Spring Sunshine in the Community Garden

Gardening in Bramford Community Garden on Sunday was such a sheer pleasure this weekend.  It usually is a pleasure, catching up with  TTWandsworth garden friends, a good spot of weekly gardening on the plot working through our exciting action plan. 

But this weekend we were especially spoilt with the hazy spring sunshine that gave it that extra special nostalgic feeling a bit like playing outside when you were a child.

There were chats, Federico brought a good selection of heritage and unusual seeds so a spot of seed swapping (he has a really good selection of Cucurbits!) and we started our Biochar test bed.  There were preparations for the Big Dig event next Saturday and distribution of flyers.  Please come along and garden with us next Saturday from 11am ttwandsworth@hotmail.co.uk

It was so lovely sowing the seeds when this is an annual pleasure I am so far denying myself this year with my soon to happen move up to Birmingham in three weeks.  But I was able to get my fix in sowing some carrot, parsnip, spinach and beetroot seeds in the Biochar test raised bed and its mirror test bed without the Biochar.

I am definitely going to have to come back for a few visits to see the garden in a month or two just to see how things are coming along.  So many exciting things planned for this year... The results of the Biochar test, crop rotation plan, wild flower meadow, edible orchard and that doesn't include all the events and socialising... I think June would be a good month to pop down for a visit!

Growing Aubergines Outside

I think I need to fess up... in my last post there were some pictures of my prize aubergines.

These were grown outside in the patio garden but with a little bit of help.

Now I don't have the space for a green house and am so envious of people who are able to grow their tomotoes, aubergines, peppers, chillies, physalis ... the list goes on!... under cover.  They always look so healthy when grown under cover.  And of course they do for they are in the solanaceae family, also known as the sun lovers family.

Whilst I don't have a green house, there are other options for the space challenged container gardener.

Last year, we had a rather disappointing summer (not that much different to the one we've just had) and all the flowers dropped off my aubergines - i.e. no fruit. 

This year the aubergines have been enjoying the comforts of a hort fleece tent fastened to the wall with clothes line pegs and a stone on the floor to stop it flapping about.  They seem to really like the tomato planters I have grown them in this year too as these are the tallest aubergines I have ever grown aubergines. They also enjoy a diet of worm tea from the wormery and comfrey leaves.

If we are getting a good sunshiny day I unveil them and then tuck them in once the sunshine's finished for the day to keep them warm for the night time.

I know, I know, I could just grow easier things that don't have such a need for heat but I love eating aubergines - they are just great roasted in the oven with tomatoes and garlic.  Its a challenging labour of love every year but this year I think I've cracked it!

The other thing I was not telling you in my last post was the peppers and chillies that are still happy outside despite the drop in temps.  They are not showing signs of stress yet and I don't like denying them outside sunshine if they are able to cope with our outside temps so to help them extend their stay outside that little bit longer, they are in the portable greenhouse, a present that my lovely boyfriend bought me last spring that proved invaluable when I was hardening off seedlings in spring and now to extend the growing season into autumn.

So there you have it... I'm now thinking of hort fleece tents for the tomatoes next year, especially if the summer's the same as it was this year I just need to improve on the frame for the hort fleece tent - any tips out there?

Community Gardening

City dwellers often find frustratingly long allotment waiting lists and for many getting an allotment is just a pipe dream.  In my area, allotment lists are 8 years long.  But there are other gardening opportunities for those with no space of their own...

Another option is to find wasted spaces of land near you and find out who owns it.  You  might be pleasantly surprised who will be willing to let you turn a disused space into an edible oasis.

You can also try asking your Council.  According to the Landshare site:

"Did you know that your council has a legal duty to provide you with an allotment? You just need a group of 6 council tax paying residents and to make a written application".

I garden and mentor at the Bramford Community Garden which is situated in a public park in Wandsworth.  Here's more information about the garden Bramford Community Garden

Sowing the pictorial meadow

Bramford Community Garden is a Transition Town Wandsworth initiative and they have been growing on the site since August 2010.  In the garden there are edibles, ornamentals and even a few areas of a pictorial annual flower meadow.  So I guess you could call it an ornamental edible garden (it's about 50/50 of each).  We don't have designated areas that we garden but rather, all garden the beds together, weeding, planting, etc and share out the produce.
  
They are now receiving very positive feedback from the local community who see the garden develop.

Gardening at a community garden is a lovely experience for many reasons.  Here are some of mine:  

• In big cities, many people don't have growing space so it provides more opportunity to grow your own and garden

• Gardening is good for the soul and can be stress relieving, therapeutic and an escape from the hustle and bustle of a busy working life

•  There is nothing that beats cooking and eating food you've grown yourself, its worth so much more than its equivalent value in the supermarket and always tastes amazing fresh from the earth

•  Meeting new faces and making friends in your community - the social aspect of gardening in groups

• Share out crops to take home

Pictorial Meadow

Shaping the herb spiral

 
 I joined the garden back in February 2011 when they requested help from a Master Gardener through Garden Organic's Master Gardener Programme and since joining I have inspired the idea of building a herb spiral which we all built by moving lots of compost onto a bed to create the spiral and planted lots of herbs and a great big horseradish back in April 2011.  I also donated and planted a few large perennials which would have never succeeded in my small garden (globe artichoke, rhubarb), brought the garden many seedlings which I propogated in May and transported over in an interesting fashion on my bicycle!  And I continue to bring ideas and inspirations of growing and cooking your own food.

Freshly completed herb spiral

In return, I've made some really lovely friends with people who have similar interests in wild life and eating seasonal garden produce.  I've also had quite a few extra veggies to take home and cook with.  For me, the really amazing benefit has been the opportunity to grow the larger perennials, to participate and experiment in larger scale garden projects and have another garden to compare my home experimentations to.  What's in season at the Bramford Community Garden is not necessarily the same as what's in season in my small garden.  I find the community garden is usually a few weeks ahead of my garden which is interesting as my home garden is south facing and sheltered and the community garden a north facing garden which is highly exposed.  However, it is always good to have some comparisons to draw from.

Established herb spiral

If you would like to come and garden at the Bramford Community Garden please email me.  It would be great to have more growers to garden with us.

If you don't live in Wandsworth, there could be a community garden near you.  Take a look at Hugh's Landshare  site.