My Garden: Carse In Bloom

As you know gardening in one of my passions. I share this passion with a very special friend, Katharine. Katharine and I have been pen pals for over 20 years. We became acquainted after being paired up in a gardening magazine years ago. For years we wrote back and forth but now we communicate via the Internet. We haven’t met in person yet but I have talked to Katharine on the phone and do hope we can meet in person one day.

Katharine is not only a talented gardener but she is also a wonderful writer and has kept me entertained with the stories of her gardening adventures. I’ll never forget the story of their gardening group going by bus to attend a local garden show. The trip home was very crowded with plants sticking out the windows because everyone picked up something special to plant in their garden!

Glencarse, Scotland is Katharine’s home. In the past few years their local group, The Carse In Bloom, has been very busy with various projects to beautify their town.

This group was established in early 2010 and has been working to improve the quality of the environment for local residents and visitors, to the villages of St. Madoes and Glencarse, through horticultural activity, encouraging environmental responsibility and community engagement. The work of the group is carried out by a team of dedicated and enthusiastic local residents, all of whom have volunteered their time and expertise to make the villages cleaner, brighter and better places to live and visit.

Their Community Garden opened up officially in June.

During their annual Pearhshire in Bloom they won Silver Gilt, which was better than the previous year’s Silver. They even have a Facebook page on ‘Carse in Bloom and a website carseinbloom.org.uk. I enjoy looking at the pictures of their activities and the beautiful flowers they have planted.

Katharine wrote to me about the problems they’ve had, “The only problem we really have had is damage by the local ‘Little Darlings’ playing with footballs & bikes across the garden. The insect towers are not a success. Scruffy heaps of pallets in the middle of the garden, which have received some sharp comments from local residents.

We hoped to remove one of them quietly but then realized that by now the insects will have settled in hibernation & will have to be left until spring! Another problem unforeseen was the installation of power to the garden run off the streetlight on the road side. The idea was that the local Kirk would hold a carol service round a lit up Christmas tree in the garden during December & there could be BBQs there next summer but it turns out that the power is only on during hours of darkness so none available during the summer! You can’t make this stuff up can you?”