Herbs and Dragonflies Diary

Cross Flatts Park

2011-06-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

We planted all the show garden plants out in their permanent home today in some new beds in Cross Flatts Park, in Beeston, Leeds.

Most were planted in a shady spot under some trees. They're either side of one of the park entrances that gets used for special events so they're in a nice prominant place.

It's a really beautiful park that is very well used by local people and we're really pleased to have found such a good home for all the plants!

The silver birch trees went around the peace tree next to the Millennium square part of the park. We've left a couple of ferns and strawberries to be planted in this area on Sunday, when there's also a dog show!

Taking it to bits

2011-06-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

We unplanted the garden and took it back to Leeds today. All the other gardens were being taken to bits with mini diggers and resulted in skips full of stone and concrete, ours was a bit simpler! Ours just required digging up plants and putting everything in a van.

Everything has come back to Leeds and will be reused. The plants will get replanted, the bricks will get relaid, the seats are going on an allotment site, we think, and the turf is being given to some chickens!

Most of the plants are going to Cross Flatts park in Beeston. There's a nice shady spot near one of the entrances for the ferns and perennials, and the silver birch trees are going near the Millennium square bit. There's a few gaps to be filled with some of the perennials there too.

The 2 hazels and some foxgloves, ferns and Geraniums are going to a community garden in Cross Green.

Failure...

2011-06-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

Community gardens and other shared green spaces are often a bit rubbish. Or nice for a community garden, which is different to just being nice.

And we wanted to change that. Because there's no reason a public space can't actually look marvellous. They don't have to be all bedding plants, rose beds and Cotoneaster. But depressingly often, they are.

It's best to avoid any plants that really need mollycoddling (like bedding plants and roses...), but there are a huge number of things that will look amazing in a garden, even if it's there in the middle of a town to be used by everyone. And it might get vandalised, but it might not, and even if it does, probably not much. The general public don't really do all that much vandalising really; I've never kicked a Cotoneaster to bits, have you?

There really are no reasons our shared green spaces can't look brilliant. But usually, they don't.

We created the garden to change that. We wanted to create a show garden that could be a real garden, and could demonstrate that a community space can look great, just as good as a private garden.

And our show garden looks pretty. Look!

But it's hard to say we've succeeded, isn't it?

It's not that we needed to get a medal, we just needed to not not get a medal. We could have, I guess, just done a display garden, like the tropical beach garden next to us, that Ryan loved posing with.

And we didn't have to get any particular medal. And our garden didn't have to be better than the other gardens. It didn't have to look the same as the other gardens. It just had to hold its own.

But, by doing a garden that was in for a medal, and not getting one, it's very hard to argue that it was just as good. How do you demonstrate that a community garden created by volunteers can be just as great as any other type, when the non-community gardens all got medals and this one didn't?

Our garden did look pretty.

And it had lots of evergreens, plants with seedheads and trees with interesting bark, so would continue to look pretty in all seasons. And it attracted lots of wildlife. And it was a garden that really could be created by a team of volunteers at a community garden anywhere in the country. The plants are ones that are easy to propagate, so can be grown by volunteers, like lots of ours were, to keep the cost down, and get more people involved. And it was low in hard landscaping, to again keep the cost down, and make it possible to recreate by volunteers who may not necessarily have any specialist building skills.

But even though it looks lovely, and really would work as a real garden, it's very hard to use the garden to inspire people to volunteer improving their own area, when it has a great big letter stuck to the sign next to it saying it's too rubbish to get a medal.

So it's pretty, but a bit of a failure, really.

We don't yet know why it didn't get a medal. We're due some feedback from the judges at some point. Other people from the RHS told us before the show that we shouldn't worry because they'd let us know if they thought we weren't going to medal, so we had time to sort it out before the judges came round. But they didn't say anything to us, because they thought we'd be fine. So we've not got any ideas at all yet, apart from our own. If you have any ideas, feel free to share; I think you can comment on this post anonymously if necessary...

well, that was a bit rubbish...

2011-06-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

Finishing the show garden

2011-06-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

it looked quite nice, didn't it? (backdated post...)

At the start of the day it was looking pretty good, with just some finishing off to do.

Laying turf

the front bed looked pretty

watering

deadheading

finally positioning the seats

More pondering

More posing!

Rain!

2011-06-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

It rained today. But we planted plants anyway!

We planted more ferns, as well as Geraniums, campions, alpine strawberries and ragged robin.

The next garden is a tropical beach!

This is us after we'd finished!

We're going back on Monday, when we'll finally position our mosaic seats. We've also got a some more plants to plant - just a few at the back and some gaps to fill.

You can see more pics in our Flickr set, including more of me in my stylish plastic poncho.

First day of planting

2011-06-11T22:58:00.000-07:00

We went down to the NEC again today to start planting the rest of the plants in our BBC Gardeners' World Live garden. It's looking good! But needs more plants. We'll bring some more tomorrow!

We have plants in a van

2011-06-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

We're going to Gardeners' World Live tomorrow!

Show garden!

2011-06-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

Volunteers went down to Birmingham today for the first proper day of working on our show garden for BBC Gardeners' World Live.

Topsoil was added, the turf was laid, the reclaimed block paving edge was laid and the silver birch, hazel and privet were planted. It now looks like this!

Andy and Ryan had a trip to a fake beach to celebrate!

We're next going down on Saturday to plant lots of ferns and flowering plants. See our Flickr set more more pics, I'll add more to the blog later too.

More (solved!) catastrophes!

2011-06-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

We were due to start our show garden tomorrow. But this morning we found out that our plot had been laid out the wrong way. It's meant to be 5.4 metres wide and 6.1 deep, but was 6.1 wide and 5.4 deep. Our plot is one that can only really be viewed from the front, so we didn't want to have to rotate the garden, leaving it not particularly viewable from its best angle. Our garden does look good from the side, but it very much looks like a garden being viewed from the side, so we don't want this to be the only view people get.

Someone had dug out our beds and the holes for us to plant the trees in with a digger for us, but obviously they were in the wrong place. My dad went down to Birmingham to draw out the garden facing the right way (he's a civil engineer so he's very precise with a tin of spray paint!) and it has now been re-dug.

So the volunteers going down tomorrow can plant the trees in the correct place, wooo!

The shrubs we'd been growing, the dogwoods, haven't been looking too good - their leaves are a bit small. We'd been trying to find some to buy to replace them with, and failing. We've decided to swap them for another native shrub species, and we've found a supplier of good quality plants, so we'll now have shrubs too.

The plants we're having in our show garden

2011-06-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

We've grown nearly all the flowering plants ourselves, and some of the ferns too.

Geranium pratense. These are grown from seedlings so there's a bit of variation in them; the one on the right probably came from the variety 'Splish Splash'.

Lychnis flos cuculi (ragged robin) and Silene dioica (red campion), well, a bit of it - it was windy!

Fragraria vesca (alpine/woodland strawberry) and Digitalis purpurea (foxglove).

Geranium sanguineum. These were the only flowering plant we couldn't grow from seedlings, because we couldn't find enough that had seeded themself around our gardens!

