As summer progressed, visitors to Rosemoor taking a moment to look up from the beds and borders increasingly asked ‘What’s that?’. ‘Ah yes’, we replied, ‘that will be the new Peter Buckley Learning Centre’. Over the past few months, detailed paper plans have been transformed into a striking curved wooden building, looking quite at home in the surrounding woodland.
With much of the ground work and construction having been carried out by local contractors, last week marked a milestone as some of the gardening team donned their hard hats and got on site to turf the newly built West Country bank.
Adding topsoil and preparing a tilth prior to laying the turf
The 100 metres of stone-faced, earth-filled bank will be an important traditional feature, defining the allotments and growing areas and surrounding the new cob shelter. The bank would normally
be planted with hedging trees or shrubs, but we opted for a turf top to maximise the open views and light around the site. Over time, the bank should be a haven for wild flowers and beneficial insects.
Turf laid and watered in
Beth McClure