West Farleigh in Bloom monthly blog

In late 2023 we held our annual village bulb planting day. This year we had bourght many crocus, alliums, tulips and just a few more daffodils to fill the gaps we had planted in prior year.

Sue and Jackie with trowls

Tel, Cathryn & Pauline planting crocus

The area is now cleared, but it needs to be enriched. We bourght a tonne bag of compost:

Good News! Maidstone awarded us the grant to redo the area on Lower Road. We have been hard at work since:

The old elder was chopped up, leaving the brambles to tackle:

Work in progress with help from young Sebi

A great morning's progress!

Now to tackle those roots!

Good progress

Hard work!

Tim and Tina make a fabulous effort to dig over the cleared ground.

In our mini community orchard, next to the cricket nets on Church Road, 2 trees had died since we planted them a couple of years ago. We dedicded to replant them with new specimens from Keepers Nursery and asked the land owner if we could add 1 additional tree which they kindly agreed to. The additional tree is a crab apple to help with pollination.

Tel planting the new crab apple for pollination

Tel, Tim (and Cathryn) replanting the 2 new bare root fruit trees.

We are always looking for new projects around our village. This area is very visible and has been scrub for a long time. We have applied to Maidstone's Love your Neighbour scheme for a grant to enrich it, both visually and to add biodiversity. Fingers Crossed!

Gabby, Tina and Sue ran the sunflower competition this year. 2 categories were available:

Under 8

Over 8!

Prizes were bourght for all!

Tina & Ann Ayres

The tream has been round the villagee inspecting the planters we have and ensuring that they look their best whilst giving them some TLC.

The sun was shining so we had an alfresco team meeting to plan the year ahead's activities.

4 woodland honeysuckle : 2 either side of the entrance to the woodland walk.

Fruit trees : 3 new fruit (replace 2 + 1 additional) from keepers nursery
Tel volunteers to strim round trees (Thank-you)

Opposite Smiths Hall, removal then plant up. Planting design ideas.

25kg Daffs: on the verge on the right past last honeysett house. Tim has a picture of lower road gaps to fill.
Community bulb day with bacon butties and ask for area ideas.

Tim contacted eriksson re the graffiti on 3G mast. Has emailed them with photos. Needs repainting in green. Pyracanthas or Bryiar rose or hawthorn.

Sunflowers: Order the trophies x 2 Under 16 and Big Peeps.
Box of chocolates also for each category.

The West Farleigh Bloom team are very much enjoying all the spring bulbs that we have planted in the previous few years start to flower. Last October we added some more daffodils along Lower Road, both the minuture tete a tete and the taller Tahiti species that we have planted for a few years now. All coming up strongly year on year.

For 2023 we are having another break from the South East in Bloom competition, however this is not stopping us from looking for new projects and also helping to fundraise with the Friends of Farleigh:

Our next big project is the Annual Plant Sale to be held at All Saints Church along with teas and cakes.  It will be held on Saturday 20th May. We are having a 'meeting' at the Tickled Trout on Monday 3rd April, 7.30pm if anyone would like to join us to share some ideas.

West Farleigh will be judged in this year's South East in Bloom competition in the morning of Tuesday 6th July. We have entered both the Village and the Churchyard categories again and hope to build on our Silver Gilt certificates achieved last year.

 

One of the areas on the route that we will show our judge, Nick Hagon, is the layby on Lower Road. The Bloom team have been working with Kent Wildlife Trust to manage the grass cutting of this verge in a more environmentally conscious schedule. Kent Wildlife Trust have designated 'Wilder Verges' around the county which contain threatened habitats or wildlife. Roadside Nature Reserves can link existing wildlife areas, helping to reconnect and restore landscape so that wildlife is no longer struggling to survive in isolation. This supports a living landscape, which benefits both people and wildlife and makes nature more resilient to future change. 

 

In partnership with Kent Highways they will now designate this area to have a 'Conservation Cut'. This means it will be fully cut once in April and once in October, whilst the in between months will only be the edges to ensure good vehicle visibility and to ensure it looks cared for. We can see already wild annual flowers are growing and looking beautiful. Normally Kent Wildlife Trust give a signpost like the photo attached, however due to cost cuts we will have to make our own signage this year.

 

For more information on the Bloom project, please contact Bloom@TheFarleighs.co.uk