We've also got Polemonium caeruleum (Jacob's ladder), but none of those are in flower yet. We've been obsessively removing flower spikes from some of the plants to make sure we get lots of flowers in time for the show.

Carex sylvatica, grown from plants that seeded in my gran's garden, and Dryopteris filix mas 'Linearis', one of the ferns we've dug up from my garden for the show garden, due to the great fern shortage!

Dryopteris affinis, and a cristate form of it - cristata 'The King'

A more divided fern - Polystichum setiferum, and a less divided fern - Asplenium scolopendrium!

Fern catastrophe

2011-05-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, we went to Lincolnshire to order ferns for our show garden. We ordered 50 plants, a mix of Polystichum setiferum and 3 Dryopteris species - filix mas, affinis, and dilatata, a mixture of different forms of all of them. They were nice big plants in 7.5 litre pots costing £10 each.

On Monday we went to check on the plants. They had somehow turned into 40 plants, smaller ones in 5 litre pots, and with not many leaves. And there was now 25 Dryopteris affinis, and 15 Athyriums, which are a deciduous species so not as good for a garden which is to be used all year round.

A week and a day before we start our show garden, this was a bit of a catastrophe! But we went to Cleethorpes, and ate fish and chips and admired wild orchids.

We came up with a plan. I like ferns, and I have a garden full of them, so we could try to dig some of these up. Several years ago I went to a garden centre just before Christmas and they were giving away free plants, and I ended up with loads of free ferns! They were all Dryopteris, and have grown nice and big by now, so will be perfect.

And we also phoned and drove around various garden centres and nurseries around Leeds to try and find some more. We managed to get lots of Polystichums, some large Dryopteris and also some Aspleniums.

Our fern catastrophe is over! Within 24 hours!

Chelsea Flower Show

2011-05-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

We were invited to go to the Chelsea Flower Show during build up to get an idea of what it is like to create a show garden. Sarah went, and has photos!

Mosaics

2011-05-15T22:43:00.000-07:00

Today was our mosaic-making day at Haley's Field Allotments in Bramley. People of all ages could mosaic a photo frame using glass nuggets, pebbles and buttons.

We also made some more birdboxes for the site while we were there. The ones we built a couple of years ago have blue tits nesting in them this year.

The project was funded by O2 Think Big, which funds projects run by people age 25 or under.

We also used the grant to create some larger mosaic pieces - the cube shaped seats we'll be displaying in our show garden before moving to a community space.

We're making the mosaics using the indirect method, which involves sticking mosaic tiles with their good side down to brown paper, then grouting from behind and sticking them to the seats. This method makes it easy to create the mosaic designs somewhere like the allotment site.

See our Flickr set for more photos from the day.

We'll be holding more craft days at the allotments later this year.

Make a mosaic

2011-05-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

We're doing a free mosaic-making day at Haley's Field Allotments in Bramley this Sunday (15th May) from 3-5pm, open to everyone.

We're providing frames, grout and things like pebbles, glass nuggets and buttons which can be used for mosaicing.

It will be outdoors, so if there's torrential rain it will have to be delayed!

We're also hoping to make more birdboxes for putting up on the allotment site too. Many of the ones we put up there 2 years ago have been used by birds for nesting.

We're hoping to organise more craft days at the allotment later in the year, including another fabric painting day, and perhaps more mosaics.

Grass

2011-05-10T21:11:00.000-07:00

Rolawn has offered to supply us with turf for our BBC Gardeners' World Live garden for free.

Our design features a grass seating area with cubic mosaiced seats, surrounded by magenta and purple flowered native plants.

Chelsea Flower Show

2011-05-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

Some of us are going to Chelsea Flower Show next week, to get experience of what a flower show is like during the build up.

Allotment

2011-05-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

We underplanted our fruit trees on our allotment with various low-growing evergreen perennials such as Heucheras and ferns to keep the weeds down. It's looking great; the apples are flowering and the currants are just getting tiny green fruits. I forgot my camera though...

Wooden cubes and weeding

2011-04-24T19:45:00.000-07:00

Jack and his dad Steve have started making the cubic seats for our Gardeners' World Live show garden. We're going to mosaic these and make cushions for the top.

We also did loads of weeding at the allotment today. Originally when we got the allotment, we were only having about a quarter of the plot, but the person we were sharing with has had to give it up so currently we've got a whole plot to look after, and much more weeding! About half the site is now weeded and ready for more plants. We've got fruit growing on about a third of the plot, and are planning to plant lots of easy to grow veg such as courgettes and pumpkins in the rest this year. We've also been promised some rhubarb!

The apples, plums, currants and gooseberries we planted are looking brilliant; the fruit trees are getting lots of blossom. We were going to put mulch down underneath the plants, but we now have a new plan. We're going to underplant them with alpine strawberries, and also some ferns and Heucheras, instead. As well as keeping the weeds down, we'll also get more fruit this way from the strawberries, the Heucheras will attract bees, the ferns will provide hiding places for frogs, and it will also look fabulous too. Planting them is our next job.

Mosaics

2011-04-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

We're creating 3 cube-shaped mosaic seats for our show garden. We're using square grey quartzite tiles, rectangular black, white and grey glass tiles, and maybe also some glass nuggets. We're planning on creating the mosaics by sticking the tiles face down on brown paper with water-based glue, grouting them from behind, then sticking them to wooden cubes, and removing the brown paper with water once the grout has set. This method is easier to do and prevents the fronts of the tiles from getting covered in grout. None of us had ever done a mosaic this way before, so we had a practice and it turned out like this!

We mosaiced a mirror so it used less tiles! and also so we can at least use it for something (if we clean the glue off properly!).

Now we have to make twelve 37 x 37cm squares (minus mirrors in the middle!) for the sides of the seats.

Growing plants

2011-04-12T19:10:00.000-07:00

We're trying to grow as many plants as possible for our show garden at Gardeners' World Live in June. In autumn I dug up over a hundred red campion and Geranium seedlings from my garden to grow on, a couple of weeks ago Carly and Ryan potted up several trays full of alpine strawberries, and today I dug up some Carex from my gran's!

We're designing the garden as a community garden and alpine strawberries are perfect for a site like this. They're very easy to grow, look great, have flowers which attract bees and edible fruit.

More fruit

2011-04-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

Today we added some fruit bushes on the allotment in Pudsey. We planted 6 currants and 4 gooseberries.

our design is now up on the Gardeners' World Live website

2011-04-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.bbcgardenersworldlive.com/show-highlights/show-gardens/gallery

Our Gardeners' World Live Garden

2011-04-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

This is our new design for the Herbs And Dragonflies Community Garden we're creating at Gardeners' World Live in June.

