Gardeners' Whirl!

The season may be better for blue rather than green fingers, but Ron and John get stuck into some topsoil and move it to its new location at the other end of the platform - real donkey work. I bet their fingers (or cheeks) weren't blue!

Meanwhile looking more like a gladiator than a donkey, Robin gets to grips with those rusty steel uprights that have marred the Northiam scene for a good long time - allowing the soil to be dug over and more variety added to this particular part of Northiam Station gardens. (Fudge the dog acts in a purely advisory capacity - on a 'need to sniff basis')

Same helmeted same Robin, different tools and location: Robin clears the heavily overgrown bank behind Wittersham Road platform. Now we can get down to the real work that will really frighten all those rabbits!

Spring at Tenterden Station - at last! It might have been cold but these daffs put up a brave show as Veronica engages in some maintenance work around the platform flowerbeds.

And finally a March return to the Northiam site, allows us to make inroads into tasks already started before more pressing needs at other stations distracted us. The final stage of the hedging work is started at the rear of the picnic area.

The "soil" here is a coalman's inventory of his fuel products with some sections of the old hedge seemingly planted entirely in coal dust. We clear as much rubbish as time permits and plant the new slips in a trench lined with "real" soil.

New plantings at Northiam must be securely protected from Rabbits. Here Stan, Robin and Graham fix Chicken wire mesh into place (above and below ground) before the new beds are planted.... And now roll on real Springtime when all the work flowers into a profitable return.

Anyone interested in becoming involved in the gardens should contact Veronica Hopker on (Evenings) on 01303 862811.