The pipes of broccoli

Yesterday was the first time I'd had a good look around the grounds, to see what progress has been made other than in the community garden. Outside the hall, the beds have been dug over and I discovered what had happened to the tray of broccoli seedlings I picked up from St Mungo's a few weeks ago. They seem to be thriving!

In the community garden itself, the blackcurrant bush planted last spring has produced a few berries. Watch out, Ribena... Herbs, traditional apothecary plants, fruit and vegetables all happily co-exist in this sunny open space.

These lovely dianthus are now in full bloom. They were from Lidl or Aldi, 99p specials. I don't know the name of the white, pink tipped rose although I've had a good look on the internet.

Every Thursday morning the community garden is transformed with a shade sail and tent, books and toys and guinea pigs, for the pre-walkers outdoor play session run by Limelight. The session provides sensory experiences for the little ones, and it's great to see the garden put to such good use!

Big Dig 16 March 2013 and progress on the garden(s)

Come along to the Big Dig 2013 on Saturday 16 March 2013 at the community garden from 11am - 2pm. We have three builders' bags ready to fill and plant up with vegetables for the spring and summer, and fingers crossed the fruit trees and nut bushes will have arrived. We were awarded a grant of £150 by Capital Growth to replace the decades-old brambles with something less spiteful but still edible! The bags were donated to us by Lewisham Green Scene. 

Photo of re-using builders' bags courtesy of Permaculture

Progress at the community garden

An amazing transformation has taken place in the grounds of the community centre, thanks to the Community Payback team who have been working in the grounds and at the centre since the end of September 2012. Not forgetting the loan of Elwood's chipper (and a donation for the petrol and blade sharpening) which has been reducing vast quantities of vegetation into spreadable mulch. So much mulch.

Shredded vegetation spilling over the top of the compost bins!

We now have four compost bins in the community garden, all nearly full to the brim and the team will be constructing more for the hall garden. The team have been clearing the areas around the perimeter fence and taking the chain link down. The community centre can now be seen!

The front entrance, swept and kept tidy

Shrubs pruned and edging tidied

Transformation of the community centre grounds from a wilderness

The team have also helped at the centre, moving furniture, cleaning and redecorating.

Here are some photos I took of the garden, towards the end of October, in the late autumn sunshine.

The path to the gate, edged and swept

Free workshops start today - here comes summer at last

Glorious weather, finally! Just in time for the workshops to start. Today from 10am onwards Kristina Binns from Lewisham Council is providing a recycling information stall in the centre reception area. At 1.30pm she will be hosting a composting workshop and at 3.30pm a Love Food Hate Waste workshop. If you come to both as I'm going to you can learn all about creative ways of using leftovers, storing food correctly and if you can't use it, compost it! More information on these workshops and permaculture/build a bug hotel can be found on the earlier blog post here. Please come along and check it out to see if there are spaces available - you can visit the garden in progress too.

I have to say the compost heap is smelling lovely at the moment. Very compost-y, is that the word? Rowland helped me water the garden including the heap and planted several herbs and medicinal plants from the big plant giveaway.  We had a closer look at the St John's Wort growing by the preschool fence. Rowland showed me the translucent spots on the leaves that mature to produce the oil. It is an exquisite plant, very delicate in contrast to its showier relatives.

St John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) - link to uses

Today (when I'm not at the workshops) I will be mostly raiding the allotment garden for more plants. It's getting overgrown so I will be doing it a favour. 

The circular bed and herb border

Now there is more light coming in through the fence, the lavender bushes are flowering for the first time in years. Marjoram, which must have self-seeded, is growing underneath and the soil is very compacted and mossy. They really need to be in a sunnier spot so once they've finished flowering I'll cut back and transplant. That area is crying out for some woodland plants: foxgloves and pulmonaria

On the home front, the rain has obviously benefitted the garden and my agapanthus which usually produces one measly flower head if anything, has four large globes. It's growing in a very large pot among japanese anemones. This was sold to me many moons ago as Anemone hupehensis 'Hadspen Abundance' but it doesn't look like the photos being a lighter pink. It is alive with honey and bumble bees.

Agapanthus

Anemone hupehensis 'Hadspen Abundance' - or is it?

