On a beautiful balmy evening in October we gathered at Ransoms Pavilion for our annual Bat Walk and talk, hosted by local bat expert Roger Havard of the Herts and Middlesex Bat Group.
The Triangle Garden took on a decidly ghoulish aspect this Hallowe'en to the delight and dread of the youngest members of the local community.
On July 17th we held a very special celebration evening for everyone involved with the Triangle Garden over its 15 year history. As well as celebrating our 15th anniversary we were also marking the completion of our Treasured Spaces project, and the first phase of our Forest Garden (more about that in the next article).
As well as celebrating our 15th anniversary and the completion of our Treasured Spaces project, this year we celebrated the Triangle Garden’s Forest Garden project, the first phase of which was funded by Waitrose Hitchin.
We are very proud of our new community mosaic, designed by local mosaic artist Jane Visick, which was installed earlier this year as the centrepiece of our refurbished meeting space. The mosaic is made up of eight different panels each depicting the flora and fauna found at the Triangle Garden. In the centre of the mosaic is the Triangle Garden's distinctive logo.
Our Pollinator's Garden is now almost complete, as volunteers from Garden Club, Growing Ability and our Sunday sessions planted up the new raised beds with pollinator-friendly planting over a couple of weeks in June. The plants were chosen from the RHS Perfect for Pollinators list to provide year-round flower for hungry bees, hoverflies and butterflies.
The pergolas are now up at the Triangle Garden, transforming the refurbished meeting space and giving it a real sense of scale and structure. As well as acting as entrance points to the space, they provide a framework on which to grow a host of flowering climbers, providing nectar and pollen for bees, and a feast for the senses of people walking through. And finally, not to miss a function that vertical posts can provide, the pergolas will support a number of information boards telling people what's happening at the garden and how they can help pollinators in their own gardens.
Teddies of all shapes and sizes gathered at Ransom's Rec last week in their finest picnic outfits to be given prizes by the Triangle Garden judges at our latest fundraiser.
Also up for judging were an assortment of delicious cakes submitted to our Heritage Bake Off competition - almost all of which were kindly donated as refreshments for the afternoon.
New and old outdoor games were scattered about the Rec for families to enjoy including welly-wanging, sponge stocks, connect-four, skittles and quoits.
This is the 11th year that the Triangle Garden has held thier Apple Day in the Old Market Place in the centre of Hitchin. As well as our own stalls selling apples, apple juice and apple cakes, we had local apple expert Mike Clark from Tewin Orchard on hand to identify people's apples, brought on from their gardens.
Groundwork UK have just announced that they will treble the £5000 we raised this summer for our Treasured Spaces Appeal where previously they had agreed to match and double the money. So where before we had £15,000 to invest in our refurbishments of the Triangle Garden central meeting space, we now have £20,000.