Plant list -

trees/shrubs -
Betula pendula (birch)
Cornus sanguinea (dogwood)

ferns -
Dryopteris affinis
Dryopteris filix-mas
Polystichum setiferum
Asplenium scolopendrium

grasses -
Carex sylvatica

perennials -
Iris foetidissima
Fragraria vesca (alpine/woodland strawberry)
Digitalis purpurea (foxglove)
Silene dioica (red campion) and hybrids
Geranium sanguineum
Geranium pratense and hybrids
Polemonium caeruleum (Jacob's ladder)

our allotment

2011-02-28T22:23:00.000-08:00

Today we planted up our allotment at the Tofts Allotment site in Pudsey. We planted 8 fruit trees: apples and a plum trained as fans and stepovers. Trained trees like these produce fruit nearer the ground, making it easier to pick for people of all ages. They also look extra decorative. We also planted some summer and autumn fruiting raspberries and we're going to add some gooseberries and currants later. And we positioned the troll-shaped insect shelters too! All the plants were bought with a grant from the Leeds Community Foundation.

And then on the way home we got locked in the cemetery!

Well, kinda. Access to the Tofts Allotment site is through Pudsey Cemetery and on our way home the gate had been locked and our key didn't appear to work. But there's another gate, which we opened, so we escaped. But that doesn't sound as exciting.

Plants!

2011-02-20T22:56:00.000-08:00

We went to a fern nursery today to choose plants for our show garden. We're getting some native evergreen ferns, including Dryopteris filix mas, Dryopteris affinis, Polystichum setiferum and Asplenium scolopendrium.

Fruit

2011-02-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

We've chosen the fruit varieties we're going to grow on our allotment in Pudsey. We're growing 7 different apples, a plum and 2 different varieties of raspberry. We'll also get some currants and gooseberries later too. We've decided not to put geotextile over the soil so we can underplant the trees with alpine strawberries as well.

One of the apple varieties we've picked is 'Katy'; Katy is very excited!

our show garden

2011-02-13T22:04:00.000-08:00

We found out we've definitely got a plot at Gardeners' World Live in June and also received feedback from the RHS this week about our design.

They are very impressed with our choice of plants, the mosaic seats and the concept of the garden. However, they have suggested that as it is a design for a community garden we don't have a pond, or make it smaller. We've decided we'll not have a pond, and make the seating area bigger instead.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-18T22:24:00.000-08:00

This is the Herbs And Dragonflies Christmas message, by Jack and Katy!

Our garden design!

2010-12-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

This is our garden design for BBC Gardeners' World Live next year!

Plant list -

trees/shrubs -
Betula pendula (birch)
Cornus sanguinea (dogwood)

ferns -
Dryopteris species and cristate forms, etc.
Polystichum species and cristate forms, etc.
Asplenium scolopendrium

grasses -
Carex pendula
Carex sylvatica

perennials -
Iris foetidissima
Fragraria vesca and golden-leaved forms (alpine/woodland strawberry)
Digitalis purpurea (foxglove)
Silene dioica (red campion)
Geranium sanguineum
Geranium pratense
Polemonium caeruleum (Jacob's ladder)

The garden contains all native plants. The front bed is very vibrant - lots of purple and magenta and strong green foliage. The beds around the seating area are a little softer - magenta, pink, white, and green and gold foliage. These beds have some trees and shrubs in them too - 3 birch and 6 dogwoods in total.

The seating area is grass, so people can choose to sit on that instead of/as well as the seats. The seating is cubic and covered in mosaic. We are running events in spring to make the mosaics for them. We have some stone tiles and some grey, black and white glass tiles to make them from. There will be decorative cushions on top of the seats.

Between the seating area and the front bed, there is a pond. It runs the full width of the garden. It will be about a foot deep in the middle, with gravel slopes on the left and right. We've not decided what plants we're having in/around the pond yet, but we'll probably have some dramatic bog ferns, such as Osmunda.

The pond has 2 of its edges made of paving to create a striking effect. This is old, re-used paving, laid on its edge to create an interesting effect. The right hand bed is also edged with this too.

We wanted to use all native plants because many people, including gardeners, know little about Britain's plants and people are often wary about growing any (even though some of the most popular garden plants are actually native). A lot of people think wildlife or wildflower gardens have to look a mess! We wanted to show that they can be just as attractive to humans as they are to bees, and they don't have to contain a giant patch of nettles.

The grant to fund the garden is from The Big Challenge, which funds projects by 16 to 25 year olds. We want the garden to particularly appeal to people within that age group. Often green spaces aren't designed to appeal to young people, despite the fact that lots of under 25s love the outdoors and are interested in the environment, etc.

After Gardeners' World Live, we're going to plant the garden out in Leeds in a community space.

We have designed the garden to look good all year round, because it will be used all year round after the show. There are lots of evergreen plants with interesting foliage, such as the ferns, grasses and Iris. The Iris also has interesting seedheads in autumn and winter. The birch and dogwood both have very decorative bark. The flowering plants are all pretty bright and vibrant; we've gone for a strong purple and magenta colour scheme. There's even some edible plants in the garden - we're including lots and lots of alpine strawberries.

The garden will measure 6.5 by 5.4 metres.

Click on the photo to enlarge it. We'll add another pic when we've scanned it on an A3 scanner - you may notice a corner is missing!

Young Achievers Award

2010-12-04T19:22:00.000-08:00

Some Herbs And Dragonflies volunteers are on the shortlist for a Young Achievers Award in the environment category. The winners are announced in January.

Diana Award

2010-11-30T17:29:00.000-08:00

Katy and Hannah have both won a Diana Award for their volunteering with Herbs And Dragonflies.

Show gardens

2010-11-08T22:58:00.000-08:00

I attended a seminar in Malvern today about designing RHS show gardens. Found out loads of useful stuff, and there was also free cake, woo hoo!

Yorkshire Evening Post Community Awards

2010-11-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

Some Herbs And Dragonflies volunteers went to the ceremony this evening because we were on the shortlist. There's a few pics up, I'll add more later - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathy_/

They had a great evening, they met Charlie Chaplin and everything!

vinspired National Awards

2010-11-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

We're the winner of the Unite award from vinspired in the Yorkshire and Humberside region. The award is for teamwork. The national winners will be announced next year.

http://vinspired.com/rewards/yorkshire-humber

Virgin Media Pioneers

2010-11-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

I am now a Virgin Media Pioneer. The Big Challenge recommended I join, it is for entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs under 30. I'll receive a video camera and netbook so I can video blog for their site about our show garden project.

Another Make A Difference Day!

2010-10-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

We did more volunteering for Make A Diffference Day, in Pudsey this time. We made more troll-shaped insect shelters and some bird boxes too to put on our allotment.

We also had the official Herbs And Dragonflies day-before-Halloween fancy dress competition! There were 4 entrants, one of them was a rabbit.

The pumpkin won! You may notice that Katy didn't enter the competition, even though she turned up in facepaint. Maybe that's her everyday make-up????

We also had a t shirt decorating competition with the Make A Difference Day t shirts and another pumpkin carving contest.

I was very fond of my pirate costume! And yes, my parrot was a pigeon.

I'll add more pics later, see them on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathy_/sets/72157625152574497/

Reception at the Houses Of Parliament

2010-10-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

Today me and Andy attended a reception hosted by the Speaker at the Houses Of Parliament. The event was to celebrate the Big Challenge. We are doing a Big Challenge project to build a wildflower garden at BBC Gardeners' World Live next year.