I just had to include a photo of this beautiful rose, Joie de Vivre. I'm still reading 'No Dig Gardening' by Ruth Stout and will have to put off the review and received wisdom until next time! It's such a harsh climate on the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Joie de Vivre, rose of the year 2011

WORKSHOPS IN NEW CROSS

Three Cafe Crema garden events for aug-oct 2012

August 11th 10-1

Horticultural workshop and fruit tree pruning

Paul Ritchens from The Kings Cross Skip Garden leads this session on pest recognition and organic pest control strategies. This session would be great for beginners and enthusiasts and people who really don't want to douse their trees and gardens with harmful pesticides but don't want everything to get eaten either... Also good for new gardeners and allotment holders. After the morning session there will be a break for lunch (you are welcome to bring a picnic or you can buy something from the Cafe) followed by a short practical session looking at the new espalier trees and doing some summer formative pruning. Session ends at 1pm. All welcome, free. 

Please drop in to the Cafe or text Kiri to reserve a place. 07950 552 571.

Many thanks to Lewisham Council's 'Community Gardens Small Grant Award' for funding this event.

Come and try your hand at Botanical Illustration at Cafe Crema....

Free botanical illustration workshops will be held on Sat 15th sept and oct 13th from 3.30 til 5.30.

Learn to paint and draw botanical specimens with professional artist Alison Day from Lewisham Arthouse. Explore the autumn colours, shapes and textures of the local flora found in the wildlife garden at Café Crema. Suitable for adults and children over 10 yrs, (or younger if they are very keen.) No previous experience needed. Materials provided. You are also welcome to bring your own sketchbooks/ pencils if you prefer.

These two events are organised in partnership with London Wildlife Trust.

To reserve a place please text 07950 552 571 or email: freshfilmscafe@hotmail.com. You will need to drop by to leave a £3 deposit to keep your place, but this will be returned to you on arrival. Refreshments will be provided.

Cafe Crema: 306 New Cross Road, London SE14 6AF. Close to the Town Hall and almost opposite the venue, minutes from New Cross Gate station. Tel: 020 8320 2317

Cardboard conundrum

Last week I removed some of the plastic and put cardboard in its place, then covered it with compost. The cardboard came out of the recycling bin, and was pre-wetted before being laid down on the dead grass and weeds. I also found some rolls of wallpaper and copies of the Mature Times and Metro, so all of that was used too. It looks quite weird and I will find out tomorrow if it has been effective. The plastic was moved to kill off another area.

If I can get my hands on enough cardboard (and copies of the 'Mature Times' :-)) I will try some further experiments with this technique, including in the compost bin. I figure if the cardboard is soggy enough you could put several layers between compost etc. Emma Cooper has tried composting cardboard on its own. There is not much more old compost left, about two bags of John Innes and three of ericaceous, so I will be on the look out for more. Suggestions welcome!

But where is the cheese? - John Innes & Ericaceous compost, grass clippings, cardboard, wallpaper

The new bed staying remarkably clear of weeds (just a few seedlings and a bit of bindweed/avens)

More on roses. I managed, in the limpid light of yesterday, to capture on camera the colour of the lovely coppery pink rambling rose 'Albertine' in my garden. It flowers only once but over several weeks. The buds remind me of very expensive coral lipstick but it is beautiful at every stage. I also took a photo of 'New Dawn' which is scrambling over a rose arch and trellis and is about the most shapely flower I know.

Yesterday - Rosa 'Albertine' - wichuriana rambler (1921, Barbier Freres et Cie, Orleans, France)

Rosa The New Dawn,  wichuriana rambler (1930, Dreer, USA)

'New Dawn' is a sport (mutation) of 'Dr. Van Fleet' and was introduced by Henry Dreer of Riverton, New Jersey in 1930. It holds the first plant patent ever granted in the USA.

'Dorothy Perkins', a favourite of my grandmother and my sister, was bred by Jackson & Perkins in the USA and introduced in 1901. It was named after Charles Perkins' granddaughter - I always thought it was named after the shop, but it's the other way round!

Musings on roses, lasagna gardening

Roses grow on you, sometimes a bit too much

Reflecting on how much time and effort I can put (even with volunteer help) into the traditional method of double digging the community garden, I consulted with Elwood Amey. Elwood is a gardener by profession and helped the older people's group design the garden structure some years ago. He is also a trustee of the community association and a partner in the Wellbeing Service which inspired the idea of an apothecary garden.

We had a conversation about roses and which ones to keep. They hadn't been pruned for so long that one had reverted to its wild state and it will have to come out. While not the biggest of the bunch, it will take some doing. I've already got rid of one which was fighting to survive the competition from pernicious weeds and not really in the right place, unless you want your legs scratched to pieces as you pass. Another is defying attempts to grow up the trellis on the bunker, stretching out to the light in the opposite direction.

