Rosie and Jo were leading gardening there, and the past posts are full of really beautiful pictures. Then they got a bit discouraged because the rabbits were eating everything up, and the last time they gardened there was in January 2018. We went to see what the space is like now.

It’s pretty wild. The Missing Sock crew are looking after it a tiny bit – they say they mowed it from knee height in November.

The trees and bushes are growing beautifully, and will be giving value to whoever comes there in the summer.

Some anti-rabbit techniques applied in the space haven’t worked very well. For example, when we came in, we have chased out out a rabbit from a caged area which was supposed to deny them entry. Fences don’t work very well against burrowing animals, do they. This anti-rabbit technique of protecting saplings by plastic tubes has worked very well though:

Jo and Rosie planted rhubarb in the space, and it’s still there, it was very cool to find it coming out of the ground. I thought it was chard at first.

Raspberry plant:

Apart from that, the place is full of nettles. This is, from a certain perspective, very good: it means garden is full of food from February until April (when they flower, they’re no good any more) in an otherwise barren part of the year. Nettles are of high nutritional value ( Adhikari et al. , 2016 ) and make excellent smoothies when blended very well. Blanching or cooking removes the sting fully, and they can be used like spinach: in pasta, or curry dishes.

Also, it may not be entirely clear – it wasn’t to me before I went- but the garden is open for entry, you have to open a knee high gate and go around. If you go there do say hi to whoever is looking after the Sock – we spoke with Michael, but he and Roxa will be moving on from there in a bit – and if you want to e.g. take a whole bag of nettles for cooking you are very welcome to do it.