Thursday 11th April
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Report written by Windsor and Maidenhead runner
Lisa, Angela and Sheila helped out at Nature's Haven, joined a little bit later by Roberta after she had finished her day's work. Today was a very exciting day. After all the shrub cutting, shredding, root extraction and ground digging over the last few weeks by Goodgymmers and other volunteers, we actually got to plant some fruit trees! The ground was raked over, and some very special fertiliser from an exclusive restaurant was applied, and we were ready to go. Angela and Lisa dug three deep holes, and planted three cordon apple trees. After some consultation about the precise positioning, the fourth hole was dug and planted with a step-over apple tree. What an awesome foursome! We then planted some perennials and bluebells as groundcover between the trees. We gave them all a good watering, and stood back to admire our work. It was great to see the transformation of this area, and look forward to some scrumping in the future!
Nature’s Haven is an outdoor retreat to escape the pressures of everyday life. We aim to give our visitors a sense of strength and protection with the intention of providing a more tranquil state of mind. Our healing garden will be filled with a variety of plants that promote a sense of wellbeing and hope. Our garden designs are based on the principles of a physic garden, focusing on the plants' inherent healing properties. It will be a place of refuge where peace, healing, distraction and stress relief is promoted. Nature's Haven will create, maintain & continue to develop healing gardens to generate an abundance of positivity. The gardens will be restorative and yet enabling too, allowing the visitor to 'simply be', reflect & be fully present in the moment and/or actively engage in gardening through our social therapeutic horticultural programmes. We will provide events and opportunities to engage as many people in our community as possible as we nurture and promote a feeling of connectedness. We champion sustainability and we are guided by permaculture principles thus avoiding synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. The gardens are designed with accessibility in mind. Wheelchairs will be able to access all areas of the garden and the paths and raised beds will help the visually impaired navigate their way around. We will also have adapted tools to assist with any mobility issues.
See moreTue 16th Apr at 10:39am
How wonderful to have reached the planting stage! Well done all of you for your contributions to this project
Windsor and Maidenhead
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