The reception was attended by Big Challenge winners from this year and last year, MPs, Lords and people from youth and volunteering organisations.

Make a Difference Day

2010-10-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

Today we made some troll-shaped insect shelters in Methley for Make A Difference Day. We'll put them on our allotment in Pudsey to attract things like solitary bees.

back, left to right - Sarah, Kathy, Tom, Nell, Kirsty (Jess hiding behind Kirsty!)
front, left to right - Katie, Tracey, Luke.
The dogs are Cassie and Mikey.

The theme for Make A Difference Day this year is volunteering with family. We invited the family pets too!

Marigold the chicken sat on a troll!

Cassie the dog enjoyed wearing the Make a Difference Day t shirt too!

Painting trolls!

We grew some decorative squash and gourds this year and have used them to make decorations. When they have dried out fully they can be used for crafts too.

Katie and Luke with a garland of gourds!

We also did a pumpkin-carving competition afterwards as well.

Today 2 photos of us were projected onto the side of a building in Singapore

2010-10-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

Magic!

Invite to the Houses of Parliament

2010-10-21T18:39:00.000-07:00

Next week me and Andy are going to the Houses of Parliament to an event called The Big Challenge: How can young people help build the Big Society? The reception is hosted by the Speaker, John Bercow and attended by politicians, members of youth organisations and young social entrepreneurs. The event will showcase the Big Challenge and projects such as our wildlife garden.

Mosaic project

2010-10-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

I have now done the training day for my O2 Think Big grant so we can start planning the project. We're using the £300 to do mosaic activities at Haley's Field Allotments in Bramley next spring.

Participants will be able to mosaic a mirror or photo frame to take home with them, like at our Big Lunch last year. But we'll also all be working together on some bigger mosaics for a community space.

We're going to make some unusual cube-shaped seats for displaying in our show garden at BBC Gardeners' World Live next year, and then the community garden it will be moved permanently to.

We'll have 4 seats, and each of the sides (minus the one on the ground and the top which will have a cushion) will be covered in mosaic. Each side will be split into 9 smaller squares, meaning each of the 4 seats will be covered in 36 mini mosaics all made by different people, put together into one design.

The project should be really fun to work on. We're still deciding what colour mosaics to do though, but we're thinking purple!

Our allotment!

2010-10-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

Today we dug up the weeds on our new bit of allotment in Pudsey. This was it when we started!

It was mostly covered in grass, opium poppies, foxgloves, coltsfoot and bolted cabbage, plus a giant comfrey. Katy dug up the giant comfrey; I have photographic proof!

We'll start planting fruit there later in autumn. We now have lots of space!

Grant for our allotment

2010-10-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

We have received £355 from the Leeds Community Foundation through the Yorkshire Evening Post Community Cash Giveaway. Carly went to pick up the cheque from Leeds MP Hilary Benn at the ceremony at the YEP building. She also posed for lots of photographs!

We have just got part of an allotment at the Tofts site in Pudsey, and the grant is to buy fruit trees and bushes for it, and also mulch, etc. We're growing fruit because it is easy to grow, but expensive to buy. It is pretty low maintainance and fun to pick. We'll share the crop with the community. In the past when we've done activities at Haley's Field Allotments in Bramley some of the allotment holders have allowed children to pick some fruit and it is always a popular activity.

We're planning to grow apples, pears, plums (Hannah loves plums!), gooseberries, raspberries and currants.

We need to finish clearing the allotment and then we can start planting. The best time to plant the fruit will be late autumn and early spring.

We should get a small-ish crop of fruit in 2011, and then more and more in future years.

Dog roses

2010-09-26T21:51:00.000-07:00

Today we planted some dog roses in Methley. We got the plants from the Woodland Trust a year and a half ago and had planted them out temporarily at an allotment because we didn't have anywhere to plant them at the time. They grew huge!

We had to cut them back to get them there. There were some gaps in the hedge so that's where we planted the dog roses. It's next to a field of cows so Jack got some cow pats to fertilise them with!

We also did another song today. It was just as good as the previous 2! I won't post it here but if you follow us on Twitter you'll be able to see it.

Allotment

2010-09-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

We have acquired part of an allotment in Pudsey which we are going to use to grow fruit. We're going to choose things like currants, gooseberries, raspberries, apples, pears and plums which are easy to grow and we'll get a large crop from.

We've applied for £355 for the project from the Leeds Community Foundation.

Primulas

2010-09-20T20:57:00.000-07:00

Today Jack and Katy planted some primroses and cowslips in Methley. They are planted near where we planted the daffodil bulbs last autumn.

YEP Community Awards

2010-09-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

We are on the shortlist for a Yorkshire Evening Post community award in the environment category. There is an award ceremony at the Hilton Hotel later this year.

bat walk

2010-08-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

We had a walk around Haley's Field Allotments in Bramley with people from the allotments and their families this evening. We took our bat detector so we could here them; there were quite a lot of bats out.

Got the grant!

2010-08-12T21:49:00.000-07:00

I got enough votes in The Big Challenge to receive a grant for the wildflower garden project. We are very, very excited! Thank you to everyone who voted for us! Also thanks to Junction49 for suggesting we enter in the first place.

There were 30 projects on the shortlist and 15 of us in total will get grants; see The Big Challenge website to find out the others. There were nearly 7,500 votes this year!

I got the idea for the project when I went to Gardeners' World Live in June; while looking at all the gardens I thought "I want to do one of them!" So I had a good ponder and asked other volunteers if they'd want to do it too. We all decided that we'd like to have a go at a wildflower garden so we set about finding funding.

Filling in various application forms was pretty easy; finding out the project was on The Big Challenge shortlist and having to wait a whole week to find out if it would get funding was very, very stressful!

I'm going to be working on this project with the rest of Herbs And Dragonflies and volunteers from other places too. We're hoping to get as many people as possible involved in the project.

We want to create a garden of wildflowers to really show off Britain's native plants. A lot of people think wildflowers are a bit boring and that wildlife gardens have to look a mess, so we want to change people's perceptions. It is actually possible to have a garden of native plants with no great big patch of nettles!

The one advantage of the very stressful internet vote was that now everyone in the whole world knows about our project (no, really, I think they do!) We asked everyone we know to vote for the project, and also spread the word by Twitter. Our project so far has been praised by several garden designers, gardening and environment charities and a world famous botanical gardens!

We've got some ideas for plants we want to use already, and the Geranium pratense, red campions, foxgloves and wild strawberries we've grown from seed may come in handy! I also want it to feature lots of native ferns. I love ferns!

After the show the garden will be planted out in a permanent spot in a community garden. Feel free to suggest potential sites.

Another grant!

2010-08-11T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today I've found out I've got a grant, not for the garden project, but another one! We're going to receive £300 from O2 Think Big for a mosaic-making project.

The project will be at Haley's Field Allotments in Bramley and people of all ages will be able to make a mosaic mirror or photo frame. We'll also make some larger mosaics in groups that we'll be able to display in community spaces.

We've run similar projects before, such as the craft activities at last year's Big Lunch and the bag-decorating day last month, so we wanted to build on this success.

