That’s us back in business for the 2025 season – choosing, for some reason, a freezing Feb morning with flurries of snow to accompany us. Cleared out the old bedding from some planters in the Market Square then headed to the start of the Flowerbed Trail with no1 bed ‘Rotary Welcome’. Much scraping of leaves and debris, which revealed a beautiful purple Hellebore which really pinged out in front of the bronze leaf Cordyline. Then off to No 2 ‘Castle St’ and No 3 ‘Clouds Corner’ to lift more piles of leaves, which were completely squishing other plants. Always good to leave a covering of old leaves to protect the new growth and give the wee bugs and beasties a hotel for the winter, but there is a limit! A Hedgehog could have overwintered in that mound 😬. Had to give in after just over an hour as we were frozen, so headed off for a much welcome hot drink in our lovely Market Square. Roll on Spring!
One of the nice things about being in the garden is having a poke about and seeing what can be found hidden away. During the last group garden session around our Flowerbed Trail we came across a Large Yellow Underwing moth, Red Admirals, Bees and lots of snails. I know the snails are a bit of a pest chomping their way through the prize Hosta but they are quite intriguing to watch when they are on the prowl. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a lot of butterflies this year no doubt due to the cold start to the summer although I have seen a lot of cabbage whites! I’ve also only come across one Ladybird and it was sunning itself on my laundry basket! I managed to transfer it on to a plant and hope it found some pesky Aphids to munch on. Also worth stopping at the Barn End to see how well the Green Man is weathering and settling in to his guardian roll of new growth and nature. Take a moment to read the story, on the neighbouring plaque, of how our Green Man and Gruffalo came about.
What a fantastic day we had at our 2024 annual plant sale on Sunday!  An unbelievable response with plants donated and a HUGE crowd waiting at the door. Honestly, Harrod’s eat your heart out! – come to Duns if you want to see a sale crowd 🙂. The atmosphere was brilliant, food yummy, raffle over flowing with goodies and everyone seemed to be going out with smiles on their faces and arms full of plants.  We apologise to anyone who couldn’t quite get to the tables, we were somewhat overwhelmed with the numbers but we did our best. More and more tables were added to accommodate the plants and the number of happy people wanting a cuppa, cake or something more substantial. Sausage and Mash or Soup options went down extremely well and the cakes all disappeared. I just managed to grab a slice of Lemon Drizzle before it all went.  All the money raised will be spent on our town and we have lots of ideas for the town beds plus we are adding new circular planters on the railings around the trees in the Market Square. Have to confirm the date for the 2025 sale but it will hopefully be the first Sunday after PlayFest so…..probably 11th May TBC.  A huge thank you to all the volunteers who helped out before and after the event, preparing and tidying up. And an even bigger one for the gang who were on duty on the day – whew, did we all need that glass of something chilled at the end! But mostly, thank you to all the people who visited and supported our work.
Well, that’s us fully in to the swing of 2024 gardening in Duns! After almost three months of rest and relaxation (as if…) Spring has Sprung and it’s back to the hard, but extremely enjoyable, work tidying, pruning, removing and (unfortunately) litter and dog poo picking.  Most of our plants seem to have survived the frost and rain but there are a few inevitable casualties. However, that’s gardening for you – it’s a moveable feast and that’s part of the enjoyment. It’s lovely to see a flowerbed morph from one year to the next. Sometimes it’s a particular shrub or flower that takes centre stage, then, the following year it is a completely different one which has matured in to a delight and outshines everything else.  We do hope many of the residents of Duns and all our visitors take time to walk around, maybe following the ‘Duns Flowerbed Trail’, and chose a favourite plant.  We’d love to hear your comments and maybe even recommendations!
We have a new bed for 2024 – The Beacon Bed. The Beacon was situated on top of Duns Law and was installed for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.  Our Community Council and Festival Committee felt this beautiful hand crafted monument should be in a place where more people could admire it so it has been relocated, with the help of our Borders Council team, to the Public Park and now has pride of place by the Boston Court gates. We have prepared the soil and a good number of plants have been bought which will go in once the weather is suitable. We are hoping to have a ‘fire’ theme for the planting with plants showing varieties of red and gold flowers, foliage and stems. However, as I’ve said – this could well morph in to something totally different as time goes on!   Thank you to Pearsons and Duns Community Council for support with the buying of the plants – it really does all make a difference as plants and compost are anything but cheap.Â
We hope you enjoy Duns flowers this summer and for many more to come.’