Ideally I'd like to replace them all with Rosa Mundi, the 12th century apothecary rose said to be named after Fair Rosamund, mistress of Henry II! Unlike the floribundas and the hybrid teas, lovely though they are, it won't end up with flowers waving 8-10 feet in the air. One of my earliest memories is of my grandmother's square rose bed featuring the gorgeous 'Peace' in her garden, located at the foot of the Peak District National Park; but she did employ a gardener to keep them in good shape.

Rosa Mundi (Copyright Peter Beales Roses)

I love roses and have grown many (and lost some to disease or being in the wrong place) - here are two of them.

The highly scented Portland Rose 'Jacques Cartier' (1868)

Hybrid musk 'Cornelia' (1925)

Mulches and 'lasagna' gardening

Elwood suggested I cut down the big weeds, cover some of the areas with cardboard, followed by a deep mulch of bark chippings and plant through that. Brian kindly supplied a very large double sheet for the area that I've designated for fruit bushes and some vegetables. I've pinned it down with the bags of old compost for the moment. I'm fond of the cottage garden look and have planted a hollyhock picked up for a song at Farmstead Road Community Garden stall at the Phoenix Festival.

Intrigued by the idea of a cardboard mulch I went on a journey through the internet and discovered the wonderfully named lasagna gardening. The idea of No Dig gardening was developed in the 1950s in the USA by Ruth Stout, who lived in Poverty Hollow, Connecticut, and wrote a book Gardening Without Work; for the Aging, the Busy and the Indolent! Sounds appropriate.

Here is a presentation on lasagna gardening by Philadephia County Master Gardeners (Penn State University), and an interesting blog about it. Enjoy!

Slow but rewarding progress

Excavations and planting at the community garden continue. Lush and bosky from the recent rain, the 'lawn' turns out to be meadow, with some interesting wildflowers in the mix, some associated with herb gardens and remedies. A weed is only a plant you don't like, as I often remind myself. 

On Monday I got in early and spent time digging up loads of herb bennet or wood avens (Geum urbanum) which had wrapped itself around the circular bed, yesterday I uncovered a patch of germander speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys) and last week a very healthy marjoram (Origanum majorana) plant under one of the rose bushes. The digging is proving a formidable task, but I have had offers of help including from the tutor of the baby yoga class. There is a lot of curiosity from the local community and I've had many an interesting chat through the fence!

A beautiful paeony, liberated from a blanket of brambles and ivy

Helped by the acquisition of about 35 bags of old compost the soil from excavated areas can now be replaced, to an extent. Some of the bags fell apart or were so waterlogged that any nutrients have long since leached out but they are all being put to use either in the excavated areas or smothering the weeds! Thanks to Brian for wheelbarrowing them in.

The raised bed is starting to look great, I wish I knew the name of the red paeony it is truly beautiful. I noticed a few bindweed shoots appearing in the circular bed but Andrea had done a really good job of tracking down the roots and they came out easily.

The french lavender is in flower and the plants are settling in

Since the circular bed has been cleared the garden is being visited by a group (?) of sparrows. My own garden in Brockley is visited by every other bird, small, medium and large, but not sparrows and I'm heartened to see them. As an urban kid they were all I saw apart from pigeons!

Got to do something about those doors!

Having cleared a lot of the brambles, bindweed is now springing up by the fence. Press on regardless. Still much to do, but it's taking shape - and looks a lot better than it did!

If you would like to help out in the community garden please get in touch. I am there on Mondays and Tuesdays but occasionally can't resist another day if I'm not busy. If you would like to help or visit, contact the community centre on 020 8698 3741, email me at hubbub@goldsmithscommunityhub.org.uk or use the comments section below,

The heavily 'pruned' roses, which are fighting back

View towards the preschool garden and chicken coop across the bags of compost

What is an apothecary garden?

The word 'apothecary' is derived from apotheca, meaning a place where wine, spices and herbs were stored. During the thirteenth century it came into use in this country to describe a person who kept a stock of these commodities, which he sold from his shop or street stall. By the mid-sixteenth century apothecaries had become the equivalent of today's community pharmacists, dealing mainly with the preparation and sale of substances for medicinal purposes. Authority over medical practice, however, lay with the College of Physicians. From 1672 until 1922, the Society of Apothecaries manufactured and sold medicinal and pharmaceutical products at the Hall, and in 1673 it founded the Chelsea Physic Garden, only relinquishing managerial control in 1899.