We're not sure when the project will be yet, but some time in early autumn.

I don't know if anyone will manage to make a cooler mosaic than this one by Carole and Jessica though!

Leeds Show display

2010-08-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

This is our table display!

The left hand side was by Rock It, the right was by Herbs And Dragonflies.

Our side had everything in the whole world on it! We had different types of plants - Heucheras, Podocarpus, peppers, cacti, succulents, a black Ophiopogon, an insect-eating Nepenthes, a dwarf willow and air plants. It also had lots of different things we've made, such as decorated shopping bags, dragonflies, bird boxes, a troll and Jack's ace wood carvings.

Rock It's side is a geological timeline with fossil and living plants on it.

Lots of people stopped to have a good look at it. Loads of different groups had done a table display at the show and the Leeds branch of the British Cactus and Succulent Society won the award for the best one; it was very impressive!

This is a close-up of our display.

our thrilling new possible future project! we need votes!

2010-08-04T22:29:00.000-07:00

Working with loads of volunteers, we are hoping to create a garden using native plants. We'll show the garden at Gardeners' World Live, a big flower show, next year, before planting it in a permament home in a community garden in Leeds.

I'm on the shortlist for a grant from the Big Challenge and all votes would be really appreciated! http://www.bigchallenge.org.uk/shortlisted_entry.aspx?id=b9cc5539-d13b-419b-b244-f385fd20983a You only have to click 'vote', no emailing or anything.

If we get the grant we're hoping to propagate as many of the plants as possible ourselves, working with lots of different voluntary groups. We're hoping to have loads of alpine strawberries in the garden! We're also going to run events where people can work together to create art for the garden. We're thinking of doing mosaic-making days, maybe clay too.

Not decided on a final position for the community garden yet so feel free to recommend a site.

Voting closes 3pm on Wednesday.

Leeds Show

2010-08-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

We are going to do a table display at Leeds Show this weekend. We're sharing a table with Rock It, so one half will be a geological timeline with plants on it (fossil ones and living ones), and the other half will be plants and other Herbs And Dragonflies stuff. We're hoping to bring a few birdboxes and troll-shaped insect shelters to display, and Jack has been doing some ace wood carvings that we may have to show off too.

Leeds Show is at Leeds Grammar School on Saturday and Sunday.

Clothes swap

2010-08-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

Some pics of Alyssa's clothes swap - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathy_/sets/72157624495383455

We were also in the Leeds Weekly News and Pudsey Times this week for our bag-decorating day at the allotments in Bramley.

Painting reusable shopping bags

2010-07-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Haley's Field Allotments with a great big pile of cotton bags and fabric paints and it didn't rain on us, woo hoo! The stuff was paid for by an Action Earth grant to encourage people to use reusable bags.

The project was very popular and all sorts off stuff was painted onto bags- butterflies, dragonflies, leaves, a tree, flowers, a portrait of Ryan, a skull and crossbones, a rugby ball, pretty hills, a guitar, "I love Leeds", spots, a purple bag, "I am a green bag", a groundhog and a cat on a wall. But mainly butterflies. They are obviously very popular in Bramley.

Some people with their bags

painting

This is the most detailed design of the day - this bag has everything!

Nell drew a cat on a wall

Andy drew pretty hills

Hannah loves Leeds, Ryan loves food!

Click photos to enlarge or see Flickr for more pics.

Planting teasels in the Disco garden

2010-07-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

We planted about 12 teasel plants today at the wildlife garden at the Discovery Centre. Some of them are about to flower and hopefully they'll continue self-seeding all over the site in future years (unless the rabbits get to them first).

We're going to plant some cornfield annual seed (corn cockle, flower, marigold, chamomile and poppy) in the garden in either autumn or spring. These kind of flowers should do well on the site, as well as the teasels and things like ox-eye daisies.

We rescued a few of the ferns that hadn't been doing well in the dry weather. We've potted them up so that they can be planted either back at the site or somewhere else when they are looking healthier.

The corner of the garden was meant to be a Carboniferous garden, but because the soil didn't turn out to be good enough to create a nice lush ferny swamp look, we're just going to have it as a native fern and conifer patch. Most of the plants there were native - yews and Polypodium ferns. Polypodium vulgare 'Bifidomultifidum' is doing particularly well.

We now have a Twitter account

2010-07-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

http://twitter.com/HerbDragonfly

I think this means we are officially cool.

Follow us if you want to hear more exciting Herbs And Dragonflies news, perhaps involving ferns and lime green reusable shopping bags. Also feel free to recommend any people or organisations for us to follow (Jedward? Richard Madeley?)

Decorating reusable bags

2010-06-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

We've got another CSV Action Earth grant to do a project at Haley's Field Allotments in Bramley in July. We're going to be decorating reusable cotton shopping bags, and maybe making some more troll-shaped insect shelters too. It's on the 11th July (as long as it doesn't rain!)

We did a bit of bag-decorating at the Big Lunch we did in Methley last year and Kirsty painted a really spotty bag! This year we're buying some really bright cotton bags so the finished designs should be extra jazzy.

Farsley Swish clothes swap

2010-06-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

Alyssa is organising a clothes swap in Farsley on 30th July, a great way to help the environment.

The swap is for ladies' clothes - bring clean, undamaged clothing, shoes, bags and accessories to swap for something new to you.

The swap is at St Johns Church, New Street, Farsley, from 6 - 9pm on 30th July. Tickets cost £4, with the money going to Arthritis Research UK. There are also craft stalls.

www.farsleyswish.moonfruit.com

Bat walks

2010-06-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

We're going to do more bat walks soon with our bat detector, but not just yet because it gets dark very late at this time of year. The bats like it when it's getting properly dark, not just after sunset when it's mildly grey, so it can be 10:20pm until they come out at this time of year.

Lots of people have seen bats on the allotments at Haley's Field in Bramley so we'll have a go there, and probably go to Methley again.

Pumpkins

2010-06-04T21:35:00.001-07:00

CSV Make A Difference Day launched a giant pumpkin growing competition last week and have sent us some free seeds. We've planted them and we'll see how they do. I don't think we'll break the world record. But we did do a pumpkin-carving competition last year on Make A Difference Day so we should be able to do that again with home-grown pumpkins.

Email difference@csv.org.uk if you'd like to take part in the day and get some pumpkin seeds.

Garden

2010-06-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

I had assumed that the Discovery Centre garden in Hunslet would have had loads of rain on Wednesday when we did in Pudsey and Wortley, etc. It didn't. So our plan to delay the planting for weeks until after some rain was a bit rubbish.

But we got some bits of grass dug up anyway and planted some groups of mainly shade-loving plants around the large Viburnums. We'll have to see what the rabbits don't like eating. We planted red and white campion, wood geum, Primula vulgaris, Geranium sanguineum, various forms of Asplenium scolopendrium and the odd Polystichum. Ryan attempted to plant some of the primroses in a smile shape - he was very proud of that!

I'm next at Disco on Tuesday (to unpack rocks, wooo!), so there may be an update then if I'm not crying.

Most of the trees and hedging plants survived after the initial rabbit attack though.

