On the last Sunday of every month we hold a volunteer activity morning at the Triangle Garden. This February was a planting day and the volunteers who came along, helped to planted some trees in our new extended Forest Garden. We planted three hazels, which will be coppiced in rotation to give us long sturdy poles to support climbing beans, and shorter pea sticks for our allotment. Have a look at our video of the morning:
We also planted a couple of unusual non-native trees in the Forest Garden area: a Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo) – a small evergreen tree which produces edible fruit that can either be eaten raw, used to make jam, or made into Medronho, a traditional fruit brandy from Portugal. The Strawberry Tree is a great bee plant too and has been used in folk medicine for antiseptic, astringent, intoxicant, rheumatism, and tonic purposes.
We also planted a Judas Tree (Cercis silaquastrum) which is a member of the pea family. Like most legumes it fixes nitrogen and although it’s seed pods are not edible, it does have beautiful mauve/cerise blossom in Spring and is beloved of bees. Find out about our next activity morning by visiting our What’s On page.