The one thing you expect in spring is lots of rain to help plants with their growing spurt. With climate change, however, the weather is way less predictable, and we’ve had hardly any April showers.
The upside to this is that we’ve had lots of dry days for our gardening sessions and planned events, but it’s also been chilly at times. This was definitely the case for our pre wildlife walk picnic on the evening of Friday 12 April, but the polytunnel provided a snug dining area for us to sit, eat and make plans for the garden. More polytunnel picnic parties being top of the list!
Fine poly dining
As twilight fell, lots more people arrived for the walk with Lambeth’s Dr Iain Boulton.
Following a brief talk from Iain we headed off to the ponds in search of bats. And although it was cold, we still spotted some that had ventured out to feed on insects flying above the water, and more were heard on the tracking equipment Iain had brought with him.
Iain (2nd from left) explaining how to use the bat monitoring equipment
The following day, David Satori from Myceliate ran a fungi workshop in the garden. Over a cup of tea at the beginning of the session, David gave an introductory talk about these weird and wonderful organisms, that are ‘neither plants nor animals, but an entirely separate kingdom of life’.
David (fourth from left)
David then went on to explain that we would be growing reishi mushrooms, used in traditional Chinese medicine to boost the immune system, along with other health benefits.
Reishi mushrooms
To cultivate the mushrooms, holes were drilled into logs which had been soaked overnight, then reishi fungi spore plugs were inserted and a wax seal placed over the top.
Everyone soon got the hang of it!
Once all the logs had been impregnated with the fungi spores, holes were dug in the ground and the stumps places in them.
Shroom-henge in the heart of Clapham
David will be returning to our garden on Saturday 1 June 2019 to run another fungi workshop. For more information and to book a ticket click on this link.
With the lack of rain, we now need to water them regularly and wait… for what should be a spectacular display of fungi.
For more information about growing fungi visit the Myceliate website or come along to David’s next workshop in our garden. The date will soon to be posted on our events page, and we’ll be hoping for a dry sunny day for it!
Meanwhile, however, the garden would benefit from a really good downpour.
For more information about our events and activities email ccbandstandbeds@gmail.com