May

There's a tremendous spirit of cooperation in the green sector at the moment.  Gardeners have always been very generous with their ideas, knowledge, and plants, but would organisations have been quite so willing to join forces for the common good 5 or 10 years ago?

The latest meeting of GreenLINK brought together representatives of nearly 30 organisations. Five members reported on a recent meeting with government. The minister had found it refreshing that their focus was on community greenspace rather than on the needs of individual organisations.

The GreenLINK meetings are also a great opportunity to find out more about other organisations. The Federation of CIty Farms and Community Gardens for example, gave a short presentation that prompted me to have a look at their website http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/. I particularly liked the New Trends in Food Growing page.





The need to train the gardeners of the future and to provide more opportunities for those who have already embarked on their career were just 2 of the concerns aired when I joined the Chairmen of Devon and Cornwall Garden Trusts at the National Trust's Cornwall office at Lanhydrock.  The meeting was organised by Adam Clarke (Opeing All the Gates www.creativeandculturallearning.co.uk/opening-all-the-gates). He's hoping to find ways in which the County Garden Trusts and the National Trust (NT) can work more closely together.  He's starting in the south west and will see how things progress.  The immediate and very positive result was that Devon GardensTrust now has a direct link with the NT. This should give them another opportunity to connect with possible candidates for their training bursary scheme, the details of which are on their website http://www.devongardenstrust.org.uk/.   

The precis and conclusion of the Gardens Trusts' Working Together Feasibility Study should be available soon.  I wonder whether anyone realised just how useful the preparatory joint meetings of the AGT, The Garden History Society, the Garden Museum and Parks and Gardens UK (PGDS) would be?  Even before we read the final summary, all 4 organisations have a far better understanding of each other than could have been possible before.

On a slightly less positive note, I went along to one of the many Roadshow Consultations set up by the Department of Transport about the proposed route of the High Speed 2 rail link.  If it goes ahead, this Y-shaped line will initially link London to Birmingham, slicing its way through Buckinghamshire as it goes.  The information was slickly presented but, for those of us with an interest in historic designed landscapes, there wasn't enough detail to completely dispel any worries.  I'm investigating further.  You might like to do the same. The Chilterns AONB site provides useful links to the consultation dates and the many reports produced on the project.http://www.chilternsaonb.org/.

The 'Love Parks Week' took kit is available for downloading from the GreenSpace website.  I've downloaded mine - that was the easy bit.  Now I have to think of an idea for an event - not so easy.  I'm hoping that my dog walking friends will have some bright ideas.

Rain in the south east at last...

April or August?

How strange it's been to enjoy a summer-like sun while the birds are still singing their spring songs.  I abandoned my parched garden and headed to Cowcross Street for the 2nd AGT management meeting of the year.  It was good to hear from our Publicity Officer, Steffie Shields, that the Yearbook has been so well received, particularly by people who previously knew nothing about Garden Trusts.  When someone asks about the Trusts it can be difficult to precis what we are about.  The Yearbook gives a good flavour of the myriad of things that are going on.  I've reserved a few copies to take to the next quarterly GreenLINK meeting.

The AGT signed up as a member of GreenLINK towards the end of last year.  It's an organisation that brings together representatives from all kinds of green spaces - everything from historic gardens to urban parks, from wetlands to cemeteries and churchyards.  We all agree that green spaces are vital for a healthy society.  With so many cuts in funding, sharing information and speaking with one voice will help us all.



NorthCourt Manor



GreenLINK is hosted by GreenSpace.  If you'd like to know more about it, have a look at their website http://www.green-space.org.uk/ and click on GreenLINK. You could also look at their link to 'Love Parks Week' - running from 23-31 July - when GreenSpace aim to get 1 million people out and into the parks.  As 82% of our parks are working with a reduced budget, we need to show how much we value them.



Reading about it made me curious to find out more about my local park - a welcome expanse of green in a heavily populated suburb of Reading. Apparently, its wide open spaces were created from an old rubbish tip.There's a small area of woodland stretching along one side. According to the local district council website it's a patch of ancient woodland, coppiced to encourage wild flowers. It's been carpeted with them since the first primroses unfolded a couple of months ago.  At the moment, I'm enjoying a mass of bluebells and stitchwort when I'm out with my dogs. I wonder how many people in the area even know that it's there?

I was working on the Isle of Wight during the hot weather and stayed at Northcourt Manor in Shorwell.  Those of you who came to the AGM and conference in October will remember John and Christine Harrison's Jacobean Manor with its magical gardens which were brought to their picturesque peak in the 18th century by Elizabeth Bull. They look just as good in spring as they did last autumn. If you are on the Isle of Wight at the end of August, they're open on Sunday 28th for NGS. They also provide an excellent B&B for groups or individuals. This year's AGM and conference, 'Power Gardening,' will be hosted by Oxfordshire Gardens Trust, in Oxford, from 2-4 September.