The local birds will be flocking to the garden with these latest additions kindly donated by the FV Men’s Shed. These beautiful metal holders which are doubling as Sunflower supports will provide water and seeds for our feathery friends. We have topped them up with seeds from the sunflowers to see if we have any takers. Thank you FV Men’s Shed
Bouncy Castle Cushions!
Heather and Francis with the Sewing Class and their cushions
The Library ran a two week sewing class for beginners this summer. Our lovely volunteers taught participants how to use the sewing machines. With fabric saved from a burst bouncy castle donated by the Mother and Toddler’s the group made these splash proof cushions for the Secret Garden. A perfection addition to our QUICKBLOCK bench. Thank you!
Special Delivery
On Monday we were delighted to receive these beautiful hand crafted pieces from the Forth Valley Men’s Shed. We commissioned these pieces with the remainder of our Cilips funding.
We are looking forward to some storytelling sessions out in the garden.
Thank you very much to Kenny and his team.
Veg Ledges for the Secret Garden
Members of Friends of the Mayfield group went along to the RHS and TCV event held at the Green Space this Thursday. We learned about how we can use small spaces such as these beautiful hand-crafted veg boxes made by the FV Men’s Shed, to grow flowers and vegetables.
The wood for the boxes had been treated so was carefully lines using a liner so as not to contaminate the veg. Boxes were filled with peat-free compost, using our fingers to separate clumps and bumped against the table to knock out air pockets.
Using our knuckles to make gentle indentations for the seeds and gently pinching the soil together afterwards. Each box has three different types of veg.
We then had some fun decorating them.
Gifts from the RHS.
A big thank you to Mo from RHS, Krissy from TCV and the FV Men’s Shed. We can’t wait for our first harvest.
Friends of the Mayfield May Meet-up
Some much needed weeding, pruning and placing of our new plants from Braehead Community Gardens. We also planted out the sunflowers and poppies we grew with The Conservation Volunteers.
Writers in the Garden
The library is proud to host Write Club, a friendly weekly meeting for people interested in writing and sharing their work. The group meets on a Thursday between 5.30 pm-7 pm.
Recently the group were joined by author Tom Newlands who is originally from the area and took inspiration from his upbringing in St Ninians for his debut novel Only Here, Only Now. Tom spoke to the group about his experience of getting published and gave feedback on their writing.
The Write Club and Tom Newlands in the Mayfield Secret Garden
The group are working towards publishing a collection of their work. Watch this space!
Friends Get to Work
The group got together for a much needed prune and weed session. We cut back a lot of the briars to give some space to the beautiful Acer trees.
The next gardening session will take place on Tuesday 20th May during the next Friends of the Mayfield meeting.
Digging It
The Friends decided that the priority for the garden should be to focus on making the space accessible with the funding from Cilips. We approached several local businesses and decided to work with Gilchrists.
Within a day, the team at Gilchrists removed the deep rooted bramble bush roots, levelled the ground and laid a patio and pathway. We are so delighted with the results.
Quickblock
Quickblock is a Scotland-based start-up dedicated to sustainability and very generously donated their blocks to help us with our project. The team from Quickblock came to the garden on 28th November 2024 and supported the Friends of the Mayfield group to build three raised beds and a bench in under half an hour.
A huge thank you to team Quickblock and Fiona Buchanan for the introduction.