The Apothecaries' Physic Garden at Chelsea was founded as an educational enterprise; it was also established in conjunction with the possession of the Society's first ceremonial barge.  In July 1673 the Society took the lease on three-and-a-half acres of land on the riverfront at Chelsea and proceeded to build a bargehouse and cultivate a physic garden where, for well over two centuries, Apothecaries' apprentices and, later, medical students, were taught Botany and Materia Medica.

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries 

The word Physic means the art or skill of healing. As a species name, the word 'officinale' denotes a plant that was traditionally sold in apothecary shops and was considered to have medicinal or healthful properties.  Many plants in the apothecary or physic garden were grown for cooking, healing, dyeing wool and fabric and 'strewing', or scattering over the floor for their perfume. Pennyroyal and Lady's Bedstraw kept fleas at bay. Traditionally apothecary or physic gardens grouped the plants according to their healing or soothing properties.

 

There isn't enough space in the Goldsmiths Community Garden for a full scale apothecary garden like the one at Cowbridge Physic Garden, west of Cardiff, or the Abbey Physic Community Garden in Faversham. The aim is to make it an educational space for all generations to enjoy and for the garden to evolve over time. Please contact me at hubbub@goldsmithscommunityhub.org.uk for more information, and to visit the garden (currently Monday & Tuesday only).

Hemerocallis flava with sweet cicely, rue, hop, thalictrum and lemon balm

Read this article by Francine Raymond in the Sunday Telegraph, October 2011.

Purple Sage, periwinkle (Vinca minor) and catmint (Nepeta  x faassenii)

Update on the community garden

A bit of background

I rented Room 3 at Goldsmiths Community Centre in mid-February as the base for a project Hubbub Community Media Resource, funded by Whitefoot and Downham Local Assemblies. The project helps local groups and organisations with publicity, marketing and fundraising using social media and aims to paint a picture of the local area through community reporting by adult education students and local people. Room 3 has exclusive use of what is known as the 'pensioners' garden (although I've not seen a pensioner in it!).
The garden had been neglected since the group who maintained it stopped. I'd had a go at it a couple of years' earlier, at that time a new Wellbeing Service at the centre had been set up and I had the idea to create a 'physic' or apothecary garden to complement it, growing herbs, aromatic and other plants used in traditional medicine, for learning and enjoyment. I applied for funding, didn't get it, and moved on to other things. When I came back and looked out on it, the idea resurfaced!

Bring a Plant Day

First of all thank you very much to all who came to the Bring a Plant Day on Monday 16 April , for their labour and plants, and for the fantastic write up of the day on this blog. There's not much more I can add, except it was quite spontaneously planned but we chose the right day for it! The plants have all been well watered now, despite their drought tolerance and a hosepipe ban. From an occasional hacking away in my lunch hour, the concerted effort by everyone last Monday has really made a difference and I met some lovely new people who are as interested in gardening as I am.

A word on those brambles. The green palisade fence which was put up last year augmented a chain link fence which had been there since the 1970s. The brambles were grown to stop intruders, and were pretty successful although the centre is not immune to stuff being hurled over or finding a way through.

When it opened in 1939 the community centre had no fence at all and opened out on to a recreation space of 13 acres, where the Excalibur prefabs now stand (not for much longer).

The community centre has been inextricably linked with gardening and food production over the past 70+ years. One of the first groups to be set up was the Goldsmiths Community Centre Gardening Society (now Goldsmiths Gardeners), formed in 1939 and who manage the Crutchley/Hazelbank Road allotments to this day. They held their first annual flower and vegetable show at the centre on August Bank Holiday 1939 and from 1940-1945 managed the open space as 144 allotments - 'Dig for Victory'! Thanks to local residents I have copies of certificates awarded by the Society for 'Truss of Tomatoes' and 'Prettiest Front Garden'!

For more than 30 years the Gardeners Society acted as a garden centre, providing seeds, bulbs, plants and compost to the local community. They still meet in the growing season on Sunday mornings at the centre. If you would like to know more about the history of the community centre click here

A big thanks again to everyone and to all the contacts I've made subsequently!

Transformation of the community garden

This is the Goldsmiths Community Garden.

 

Before: The raised bed - say no more!

In between: the ivy and bramble are cleared, revealing a peony

After: The newly planted raised bed, filled with aromatic herbs

Before: you can't even see the circular bed

In between: the circular bed, revealed!

After: the circular bed, lovingly restored

What a mess - sad that such little care or interest was given to this sunny spot