are all now looking very healthy, although still too immature to be producing any fruit yet – unfortunately! Snow Drops and Daffodils have also been planted but I think the frost is keeping them underground for the moment.
There was also a mention of perhaps having a beehive or too – just point me in the right direction if there is honey to be eaten!
Although from the videos on this article it appears the garden is quite grey and lifeless, it is actually quite exciting because spring is just around the corner. Once the various colours start appearing it will be completely transformed!
Jan and Jenny take new visitors round all the time!
There are various tanks positioned around the garden which will collect rain water and a supply of water from the nearby river is being worked on as well. Although the newly constructed pond was iced up, once the water plants and various wildlife have been put in this might even persuade some of the ducks at the Dean Castle to migrate over!
There is also a neat little track taking you all through the whole orchard area where there will be benches positioned strategically to soak up the sun and watch all the activity below.
The Heal the Earth Ayrshire group will be having a stall at the Eco-Fair in the courtyard at the Dean Castle on Sunday 7th March between 12 and 4 pm. They will be running tours on the hour throughout the day to their community garden with a maximum of 12 per tour. The last tour will leave the Dean Castle at 3pm.
Some of the group on Sunday
Members of the group will be available on the stall to answer questions and you can get more information about growing your own veg. You can also ask about getting a raised bed in the community garden to produce your own harvest (hint: the staff at URsTV LOVE strawberries!).
In fact there are too many new projects being started and completed all the time – pop down to the walled garden any Sunday and see the group in action!
More pictures on next page….
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Wow! Well done to everyone at Heal the Earth! The walled garden is really looking the part, now. A big thanks to our fantastic, Moira, for the video and pics!
….Did someone mention strawberries??
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