Our Garden, Green & Wood

The club grounds not only has a large car park, but is blessed with a large garden surrounding our beautifully tended green. We also have a small wood. The whole, we hope,  makes for a a special place to play bowls. The grounds are maintained by the Gardeners who work every Tuesday, summer  and winter, in all weathers and the green by our two Green Rangers. The group who make up the Gardeners is not exclusive and other members are welcome to join us, weeders are always needed especially in the summer!

The green, the jewel in the crown of the grounds, it is mowed, summer and winter, regularly scarified, seeded and fertilised. Edges are trimmed and ditches cleared of leaves.  The only work not done on the by the Rangers, is the annual hollow tining and top dressing of the Green and spraying  with fungicides. During hot weather the Green is watered by our irrigation  system. The green is protected from the attention of foxes by an electric fence, that is of course switched off during play!

In recent years much hard work has been done into improving the gardens and wood. One border was completely replanted, the border next to the wood was extended and planted, two new borders were made by the gates and another was made parallel to the alley. All these new borders were planted with plants from Josie’s and the other gardeners own gardens. Other members have also donated plants.

The wood and its trees had been sadly neglected, with dead and dying trees, covered in ivy and some of the trees had been vandalised (not by club members). The wood had been used as a  convenient place to dump rubbish from the club. The gardeners had also been guilty of this as they used the wood as a large compost heap for  wood and garden waste from the grounds.  The wood has now been clear of rubbish surprising in its variety. The garden waste has been sorted and the soft waste moved to new compost heaps. Woody material was removed; some of it was “chipped” to be used on the flower beds and the bigger bits were burnt. Some of the smaller logs were used to line the borders and paths. The part of wood that has been cleared,  is now planted with bluebells and seeded with wild plants. A border has also been made in the undercroft of the bank and is being planted with daffodils, crocuses and forget-me-nots .

Part the wood though, has been left wild with rotting logs for bugs and as a home for our foxes, squirrels, birds, and maybe, wood mice, voles, hedgehogs The wood can now be accessed from the side of the green and it is now possible for members and visitors to enter the wood. It is planed that the garden will be at its at it’s best during the bowling season but there is some planting that comes into flower during the  autumn, winter & spring closed season; especially spring when the daffodils, blue bells, crocuses and wild garlic come into flower. Late spring the poppy bank at the back of the club house comes into its own.

The whole of the grounds including our beautiful green,  is an beautiful green space that  makes a quiet oasis in the middle of Forest Hill. 

Members have access to the grounds and are welcomed to visit the gardens at any time through the year and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of this part of the club premises. Visitors are welcome to see the grounds on Tuesdays or Thursdays when the Gardeners are working.