Village Litter Picking

The Loxwood Community Gardens Initiative have joined forces with the Loxwood Society to purchase some litter picking equipment.  The thinking being that we could jointly at any time we like organise a litter picking morning to ensure that the village is kept looking tidy and welcoming.

On Saturday 11 May we will be holding a litter picking morning combined with a LCGI work party in the Diamond Jubilee Garden.  We will all meet at 9.30am in the garden, please come equipped with gloves and hi-vis jackets if you have one, if not we can provide the jackets.

On the day we will split people into pairs and designate a certain area to be picked.  Once completed, all rubbish will be brought back to the Diamond Jubilee Garden from where we will take it away.

Graham

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Annual Membership/ Log Circle

Hopefully by now, most of you will have received your Annual Membership reminder through the door, if not they will be delivered in the next few days.  If by any chance you do not receive an Annual Membership reminder please do let me know.  We are hoping that you all renew your membership as this provides the means to ensure that we can carry on improving and maintaining the areas we look after in the village.

During the week we had some work carried out on the oak tree at North Hall by the stream to ensure that it is safe.  This involved removing a limb from one of the oak trees and felling another oak tree that was hindering the growth of the larger tree.  This has created an opportunity for us to provide another obstacle that can be climbed up and over in the woodland and from the branches cut off, we have created a log circle very similar to the one in the Diamond Jubilee Garden so that the young children can either jump from log to log or just use it as a seating area.

If you have recently visited North Hall, you will have noticed that we have added considerably to our wild primrose population along the hedge area.  Hopefully over the years these will multiply and spread over the whole woodland.  In the wildflower meadow, some of the native daffodils and cowslips are starting to poke their heads through.

The Community Garden Initiative Committee have decided that we would like to commemorate the work that Keith Nichols did to support us over the last ten or so years.  We will be installing a bench in the woodland in the next few weeks, which has been very kindly donated by Keith’s wife, Penny.

New Benches in the Woodland

We have been very kindly donated two teak benches that have now been cleaned, oiled and installed in the woodland at North Hall.  Many thanks to Paul Swan for the gift.  We have also reinstated the rope swing that is used by many children to swing over the stream and occasionally they fall in as I witnessed the other day.

As you all know we very sadly lost our Master Hedge Layer, Keith, towards the end of last year.  However, we are determined to carry on with the hedge that has been laid in the traditional manner.  I have managed to complete around another 25yds along our boundary this year.  This will be continued over the next couple of years until it is complete.  My hedge laying will never reach Keith’s high standard, however, I think Keith would have liked to see it completed.

There are some new pictures of the hedge and the benches on the website.

Nepp Lane Update/Bean Sticks

If you had tried walking along our very recently newly designated footpath, Nepp Lane, you would be as surprised as I was this morning.

Permission to open this old Drovers route from Station Road in the North to the Guildford Road by the Onslow Arms in the South was finally agreed in November 2018.

West Sussex County Council have been extremely efficient and have for the last couple of weeks or so been clearing a very wide path through the undergrowth starting at the Onslow Arms end.  They have virtually cleared two thirds of the length of this path, including building a bridge over the Loxwood stream.

Do go and take a look starting at the five barred gate by the Onslow Arms and canal bridge.  The LCGI will certainly be contacting WSCC to congratulate them on their efficiency.

During the next few weeks I will be starting, weather permitting, to coppice the woodland at North Hall.  If you would like some Bean Sticks or Pea Sticks, please do email me as soon as possible as quantity will be limited this year.  So it will be first come, first served.

We have made an executive decision and decided that a work party in February will not be necessary, however, we will resume work in March in the Jubilee Garden.

The Stick Man has taken up residence.

The Loxwood Community Gardens Initiative would like to wish all of our members a Happy New Year and we would like to thank them for their support during 2018.

If you have walked passed the Diamond Jubilee Garden over the Christmas period you hopefully would have noticed that we have a new resident in the garden.  At the moment he is known as The Stick Man, however, this could change if somebody comes up with an appropriate name.  He arrived in the garden on Christmas Eve and will be a long term resident, mainly for the benefit of the young children but I am sure some of us older children will appreciate his handsome features.  Do take a look at a couple of pictures of the Stick Man on our website.

In early February I will be sending out an email asking who would like bean poles and pea sticks this year.

Our next bonfire will take place at North Hall on Saturday 12 January starting at 9.30am.  We have plenty of brushwood to burn up.  Please bring saws and clippers.  Look forward to seeing you then.

 

Happy Birthday

Today is the 10th Anniversary of the formation date of the Loxwood Community Gardens Initiative.  Exactly 10 years ago today, nine local people met to discuss forming a Garden Club known at that time as the Loxwood Community Garden Club with an aim to provide an organisation that would bring the community together to develop some areas in the village for the benefit of all.

Since that time we have achieved an amazing amount, we now have our Diamond Jubilee Garden, with its raised beds, borders and oak sculptures, that is very well used by the village and is the venue for our annual bbq.

The area around the telephone box has been improved and is maintained by ourselves as well as repainting the telephone box.

At North Hall we have planted our own community orchard which consists of 38 different varieties of fruit trees under planted with a magnificent wild flower meadow.  The woodland itself has been cleared from an overgrown jungle to a managed area where we not only provide beanpoles and pea sticks for the village but we also have an area that is used by local children as well as a forest school used by the Preschool.

To commemorate our ten year birthday, we have planted four quite large Crab Apple Trees in the far corner of North Hall, these were kindly donated by Paul Swan Landscaping.  In the wild flower area, we have added to the diversity by planting some wild daffodils as well as some wild gladioli.

Our next work party will take place on Saturday 15th December at North Hall, starting at 9.30am.  This will attract all the pyromaniacs from the village (and there are many) as we will be having a couple of bonfires.  Look forward to seeing many of you then with your holey jackets and jumpers.

Keith Nichols

It is with regret that we have to announce the passing of Keith Nichols, who as many of you will know, has been a great supporter of the Loxwood Community Gardens Initiative since its inception.

Keith was a great character in the village and will be greatly missed.  As you will all be aware, he was one of only a few people who carried on the traditional art of hedge laying.  Not only has he laid hedges for us in the Diamond Jubilee Garden and in the woodland at North Hall but he has laid numerous hedges for the Wey and Arun Canal.

As an organisation we will miss Keith, not only for his hedge laying, but his countryside knowledge that was second to none.  He also has been responsible for distributing many wild flower seeds around Loxwood and surrounding areas, especially Cowslips, Orchids and Ragged Robin.

Our thoughts are with Penny and their families at this difficult time.