Grow Wild in Deal

 
We have a few GrowWild wild flower meadow kits left for schools & Community groups in Deal. 

This is a national campaign run by Grow Wild and supported by Kew, to encourge as many as possible mini meadows

Each pack comes with
- Getting started guide
- 5 packets of UK native wild flowers
- Site Markers
- DIY bee house

Should see flowers June-July depending what the weather is like - does not need daily watering or the best compost.

We do have a couple of meadow experts in the group (not me:) if you need some further advice/support

It would be great to get some pics of the results of your efforts - we have a few  schools locally doing this and would like to give something back to GrowWild who are organising the kits

Let us know if you school is interested by emailing info@dealwithit.org.uk

National Meadows Day - Deal Station Garden Meadow

Today is the first National Meadows Day and right on cue our meadow at the Deal Station Garden is in full bloom.

If you have time this week try to get down there for a peek - it will be even better next year!

Back in March we had about 20 volunteers helped to ready the site and sow perennial meadow seed.

Busy day down at Deal Station Garden...

Busy day down at the Deal Station Garden
 Planting done on the front planters, litter pick on meadow areas and we have a tidy up in meadow in front of the telephone exchange (poppies, cornflowers, globe thisle and corn marigolds all planted).

Thank you to Roisin, Sue, Sarah, Sally, Pat and Steve for volunteering today

Meadow making today at Deal Rail Station

We had the second part of our meadow making at the Deal Station Meadow this Sunday Afternoon .

11 volunteers out to do the sowing of the Hay Meadow.

This involved mixing the seed with sand and doing a spot of line-shaffling up and down the meadow.

Deal Big Dig Day 2 - Nearly there .... :)

Thank you to Ade,Sue,Dave, Ros, Jill, Stuart, Charles and Steve for volunteering on the 2nd day of #DealBigDig 

Only a little bit still to do - hoping to get that done later in week - we will confirm the seed sowing later in the week.

Lots of appreciative comments from passers by and rail users today ...

Deal Big Dig - Deal Station Meadow Making 21st March

We been meadow making again on the Waste land near Deal Rail Station this morning on the first part of 'Deal's Big Dig'.

In 2014 we did an area of about 80sq m as Poppy Meadow to mark the start of WW1.

This year we have extended the area to about 95sqm and are planting a perennial Hay Meadow. This will take a couple of years to establish but will reduce the amount of annual digging that needs to be done. We will plant out some annual meadow seeds for poppies and cornflowers to brighten things up for the first year.

This will be a great resource for wildlife and pollinators as well as looking great.

Big, Big thanks to our 15 volunteers who helped this morning - the digging was hard and felt more like archaeology at times with all the rubble (the site was the old ticket office demolished in ealy 1970s).

We also managed to relocate one of the Ramsgate Platform Planters to further up the platform.

We will be out again on Sunday from 10am to about 12ish - Very welcome to join us.

We will be sowing the meadows probably on Sunday 29th March about 2pm - we need about 10 people to help and should only take about 30 minutes

We will be also looking at the other meadow areas nr BT Exchange and Car park later on.

If you want to get involved email sarah station@dealwithit.org.uk

The Deal Big Dig 21/22nd March

Fancy some Hay Meadow Making in Deal? We have our second 'Deal Big Dig' on the Weekend of 21st & 22nd of March at the waste land around Deal Rail Station.

This will be between 10am and 1pm on both days - please feel free to only come to one day or just part of a day: any time you can volunteer will be gratefully appreciated.

Last year we cleared an area of waste land and planned a poppy meadow. This year we want to extend it a bit and plant a perinnial Hay meadow there - this will be a sustainable option for wildlife and especially pollinators like Bees.

Please bring a fork or spade (we do have some spares) and something to drink/eat.

We also want to tidy up where the Apple Tree is in the Car Park, plant some annual meadow flowers and move our two planters on the Ramsgate Platform of the Deal Station Garden.

Interested please email station@dealwithit.org.uk

Deal With It Poppy Meadow Event

We had our Poppy Meadow event at Deal Station event on Tuesday just between two heavy rain showers. 

Despite the weather we had a reasonable and engaged gathering of about 45-50 people to listen to music of the era provided by local group The Spinning Jennys and a varied collection of WW1 poems recited by local poets and members of the Deal Station Garden group.

The evening worked really well, with a real sense of community; which one participant twitted afterwards to us as being 'beautiful, moving & memorable'.

