It's been a busy Autumn so far at the Cathedral for the Green Minds team, and after the recent lockdown we will back to continue our work in the garden this week. Over the past few months we have continued to clear pebbles and stones, working to improve the soil in the plant borders with lots of organic compost as well as some amazing locally produced horse manure!. Nurturing and preparing the soil has been a lovely job to do together as a group and has been the starting point for many meaningful conversations on the nature of life & death. We are very much looking forward to having local artist & smallholder Ella Gibbs with us this later this month to help us build some new compost bays within the grounds which will really help us to feel more established as a gardening group at the Cathedral. It's all about the compost!.

We have also managed to do some planting! which has felt like a real milestone, especially after all of the pebble sifting and weeding earlier on this summer. Our focus so far has been on perennial, pollinator friendly plants mingled in with a variety of herbs and edibles which together will provide the garden and those that stop to spend time in it with lots of scent, colour and texture to enjoy. Big thanks to Rich & Matt for your amazing work creating the mini sunken herb path that will enable access into the middle of the garden.....

As we head deeper into autumn our energies will be going into creating our social & therapeutic gardening hub infrastructure, which will include as mentioned before two beautiful Larch compost bays, a leaf cage for creating our own seed compost, a greenhouse (yay!) and propagating area. So there's still much to do and we will continue to work through and embrace the seasons ahead!. 

For more information on our project work at Brecon Cathedral please get in touch via the contact page.....

The easing of lockdown this month has meant that we have been able to resume our project work at Brecon Cathedral, albeit with some changes in place to ensure social distancing can be maintained and our group numbers are kept to a minimum. We have however been able to welcome new members to the project this month which has been fantastic and we are currently offering up to 1 1/2 hour gardening slots for our member gardeners to join us, which so far seems to be working well. We have also resumed our Mindfulness walking sessions by offering 1 hour 1-1 walks in Priory Groves for those that would like to walk & talk or learn new techniques to help with managing stress or anxiety, particularly during this transition time as we re-emerge from lockdown.

Our plans for the garden are gently evolving and we want to say a big thank you to our members for all of your input so far, it is great having you!. There's been some hard graft as we've tackled bindweed and brambles, unearthing interesting archeological artifacts (we seem to think!) as we go. There is a way to go yet, but as we work to reshape the area of garden behind the Diocesan offices it feels great to be out exercising and working up a bit of a sweat again!. Currently we are working to create a few seating areas within the space to provide opportunities for locals and passers by to stop and pause within the peaceful and tucked away setting of the garden. 

We are currently fundraising for new shrubs, plants and bulbs with particular benefit for our local bee, butterfly and insect population, and our focus is on encouraging more biodiversity into the garden as we begin to plan and implement the planting phase. We are working on a plant 'wish'  list and there will be opportunities for anyone who would like to donate plants to the project. Please get in touch through the website to find out more. 

We also want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Brecon Cathedral for supporting our ecotherapy project and for welcoming our small green fingered team back into the grounds, it's great to be collaborating together  :-)

Take a look at our progress so far in the slideshow below, and do watch this space as we develop this garden area :-)