The Carboniferous area is going less well...

I think we planted 36 Dryopteris erythrosora. It's a grand plant: evergreen, bright red new fronds, does a good impression of a Carboniferous seedferns, etc. But rabbits pulled up all the plants, and most didn't get replanted. I'm not sure if any are still alive. The Polypodiums have been nibbled but most are attempting to grow. The Cyrtomiums are actually doing quite well, but we only planted about 6 of these. The yews are looking pretty stressed due to the lack of water. And there are absolutely loads of weeds, mainly thistles, and I didn't bring any gardening gloves today. But apart from all that it's marvellous.

It probably needs to be given up on and turned into wildlife garden instead. It was always going to be a tricky site to do a Carboniferous garden on, but we thought we'd come up with good solutions. To deal with the lack of shade we planted yews so we could grow some ferns such as the Dryopteris under them, and planted loads of Polypodiums, which can grown in sun, in the rest of the area. Because the soil was so poor we chose plants which can grow in dry soil. Again, Polypodiums are great in sites like this. And we thought ferns would be rabbit-proof enough to survive. Rabbits are more annoying than we thought. We also thought there would be a pond and bog area, which would allow some large lush ferns to be grown, but there isn't.

I think if we persevere with it we'll never get it looking as good as we want it; the plants will never do well enough to get to their full size and knit together and look all green and lush. We'll also have absolutely loads of weeding to do for years and years if the plants don't get big enough to grow into each other and keep the weeds down.

And the aim of the garden is to show what the Carboniferous period was like. The Carboniferous was green and lush and full of giant plants. Not dry and puny and mainly Polypodium-y.

I think we'll be better off just having a native fern and conifer bed instead.

Anyway, we'll ponder it. I am ace at pondering. If the area is to remain a Carboniferous area though I think it will need a rabbit-proof fence, tons of compost or manure, and loads of new plants. I'm not sure it will happen.

It would look grand, however, sown with totally unCarboniferous cornflowers, corncockles, marigolds, chamomile and poppies...

Native plants

2010-06-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we're planting some wildflowers and ferns at the Discovery Centre garden. We're planting some shade-loving plants first under some of the trees.

The ferns we're got are various Dryopteris, Polystichum and Asplenium. All of these are evergreen and we've got some unusual forms of some of the species.

For Asplenium scolopendrum we've got the normal form, a narrow-leaved form ('Angustatum'), a crested form ('Cristatum') and a cutleaved one, 'Kaye's Lacerated', shown below.

For flowers we've got Silene dioica (red campion), Primula vulgaris, Geranium sanguineum and Geum urbanum (wood avens).

The primroses have finished flowering now but will probably get the odd flower in autumn.

The plants will all look really good together too (something that is unfortunately often ignored in wildlife gardens!). Next week we'll go back to plant the sun-loving plants, such as teasels, Geums and alpine strawberries. We're also growing loads of plants from seed or cutting that we'll plant out in autumn.

Our biggest problem will be finding plants that don't get eaten by the rabbits; ferns should be okay (mostly!) but we'll have to see how the flowering plants do. If they all get eaten I'd be quite happy just to plant loads more ferns but I'm not sure the other volunteers would!

Rabbits have already had a go at eating some of the trees and ferns (gardening books say rabbits don't eat ferns but they lie!). My pet rabbit will try and eat any species, but it seems the wild rabbits only love Dryopteris erythrosora. Unfortunately this is the species we'd planted absolutely loads of and one of the few ferns that isn't just green. We'll have to think about replacing the eaten plants with something tough and green. We do have quite a lot of bog plants and there's no sign of a pond at the site yet so these may end up in the damp corner.

Another huge problem we've had doing the garden is the weather. A really dry spring isn't good for plants, or volunteers who need to do some digging.

CHANGE It awards

2010-04-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

The CHANGE It award ceremony was held today at the Ministry Of Sound nightclub in London. The awards recognise young volunteers and campaigners age 11 to 18 from all over the UK.

3 Herbs And Dragonflies volunteers were on the shortlist for the photography prize and Ryan has won the internet vote for his photo of a snail. He wins £250.

The rest of the winners will be on the CHANGE It website tomorrow. http://www.changeit.org.uk/

Carboniferous garden

2010-04-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

We went to the Discovery Centre today to plant more ferns in the Carboniferous garden.

We planted about 18 more Polypodium ferns. That's them nearly all done now, but we've still got the moisture-loving ferns to plant when the pond and bog area has been dug. We've also got to leave a bit of a gap for people to stand on while digging the pond/bog so we've kept some Polystichums for this patch.

The 2 big Viburnum opulus we bought for the wildlife garden are now in, but we've still got lots of native plants to plant in this area.

Daffodils

2010-04-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

For Make A Difference Day last October we planted hundreds of daffodil bulbs we'd received from Groundwork Leeds and they have just started flowering. They're a bit late this year because of the weather, they'd usually flower mid-March.

Unfortunately there had been a gas leak on the lane so some got dug up, but there are still lots flowering.

The daffodils are Narcissus pseudonarcissus 'Lobularis', a native variety.

Carboniferous garden

2010-04-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today we got the first of the ferns planted in the Carboniferous garden we are doing at the Leeds Museum Discovery Centre. The garden is to show what Leeds would have looked like 300 million years ago.

The Carboniferous period had giant horsetails, clubmosses and tree ferns and small conifers. Flowering plants hadn't evolved yet. It also had another group of plants, called seed ferns, which are now extinct, but we can use ferns to represent these too.

We planted a yew hedge and 3 larger yews, as well as loads of ferns. We've chosen fern species that look like the Carboniferous ones, because none of the Carboniferous species, genera or even families still exist. We planted Polystichum acrostichoides and Cyrtomiums which we think look like Carboniferous Neuropteris species, and Dryopteris erythrosora that we think looks like the Carboniferous Pecopteris.

We also planted the Polypodium ferns that we propagated by division last year. These look like the Carboniferous seed fern Alethopteris.

We'll be planting horsetails around the pond when it has been dug, and also some more conifers. The Carboniferous conifers (unlike most of the other plant families) were small and has short roundish needles, so we think Podocarpus will look like them. We're also hoping to plant some clubmosses but they are quite difficult to find and pretty fussy about conditions so we may have to add these later.

Hannah, Kathy and Kirsty with Joe from Leeds Museum (aka the famous Dr Rock!)

We only got one plant planted in the wildlife garden part today - this dwarf Scots pine. There's not room for a giant one, but this variety - Pinus sylvestris 'Moseri', will only be about a metre tall after 10 years so should be okay!

Action Earth Project

2010-04-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

We've received a grant for an Action Earth project again this year. We're going to plant native plants in the wildlife garden at the Discovery Centre with it. We've already been propagating things like alpine strawberries and cowslips.

My other group, Rock It, has also received a grant for the Carboniferous garden we're working on. That grant will be used to buy conifers that look like Carboniferous species from 300 million years ago. We're planting things such as yew and Podocarpus. We're also going to do another fern propagation project too. We've just planted out the ferns we grew for last year's Action Earth project so hopefully this year's will go just as well. We're planning to grow some different types of Polypodiums. All 3 projects will be done in April.

