Work in the kitchen garden at Biddulph Grange Garden on 16th December 2018

Five of us went to Biddulph Grange Garden today for our last workday of 2018.  The forecast freezing weather, ice rain and winds never arrived and we had a very enjoyable day working with gardener Leslie Hurst in the kitchen garden.

We tackled and completed two jobs:

1.  Adrian, Andy and David put in a beech hedge.  They delineated the hedgeline with long thin wooden planks, screwed them together, prepared the soil in between and then planted beech saplings at 18 inch intervals.

2.  Tim and Daniel removed the grass from around the base of 16 fruit trees in the small orchard adjacent, constructed wooden squares around each tree and then planted 15 or 16 daffodil bulbs in each square and covered the bulbs with mulch.

At elevenses we washed down Daniel's Christmas-tree-shaped chocolate fudge cake with mugs of hot apple juice infused with Christmas spices courtesy of Leslie.

Lunch was taken in the volunteers' room below the museum.  On the message board we read that Biddulph has had 100k visitors in the year to 31 October versus a target for the whole year of 108k.  Next year's target is 118k.  Andy and I scanned our membership cards as we left to add two to the tally!  Certainly, Biddulph was busy today - there was a Santa Trail for children to follow that led them round the garden and to Father Christmas in the house.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our members and thank you for your hard work and support this year.  Here's to fun and friendship in 2019!

Daniel Black
MNTV Chairmen