Green Oasis Journal No. 4

Green Oasis is a hive of activities starting from beginning of February. As the weather gets warmer, the plants are busy growing into spring blooms and the volunteers are busy laying brick borders, sawing off tree stumps, and getting seed donations from a local gardening centre.

R.I.P. Phil

Very sadly, one of the key volunteers, Phil Fletcher, has passed away this month. Phil had participated in SAPHRA's activities for many years and was a vigorous contributor to our work on the Green Oasis. He was a very committed campaigner on numerous green issues. He will be much missed in this community.

February Hive of Activities

Resident volunteer Ron and Phil laying bricks down and marking out the edging of the rear border.

The two men also dug around the large elder tree stump and reduced it to the size of a small plant. This remnant will be made into a feature of the border.

Completing the Look

The planting area, the pond area and the grass front are now clearly separated out by the brick border.

Spring Growth

The shrub below was planted in January near the westside wall and it's now covered in buds. The shrub is a Chaenomeles named 'Jet Trail' - deciduous shrub with abundant clusters of pure white flowers. It is also known as a flowering quince. It would have lots of white flowers open in small clusters on the bare stems in early spring and are followed by green fruits which ripen to yellow in autumn. 

Primroses (light yellow flower) in bloom. 

Snowdrops (cluster of grass with small white flower droplets between the primroses) and bluebell bulbs (pointy leaves shooting up from the ground in the picture below).

Ayletts Donation

SAPHRA secretary Cathy wrote to Ayletts at the end of last year asking if they would support our project.

They kindly wrote back and presented a £10 gift voucher and a good number of seed packets. Some of these we can use at the Oasis or give out to members.