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

Garden Party

Goldsmiths Community Centre Garden Party

On Saturday September 22nd from 12 to 4 pm all are welcome to enjoy Goldsmiths Community Centre's Apothecary Garden to mark the end of the Hubbub media resource project and to raise funds and awareness for the Goldsmiths Well Being Room.

Creating the herb spiral

As suggested by the CEL students who took part in the Hubbub project the themes of the garden party are Well Being and Making Connections. This will be an opportunity to find out more about the Well Being Room at Goldsmiths Community Centre, and what health and Well Being services are available locally and at the Community Centre.

Clay oven for delicious pizzas!

Healthy hot food will be available fresh and hand made from the pizza oven, and a range of traditional home made produce like cakes, lemonade, ginger beer, chutney, pesto and hummous will be on sale.

There will also be a book stall, bric-a- brac and raffles.

Come and enjoy the last of the good weather in a beautiful garden setting. See you on Saturday 22nd!

SPONSORED BIKE RIDE

The Goldsmiths Community Centre Well Being room is a project that's been running since 2009 and making a positive difference to the local community of Downham.

The Well Being Room is a hub for health and well being in Downham. It provides sign posting to local health and well being services as well as offering low cost complementary therapies.

To support this Rowland Smith and Elwood Amey who run the project are taking part in the Question Challenge bike ride . . .

WHO? Elwood and Rowland as they run the Well Being Room, also other members of DUCK Cycling Club doing their own fund raising challenges and joining in just for fun.

WHERE? Visiting all the places that sound like questions within cycling distance of London, so….starting at: HOWE, Norfolk, then WARE, Hertfordshire, then HOO, Medway, ending at WYE in Kent.

WHEN? Friday 5th October to Sunday 7th of October 2012

WHY? Why not? Cycling is a great way for people to keep fit. Elwood and Rowland want to use this challenge to show that anybody can take up cycling AND enjoy it AND raise some money to support a great project.

If you'd like to support a health project that's been making a difference since 2009 please visit the Charity Giving website http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/questionchallenge and make a donation to support the Goldsmiths Community Centre Well being Room.

Permaculture comes to Downham

What is permaculture? I've been finding out! Here's a quote from the Permaculture Association.

"Permaculture works with nature to make a better world for all. By observing the natural world we can see a set of principles at work." 

As a recent convert to sheet mulching (see my previous posts Cardboard Conundrum and on lasagna gardening) and a long time foe of waste, I am curious to know more about it. I will find out shortly!

Contact organicgardener@yahoo.co.uk for more details and to see if there are spaces available.

PLEASE NOTE PERMACULTURE WORKSHOP HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO 15th SEPTEMBER, 11am - 3pm to coincide with Edible Open Gardens Day.

Composting workshops at Goldsmiths Community Centre

Last week I attended the first of a series of free composting workshops. My garden is not really big enough for a compost heap and I've made do with a wormery instead.  What goes into a wormery is very different from compost ingredients. Once the compost bins had been built (out of old pallets) on Bring a Plant Day I was given loads of stuff to start it off, from chicken and guinea pig litter, grass clippings, newspapers and cardboard, tea bags, prunings and all sorts - even two bags of horse manure! 

Under construction

The compost bins - week one

Week three - doesn't show the huge pile of grass clippings yet to be added

I now have so much stuff that I am leaving it to rot down in black bin bags, in the empty compost bin, before adding it to the existing pile. The heap itself looked a bit dry the other week so I stuck a hosepipe in the middle of it. 

As I found out on the composting workshop that was the wrong thing to do! A closer inspection revealed slimy lumps of grass clippings and other bits of vegetation all stuck together and excluding the air. I must have a funny sense of smell as I thought it smelled quite nice, but Kristina with her professional 'nose' detected sulphur - not good.

We learned what can and cannot go into the compost heap, and the very good idea of preparing a mix of carbon (twigs, newspaper) and some nitrogen (green waste) before it goes on the heap. I think at first I had so much stuff that I just chucked it on willy nilly, ending up with a dry looking top layer.  If I haven't been at the centre for a week or so it sure mounts up - I think I may have been too successful in persuading everyone to 'donate' their waste.

After the workshop finished I forked most of the slimy stuff out and put it on top of the cardboard mulch, then filled the holes left in the heap with little twigs. Next time I will inspect it and do a more thorough job - possibly starting again from scratch!

There are still spaces on this great free workshop, on Wednesday 8th, Friday 10th and Wednesday 15th August. I learned a lot, and so will you! Contact Kristina to book: kristina.binns@lewisham.gov.uk