Our Museum Garden Update September

‘Our Museum Garden’ volunteers carry on improving our grounds at National Museum Cardiff. They have continued with the clearance of dead shrubs and overgrown ivy, started to plant up new spaces and cared for the Urban Meadow. 

The most obvious difference has been the clearance and planting of a herbaceous border. There are two ‘mini-gabions’ in this space filled with stones, branches and pinecones to provide habitat for insects. The planting has been planned to appeal to pollinators as well as make a welcoming entrance for visitors. It will be a gorgeous splash of colour next summer. Hopefully in the next few months, larger versions of these gabions will appear in the space too. 

The herb bed has survived well over this heatwave of a summer – the rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) and lavender (Lavandula) have been enjoying their ideal conditions. The borage (Borago officinalis) has made itself at home and spread seedlings everywhere. 

The volunteer group is also tasked with looking after the ‘Urban Meadow’. We completed the ‘Every Flower Counts’ survey again in July and found a wide variety of wildflowers. We also enjoyed seeing burnet moth, soldier beetles, grasshoppers, flower beetles and many cinnabar moths during our time on the survey. 

At the beginning of September, Matthew Collinson came to teach us how to cut the meadow using Scythes. It was hard work but we all learnt so much about meadow management.

We have three major installation projects happening over the next couple of months. We’re going to be busy and would love some extra volunteers to help us. If you think you might like to help please find details of how to become a volunteer here: Current Opportunities - Become a Volunteer | Museum Wales. We have raised beds to install and plant up, a roof garden to revamp and gabion baskets to build. This project is funded by Welsh Government’s Landfill Disposals Tax Communities Scheme, administered by WCVA.