Action Earth is run by CSV and 900 £50 grants, funded by Morrisons, are available for groups doing environmental projects between March and July. This year they are particularly looking for projects that encourage biodiversity because 2010 is the international year of biodiversity. Our project and Rock It's involve growing native plants so fit the theme perfectly.

Herbs And Dragonflies received 3 Action Earth grants last year and one of our projects - making birdboxes and ladybird houses - won an award and £250.

Discovery Centre garden

2010-03-31T10:32:00.000-07:00

We planted our trees and shrubs at the Leeds Museum Discovery Centre garden today, 131 of them!

We're helping to create a wildlife garden full of native plants there, and also a Carboniferous garden, which will show what Leeds would have looked like 300 million years ago.

We've still got the evergreen trees, flowering plants and ferns to plant, which we'll start on next weekend.

This is our hedge! We bought quite tall bare-root trees so when they get their leaves they'll look pretty impressive.

With that fence, the hedge will come in handy!

There is hawthorn, hazel, holly, dogwood, dogrose, sloe, guelder rose and spindle in the hedge. We also planted crab apple, service tree, pussy willow and rowan in the garden.

This is what it looked like at the start of the day, the museum staff have started work on the path recently and dug some holes. It's quite a big garden so loads of room for plants.

CHANGEit awards

2010-03-25T18:02:00.000-07:00

3 Herbs And Dragonflies volunteers - Hannah, Ryan and Jack - are finalists for the CHANGEit photography award and the internet vote to decide the winners opened today - http://www.changeit.org.uk/index.php/photography/2010-photography-finalists/

Hannah entered a picture she took at Leeds Museum of me and Alyssa with herbs -

Ryan entered a photo of a snail -

Jack entered a photo of a bird box from our bird box and ladybird house building day at the allotments in Bramley -

The awards are for young volunteers or campaigners in the UK age between 11 and 18. There are 7 photographs on the shortlist and 3 prizes of £250 will be handed out - 2 picked by judges and 1 picked by the internet voters.

awards

2010-03-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

We went to the vinvolved Leeds awards today - we were on the shortlist for the Team award. We didn't win the prize (can't remember who did, will add the name when it is on the internet).

Everyone was really impressed with the vinvolved furry things, purple chocolate money and sweets! I'd love some Herbs And Dragonflies ones (in turquoise) but our money is possibly better spent on trees!

Ryan, Jack and Hannah have also found out that the exhibition in London of the finalists' photos for the Change It awards will be at the Southbank Centre.

More trees

2010-03-09T15:18:00.000-08:00

Now all the trees and hedge plants for the wildlife garden at the Discovery Centre have arrived. Today we got -

50 hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
10 sloe (Prunus spinosa)
10 spindle (Euonymus europeanus)
10 guelder rose (Viburnum opulus)
2 crab apple (Malus sylvestris)
2 pussy willow (Salix caprea)
2 wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis)

We also received the 15 free rowans from BBC Breathing Places yesterday.

Free hedge plants

2010-03-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

We have received 30 free native hedging plants from the Woodland Trust again this year. We'll plant them in the wildlife garden at the Discovery Centre. We have 6 each of dog rose, dogwood, hawthorn, hazel and holly.

Change It photography award

2010-02-25T22:54:00.000-08:00

3 Herbs And Dragonflies volunteers are finalists for the Change It photography award. The Change It awards are for young campaigners and volunteers age 11 to 18 in the UK.

I think there are 8 or 10 finalists in the photography category- judges will choose 2 to win £250 and there will also be an internet vote to decide another winner who will get £250 as well.

The finalists will be invited to view their photographs at an exhibition in London in March, and then attend a ceremony in April at the Ministry Of Sound where the winners will be announced.

Hannah entered a photograph she took when we went to Leeds Museum for the launch of the Tracks In Time website, Ryan entered a photograph of a snail and Jack entered a photograph from the birdbox making day at the allotments in Bramley.

vinvolved Leeds Awards

2010-02-23T17:19:00.000-08:00

Members of Herbs And Dragonflies have made the shortlist of the vinvolved Leeds Awards, for volunteers age 16-25. The ceremony is held on the 10th March in Leeds. We are nominated in the Team category.

Rowan trees and bird boxes

2010-02-22T18:24:00.001-08:00

We are receiving 15 free rowan trees and 10 bird box kits from BBC Breathing Places. We'll probably plant the rowans in the garden we're doing at the Discovery Centre.

Young Achievers Awards

2010-02-12T17:51:00.000-08:00

Ryan and I have received our certificates for being in the top 4 of our categories in the Young Achievers Awards. We couldn't make it to the ceremony, held at Amnesty International in London last week.

We were both in the Environment categories, Ryan in the age 16 to 19 and me in the 20 to 25.

Community and City Pride Awards

2010-02-04T19:44:00.000-08:00

This evening Ryan, Carly, Hannah and I attended the Community and City Pride Awards held at Leeds Civic Hall, which are for people and groups who make the city cleaner and greener. Ryan was up for the Under 18s Individual and I was up for the Over 18s Individual award. We both won a runner up prize.

Ryan receiving his certificate. Everyone had to do a speech this year. We both did very short speeches!

Our certificates.

Carly, Ryan, Hannah, Kathy.

vinspired National Awards

2010-01-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

We have received £250 towards future volunteering for being in the top 3 for the Unite v award.

Young Achievers awards

2010-01-18T21:16:00.000-08:00

The winner and runner up in each category now have a profile up on the Young Achievers blog - http://youngachieverstrust.wordpress.com/
Ryan and I were both in the top 4 in our categories and will receive a certificate and £100.

Copenhagen

2009-12-12T18:52:00.000-08:00

Some Herbs And Dragonflies photos have been shown at the Copenhagen climate change conference. Climate Squad, an environmental organisation for people age 16-25, are doing a project called Cop Art. They are collecting photos and art showing people's concerns about climate change or action against it and have shown 200 in Copenhagen - these included some pictures of the group and some Herbs And Dragonflies volunteers did artwork for it too.

Certificates

2009-12-07T19:23:00.000-08:00

We've now been sent both our certificates from the vinspired awards.

We were regional winner and in the top 3 in the country for the Unite award for teams.

We were also the regional winner of the Eco award.

vinspired National Award

2009-11-26T21:21:00.000-08:00

Today Herbs And Dragonflies volunteers attended the vinspired National Award ceremony at the O2 after winning the regional award and being in the top 3 in the country for the Unite category. The award is for teamwork and the top prize was won by Aik Saath, an anti-racism group from Slough.

The vinspired awards are for individual and groups of volunteers age 16 to 25 or youth workers in England. There are 10 categories and we were the Yorkshire & Humberside winner in 2 of them: the Unite award and the Eco award.

The ceremony was attended by hundreds of young volunteers as well as some celebrities, such as Tinchy Stryder, Bashy, Lady Sovereign, Gabriella Cilmi, Dragons' Den star James Caan and Hollyoaks and Inbetweeners actors.

