Council Agro.

A Gloucestershire Parish Councillor has been given a three month ban by Woodmancote Village Hall committee. This Bans her from using the village hall except for Parish Council Meetings. This was over a Facebook post Cheryl Agg made in November. The councillor wanted to know what people thought about using the village hall as a warm space for vulnerable people. It was an idea that was didcussed and found not to be appropriate. It appears there were even grants available for this. The committee said that their issue is that it is likely to cause harm to frail villagers.

Would it not be possible for the whole community to share the space on a rota basis? After all it is a village hall. So many people are too often cold with no way to keep warm. Far from stopping people from getting to warm spaces we should be opening up more venues until the weather warms up.

Steawbale Gardening For All.

As I have said before, my wife was involved in a serious car accident when she was a teenager. Her specialist at the time predicted severe back pain in older age. That prediction was very accurate. We inherited a large garden and so I cast around for a gardening method that does not require so much bending. After a long search I found an American idea. Strawbale gardening. We both tried it and got on well. This was some fifteen years ago. Since then I have experimented with strawbale gardening and adapted it for our climate. I have also taught many people this great way to grow. Due to the height of the strawbales it is ideally suited to wheelchair users. Also because you can site a strawbale garden on concrete the access around the bales is superb. I have had people that have had large gardens all their life who, for one reason or another have had to downsize to a home with maybe no garden. Again this method is very useful to them.

A strawbale system. With all round access.

It is great to see so many schools including gardening into the lessons. Still not enough but the message is starting to get through that we need to equip our young people with the skill to feed themselves. Strawbale gardening is a great classroom based way to teach this. It is a very safe method. You don’t need to use any sharp tools. Plus the children’s garden can be situated on concrete/grass etc. I have grown most vegetables in straw so the choice is very wide as to what to grow. My suggestions to any teachers would be runner beans as these grow vertically, onions. tomatoes again grow up poles, potatoes, and perhaps marrows and pumpkins. A strawbale garden in full fruit looks great. If any schools are interested in setting up a strawbale garden we can help with this. Please get in touch in the first instance here.

With summer coming, it is really, keeping the children off the gaming machines is a challenge. Last year lots of parents/carers used our Sunflower Growing Kits. The kids enjoyed seeing who could grow the tallest sunflower and then drawing them. But there’s much more to them than that. Obviously they get the kids outside, always best in a group. They get three varieties to choose from including the Giant Yellow that can reach a height of nine feet. But because we like to encourage companion planting, we include some runner bean seeds. Once planted they should grow up the sunflowers. So they get to grow food as well. You start the seeds of inside in cell trays, these go in zip tie polythene bags, to aid germination. So they learn about micro climates as well. By the way everything you need is supplied, plus full instructions. This is a wonderful activity for schools, parties etc. Their is an element of supervision needed. For more information click here.