As Ambassador for the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance, Ken Crowther is encouraging people to open their garden and raise much needed funds for the charity. As part of the summer of open garden, Baby Bio are running the Big Boost Challenge as Anita Dent explained.
The Essex & Herts Air Ambulance trust have launched their ‘Summer of Open Gardens’ for anyone who loves their garden. It doesn’t matter if your garden is the size of a postage stamp or huge estate the idea to is to open it for family, friends and neighbours and raise money for this life-saving charity as Jackie Brown, Essex & Hert Air Ambulance explained.
Using a small paint brush Lucy Chamberlain who gardens at East Donyland Hall in Fingerginghoe, Essex is hand pollinating strawberries, peaches and nectarines in the gardens. To prevent diseases the fruits are covered with polythene which protects them by stops nature doing its work as she explained to Ken Crowther.
The serious lack of hard weather is reflected in the soil conditions. Market gardener Andrew McTurk who farms in Brentwood in Essex says the soil is not in particularly good order this year. A hard frost is extremely beneficial as it gives the top tilth where the surface is lovely and nice. As he explained to Ken Crowther it doesn’t need many frosts but there hasn’t been enough this year to make a good job.
Lucy Chamberlain gardens at East Donyland Hall in Fingeringhoe, Essex. The frosts of recent weeks have been welcomed by Lucy who has been waiting for them as she tries to manage the fruit garden. A good hard frost helps to kill off pests and diseases lingering in the soil. To aid this she removed all the mulch leaving the soil open to the frost as she told Ken Crowther.