As owners of the Cove Garden (a small green park in the village), members of Chester Garden Club are responsible for keeping its lawn and gardens shipshape. To that end, a small but stalwart group convened recently to rake, weed and edge the beds, prune the roses, and generally tidy up the area.
The first stop was to check the daffodils in beds that will soon be filled with annuals.This crew tackled the pruning of Rosa rugosas that grow along the seawall.Betty gets right in the midst of prickly roses to rake up winter debris.Sheila found some disintegrating old newspapers, which the club members had laid down under bark mulch last year.Meanwhile, Kay and Heather were filling compostable bags with leaves and cuttings.Her back to the view of the front harbour, Jayne was focused on pruning deadwood until a photographer called to her.While Jocelyn is busy edging the bed, Herb sprinkles a little lime around the roses.Pleased with their progress after two hours, Marion, Dave, Sandy and Brenda took a bow.
Once the work at the Cove Garden was finished, the group moved on to the Parade Square where they undertook the same sort of Spring cleaning. The results of an hour or so of weeding are seen in the photos below.
Clumps of Spring bulbs are tucked in among hardy roses, dogwood and assorted perennials.Released from winter storage, the club’s well-loved armillary sphere was restored to its rightful place.
Having achieved their goal, the volunteer clean-up crew then wound up the morning’s efforts with a scrumptious pot-luck lunch at Heather’s house.