Saturday saw some of the Blooming Marvellous volunteers joining up with the good residents of Upper Castle St to plant 1800 daffodil bulbs along the edge of the grass by the wall at Tinkers Field. The lead up to Duns Castle Estate is going to look fab in the Spring of 2024, and for ever after, giving the residents a lovely bright outlook from their houses and our townspeople and visitors a bright cheerful walk up to the Castle entrance to explore the permitted walks on the estate. Thanks to Will Allison for organising it all and to everyone who turned up on the day to help. A true Community Event!
This week the volunteers emptied out the Begonias Bolivienses which gave us such a lovely show all summer. We were hoping to nurse them on until November but horrible old Storm Babet gave them such a battering last Friday that we felt they really needed to be removed. Tuberous Begonia are a relatively easy summer plant to over winter and can then be used to give colour to pots or beds the following year. The ones we used were a semi trailing variety so perfect for planters – fingers crossed they will survive our tender care!
First we cleaned out the planters at the top of Berwick Road, outside the Council Offices and in the Car Park at the Market square. Second we took off the flower stocks and knocked off as much of the wet soil as possible. We then dried them in the poly tunnel for a few days before cleaning them of soil and any old stocks as much as possible. Thirdly some of the volunteers will take a box of tubers, lay them out in a box and cover with paper before storing in a dry frost free space until Spring – under the bed, in the attic, in the utility room (we have wonderful volunteers!) Once the weather warms up we can remove the paper and encourage growth to appear before planting the tubers up again and hoping for the best.
Keep an eye open for a return of the Begonia in some of the planters next year. Or we may decide to go for another colour scheme and design and sell them on at the annual Plant Sale, 12th May 2024.
Brilliant launch on Tuesday evening although the weather could have been kinder! Our new Duns Flowerbed Trail is now up and running so we hope you all go out and enjoy it. For the tech minded amongst us just use your phone to scan the QR codes on each of the twelve plaques, one on each bed, to access the information about the history of the bed and the plants used. For those of us who are not so tech minded please pick up a leaflet and map in a number of our local shops and cafes as well as the container by the main map on the first bed on the corner of Easter and Currie St leading in to the Market Square. Follow the trail throughout or just dip in and out as you wander about town – something for everyone interested in gardening and plants. Thank you to the support from Jim Carnie, Duns Community Council, Councillor Mark Rowley and most especially to our own Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire Jeanna Swan.
Sunday 3rd September saw us joining other volunteer groups showcasing their work during the SBC sponsored ‘Open Doors’ event held at the Volunteer Hall in Duns. Being a beautiful sunny afternoon I think most people chose to spend the time outside but we had a few visitors who enjoyed finding out about what goes on in Duns. We were able to talk about our new ‘Flowerbed Trail’ which is being launched on 19th September (watch this space!) and were very pleased to spend time chatting to a couple from Malton, Nth Yorkshire, who were on holiday and were admiring Duns flowerbeds. Being members of the Malton volunteer garden group they were very happy to quiz us on our work and took away lots of ideas to discuss with their own group. Our fame spreads!!!
We had an enjoyable afternoon at this week’s ‘ Volunteering Mini Fair’ at the Berwickshire High School. It was good to meet up with S5 and S6 pupils and show them the work we do. There was a fair amount of interest in our before and after photographs. It was also great opportunity to tell them about the new Flowerbed Trail.
They were a nice bunch of kids who seemed to enjoy themselves.
A busy morning with the team weeding the beds after the rain brought a zillion of the pesky things to the surface. The sun shone and we achieved a lot! Also got to enjoy loads of beautiful Red Admiral and Peacock butterflies at the Crab Apple tree bed. Replaced a poor Hebe, which had been damaged, with a lovely blue Campanula donated by someone earlier in the year. A huge thank you to all who donate plants for us to spread around town. That’s the great thing about herbaceous plants – they get too big for the original spot and need to be split up and moved on. Plants just keep giving! Keep an eye open around the beds, you might spot something that is also in your own garden.
