Midsummer update

Note the bucket and terracotta pipes - more later

This is the community garden in mid-February 2013 before the fruit trees were planted. We received a grant of £150 towards a mini-orchard from Capital Growth, and Elwood kindly bought and collected them from Keepers Nursery near Maidstone.

The photograph below was taken in May, with the fruit trees planted and settled in. We are now the proud guardians of three apple trees, three pear trees, a King James mulberry tree and a red filbert. The apple trees flowered and have produced fruit. The idea was to replace the brambles, which local people could pick if they dared, with something more substantial and less thorny! Removing the chain link fence from behind the palisade means that we can remove the bindweed more easily too.

The community garden benefitted last year from the Groundwork Hampton Court Flower Show re-use scheme, and again this June from their Chelsea Flower Show re-use scheme co-ordinated by Anne Marie of Lewisham Gardens.

Last year the plants were collected and distributed at St Swithun's, Hither Green Lane, and this year at Spring Gardens, Hither Green, a homeless hostel managed by the St Mungo's charity. The first articulated lorry turned up bearing large quantities of york stone, paving blocks and aggregate and the driver kindly gave us both a go of the grabber remote control - an unrealised dream until then!

Payback has paid off!

The payback team have taken the community garden to their hearts. Without their careful tending of the garden every Sunday, I would need to be there a lot more.

White borage, lovage and achillea with fruit trees in the background

Every time I visit there is a delightful new addition to the garden - this edging was made and installed by the team. The team have taken enthusiastically to planting, and the 40 or so plants I collected from Spring Gardens were in the following day. In some surprising places....

Imaginative use of the terracotta pipes, and a galvanised bucket! I hope to encourage the team to eat the lettuces and peas growing out of the pipes, which Anne Marie refers to as chimneys. The plants seem to like it and who knows, it may start a trend!

Courgette and leek, 'pipe' grown

The Apothecary Garden

Here are some photos of the apothecary garden, in full bloom. The white borage plant, bought last year from Dig This nursery in New Cross Gate (do pay a visit, if you need some herbs) surpassed all expectations.

The herb spiral, created last September

This is a garden I visited recently, in Downham. It was created and maintained by a group of disabled people, who due to funding cuts no longer tend it. I am looking at it for a project involving older people and gardening, and another to link community venues and green spaces across Downham, Whitefoot and Grove Park. Can you guess where it is?

Please visit the Downham Interagency website for details of how to get involved in these projects.

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!