See the vinspired National Awards website for all the winners: http://nationalawards.vinspired.com/

Community and City Pride Awards

2009-11-23T21:25:00.000-08:00

Ryan and I have been invited to the Community And City Pride Awards, held at Leeds Civic Hall in February. I am nominated in the Over 18 Individual category and Ryan is in the Under 18 Individual category.

The awards are for people or groups who make Leeds greener and cleaner.

Action Earth award winners now up on their website

2009-11-20T21:31:00.000-08:00

All the winners of the Action Earth awards are now up on their site. We won the City Slicker category for best urban project in the UK for our bird box and insect shelter making day and received £250:

http://www.actionearth.org.uk/awards.php#urban

Tracks In Time website launch at Leeds Museum

2009-11-12T21:58:00.000-08:00

Today we attended the launch of the website for Tracks In Time - a project by West Yorkshire Archives to put Leeds's Victorian tithe maps online. The Archives organised tithe map walks all over Leeds this year; we took part in the Pudsey one last month and did tree-planting on it.

The different groups invited to take part in the project were at the museum tonight demonstrating what they do. The Archives paid for us to bring some herbs so we could show the activities we do at events. Lots of people planted an oregano.

The video we filmed on the tree-planting walk was also shown on a big screen.

Hannah, Andy, Kathy and Alyssa.

There was a quiz based on all the tithe map walks and Andy won it. He was very excited!

vinspired awards site

2009-11-11T16:09:00.000-08:00

The new vinspired awards site is up: http://nationalawards.vinspired.com/

Action Earth have announced the winners are their blog but not their site yet; we won the City Slickers category: http://actionearth.wordpress.com/

Trolls, birdboxes and bulbs.

2009-10-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today Herbs And Dragonflies and some family members made troll-shaped insect shelters, built birdboxes and planted daffodils in Methley.

First we made trolls from logs painted with acrylics. Insects such as solitary bees will live in the wood. These can now be put into gardens.

We made birdboxes next - Jess hoped hers would attract a seagull!

Then we planted the daffodil bulbs we got from Groundwork Leeds all along the road. They are a native species - Narcissus pseudonarcissus lobularis - so they should look really good under the trees.

Kirsty, Sarah, Kathy, Jack, Jess.

We did these activities for Make A Difference Day. For more pictures see our Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/herbsanddragonflies/

At the end we took some photos of our trolls with some pumpkins to try and make them look extra scary!

Birdbox making and bulb planting

2009-10-21T04:13:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we'll be building birdboxes and planting bulbs in Methley. We've had crocus and daffodils donated by Groundwork Leeds.

Young Achievers awards

2009-10-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

2 Herbs And Dragonflies volunteers are in the top 4 for Young Achievers awards. The awards are for volunteers age 16 to 25 and there are 4 categories - arts, community, environment, sport - and 2 age groups. Ryan is in the top 4 for the 16-19 environment award and I'm in the top 4 for the 20-25 environment one.

All the nominees are listed here: http://youngachieverstrust.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/the-first-run-of-stars/ The 8 winners will be announced in November and each will get £1,000 towards their projects and money-can't-buy experiences. The runner up in each category gets £250 and everyone else gets £50.

Action Earth award

2009-10-15T21:31:00.000-07:00

Today we found out we've won an award for the Action Earth project we did in May. I think it is the award for best city project we've won. We'll also get £250 towards future projects.

We made 20 bird boxes and 3 insect shelters to put up at Haley's Field allotments in Bramley.

World fame

2009-10-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

Recently we were contacted by an Australian charity about using our ladybird house idea on their website. It is linked to in their ladybird article here - http://www.backyardbuddies.net.au/buddies/Ladybirds.html

It's interesting to see what Australian gardeners can attract to their gardens; you can see all the articles about wildlife here - http://www.backyardbuddies.net.au/Meet_Backyard_buddies.html There's tips for helping kookaburras and platypuses. I don't think we'll attract any in Leeds!

v national awards

2009-10-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

Today we found out we've won another regional v award - we also won the Eco award in the Yorkshire and Humberside region. This category was open to individuals or groups who had done something for the environment.

Last week we found out we'd won the regional Unite award and were in the top 3 nationally. All the regional and national winners are now on the vinspired site: http://www.vinspired.com/awards/national-awards There were over 700 entries in total.

v national awards

2009-10-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

Members of Herbs And Dragonflies have won an award from v, the volunteering charity for 16 to 25 year olds. We have won the Unite award for the best team in the Yorkshire and Humberside region. We are also in the top 3 nationally.

There are 10 different categories in total for individual volunteers, groups or youth workers in England.

We have been invited to a ceremony at indigO2 in the O2 in November to find out if we’re the overall winner.

Tree planting walk

2009-10-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

Today was the tree-planting walk in Black Carr Woods. We went for a walk along the beck and on the way back planted the hawthorn, hazel and holly trees.

You can find a map on the Tracks In Time website if you'd like to walk the route too: http://www.tracksintime.wyjs.org.uk/

On the walk.

It was incredibly windy and rained for part of the walk too, so there weren't many birds around, however, we did see some weird fungus at least!

We also took our video camera so we'll be able to make a film of the walk.

Left to right: Hannah, Ryan, Kathy, Jack, Kirsty.

We'd pulled up the invasive Himalayan balsam plants earlier this year, but a bit had regrown so to start with we pulled that up.

Planting a hazel.

Kim the dog also helped us dig holes!

A hazel tree planted.

All the tree planters.

For more photos see our Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/herbsanddragonflies/

Article in the Methley Messenger

2009-10-02T19:13:00.000-07:00

There was a double page article in the Methley Messenger this month about the Big Lunch we did and Jack receiving his Diana Award.

Some members of the group have just found out we've won another award; we'll post more about it next week.

Videos

2009-10-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

We've finally been able to upload the first of our gardening tips videos onto YouTube; we'll post them all on http://herbsanddragonflies.blogspot.com. This one filmed by Carly is of Ryan showing how to plant up an unusual container with Sempervivums.

We've several more to upload, as well as some we've half filmed or we're still planning, so we should have loads of video tips soon.

Tree-planting walk in Black Carr Woods, Pudsey.

2009-09-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

The tree-planting walk we are leading with West Yorkshire Archive Service is this Saturday. We're meeting at 12:30 pm on Smalewell Road by the Fox And Grapes pub.

The walk is being organised as part of Tracks In Time - the Archive Service's project to put all of Leeds's tithe maps online - and examines the history and ecology of the area.

At the end of the walk there is a chance to plant a native tree, such as holly or hawthorn, in the area we cleared of invasive Himalayan balsam earlier in the year.

The route follows the beck so it may be muddy and is steep in places. For more information about the route and accessibility see the Tracks In Time website: www.tracksintime.wyjs.org.uk

We'll be filming a video on the day as part of the community film-making project we're doing too.

Gardening videos

2009-09-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

We've started filming videos of gardening tips for our blog. Carly has been filming and me and Ryan were presenting and so far we've done things like tips for growing cactus from seed or planting up an unusual container with succulents.

None are on the internet yet due to a problem with iMovie but next time we're on the Mac we'll re-upload them all.