Rawdale Walled Garden Project

For many years this part of South Cave had become forgotten. Historically this site will have a great many tales to tell, from the Roman Road which runs at one end of the site to the Boys school at the summit of the steps. Inbetween these there has been a quarry here and the old cottages adjoining the site were once home to the Castle laundry.

The idea to transform the area initially was just to dig over a small area to the side of the steps and create a garden on the sloping ground. However, this wasn't to be the case, once you start digging there is no telling what is underneath!

What was going to be a simple project turned out to be a 6 month excavation digging up mountains of bricks, shopping baskets, car headlamps, vacuum cleaners, rusty tins of paint and even a sprung mattress! The amount of rubbish that we discovered under the one spade depth of soil was astonishing, and it took 100s of hours of man (and women) power to clear.

We learned the area had been the old (outside...brrrr!) toilet block to the school and had been demolished, filled in with the rubble and covered with soil. A quick fix to a job but as the rusty materials below had become corroded to such a point the site was in danger of subsiding.

So after the clearance, the steps were cleaned up, swept and the moss removed, the old crumbling footpath at the base of the steps were weeded and a cascading rockery created alongside this from the rocks which we unearthed.

The former rubbish tip had been completely cleared, and we re-used the unearthed bricks to artistically underpin the sloping side of the garden so as to make it almost completely level. The garden then took on the appearance of a walled garden, being surrounded on three sides (one wall being unearthed, which formed the toilet block wall).

When the area had settled 100s of plants and bulbs were put into the newly created and carefully prepared herbaceous borders, the rockery and the grassed area. A fernery has been created alongside the path which will be added to in time. To further enchance and re-establish the area as a haven for wildlife, native bluebells and cowslips are on order from Mires Beck Nursery for next Spring.

As the site was re-developed it was plain for all to see the terrible state the old concrete footpath was in. After clearing the weeds which had grown between the cracks (and held it together) it took on the appearance of being cobbled and was in desperate need of total renovation.

We obtained a quotation for the the path to be re-layed in concrete for £1000, this was far beyond the means of our budget, and it probably would only be a relatively short term measure as it ideally would need fresh footings, a much more costly approach.

However, the project was put on hold until such a time when we had the finances to fund such a project.

At Eastertime this year we asked the advice of a group of friendly workmen who were busy laying new pipes what advice they could give regarding the laying of footpaths. It was by chance our star gardener Jean happened to meet a very nice manager who was visting the workmen on site in South Cave.

A few telephone calls later and there was a message waiting on Jeans telephone saying "We'd like to offer to build you a new footpath" Within two weeks the workmen laying pipes were excused from their duties in order to build our new footpath!

Days later, lorries were arriving from Scarborough and Leeds with wood for the edging, underlay and hardcore for the base. On the final rainy day after many days of hard work, this highly professional team of men layed the tarmac surface completing a superb job.

We are indebted to Laing O'rourke for their most generous help, and we thank them gratefully for helping to bring this project together. Thank-you!

Rawdale Phase 2 (or is that 3 or 4??!)

We've been very busy working on Rawdale these last few weeks, the Spring displays are now over and have been cleared away to make way for our new permanent planting scheme. Last weekend, after the old flowerbed was re-shaped and the rockery extended around the corner, a large boulder was disocvered to the rear of the scouts building, and was dragged by various strenuous means down the steps to its new position next to the Rawdale Close sign. Jean, Trudy, Terry and Justin later went on a plant hunting expedition to Mires Beck Nursery in North Cave and came back laden with dozens of carefully chosen plants which would fit in with our naturalistic theme, amongst other things, we planted 40 foxgloves (alba), 30 mixed Ferns, Heucheras, Dark leaved fuchias and much more. The planting has further been enhanced by the addition of the occasional annual, namely a bright pink geranium to create a striking contrast between the dark leaved plants. Planters have been put up on the adjacent house wall, by kind permission of the owners, these add a welcome splash of colour and have been expertly planted (as well as all the tubs and baskets in Market Place) by Jean.

As work here is an on-going process, and it is only in its infancy we are proud of our achievements here thus far, we hope you will take time as you pass by to visit and find some peace and tranquility in the Rawdale Gardens & floral cascade.

Please Note..The best view is from the top of the stairs, from which you'll gain a whole new perspective of the area.

Any questions about the plants or any other comments can be emailed to admin@southcaveinbloom.co.uk