I was great to see commuters dropping in to listen to a poem or join in with verse of a WW1 song.

Adrian and Alan from garden group also had curated a collection of 20 poems on the platforms of the Station.

This is wide collection of the famous and not so famous, from a wide array of counties, by men, women and personal contemporary ones written locally.

Again it was lovely to see people halting to read a poem on the plaform before they took their thoughts home.

We are very grateful to those who recited poems with such feeling : Alan, Adrian, Geraldine, Jane and Sarah.

A big thank you to The Spinning Jennys (Rose, Sue, Susan and Shelia) who braved the conditions and got us all joining in the songs.

Thanks to Adrian O for MCing, Sue for the nibbles, Ros & Dave from the Garden group for the tidy up as well .

At the centre was our meadow which over 30 people had come together back in March to create.

Transforming a un-loved waste land into a bee friendly, cared for space and physically marking of the centenary of WW1.

All the Photos of the event can be found here

Deal Station Poppyfields event Tues 8th July 6:30pm

As we think the poppies will hit their maximum in our meadow area of the Deal Station Garden. So we are organising a quick event on Tuesday 8th July from 6:30pm with poems, music and reflection to mark the centenary of WW1. 

Back in March we decided to do something with the waste land next to the Ramsgate Plaform, in the Station Car Park and by the Telephone exchange (see that here). 

We put the call out and the regular Deal Station Gardeners were swelled by nearly 30 volunteers. The idea was to turn these unloved bits of land into pop-up poppy field meadows to make it more bee friendly, brighten up an eye-sore and remember WW1.

Adrian and Alan have put up about twenty WW1 poems on the platforms - some famous, mix of British, French and German poets will some local poets contributing as well

We will be on the Ramsgate side of the Station.... and just heard the Spinning Jennys will be coming to sing some WW1 tunes on tuesday

All Welcome.

Deal's Big Dig - Weekend One

We had a fantastic response to our Big Dig meadow making at the Deal Station today. 

The idea is transform the waste ground on the Ramsgate Side  (it use to be a lovely Victorian Ticket Office which they demolished in 1970) into Poppy and Golden Coreopsis meadow this year.

 Its part of our idea to transform 'unloved' pockets of land in the town into attractive, bee-wildlife friendly mini-meadows and way of remembering the 10million dead of WWI with mini-meadows.

We had about 25 volunteers out today in a 'all-seasons' weather morning. Who worked really hard to

clear about 115sq m.

Massive thank you to all those diggers, rubblish clearers and the blessed cakemakers who worked so hard today.

Next weekend 29th March we doing a second dig, adding some topsoil and sowing our Poppy & Golden Coreopsis mix. Please if you got some time pop down - we start about 10am to 12.

We need you on the Deal Big Dig - Saturday 22nd/29th March

We are trying to transform the waste ground on the Ramsgate side of Deal Rail Station into a mini-meadow.

We need to clear the ground of annual weeds and need some volunteers for both sessions (on the 22nd and 29th March).

We will have some tools but please bring your-own (folks, spades, racks) if you have them and gloves.

We have already done a small triangle in the Car park and are working on the waste ground in front of Deal telephone exchange.

The idea is to transform these eyesores into a bee & wildlife friendly areas, make them attractive but also as we are using a poppy mix to remember the 10m dead of WW1.

We will need lots of willing hands to do this - so please do see if you can spare some time.

Both sessions will start at 10am and finish by Noon.

Please contact Steve if you can help info@dealwithit.org.uk

Another busy community gardening day in Deal ,,,

Another great weekend in Deal and for our Community Gardening projects:

The Landmark Community Garden is looking better with each week. We are starting to sow seed and planning the planting. Lots of great feedback on Imogen's woven raised beds at the front. All the green manure (we use mustard) is now all dug in. If you want get involved email imogen at landmark@dealwithit.org.uk or ring Steve 01304 372673

We just heard that the Subsidence issue on the waste land at Deal Rail Station is now resolved so are looking at dates for a 'Big Dig' to transform that land into one of our mini-meadows.

All looks good for the new planters on the platform coming on Friday 21st March. We are soiling up on the 5th April and planting on the 12th April. We will need lots of help on all those days. Please contact Sarah & Alan at Station@dealwithit.org.uk or 01304 389553

 Also work has started on waste land in front of the telephone exchange by our guerrilla gardeners.

Again we want to transform this eyesore into a bee friendly wild-flower area.