a beautiful sunny day at the allotment this weekend, and plenty to do:
making sure that the new forest part of the plot is happy and well watered

harvesting and sharing out an enormous broccoli harvest

admiring the perky garlic

and watching the boys do the real work and sowing the spuds

thanks to everyone who came to the forest garden day at the allotment on sunday - we counted 32 people at one point, and a big thanks too to jo who organised and ran the session.

photos of the finished ( or started ) forest garden coming soon.

this weekend

(click to enlarge and read details)

hey , look!

we've made broccoli,
and its the shmancy pants purple one.

garlic is on it's way

and broad beans too, Kim's trick of burying a piece of holly with the seed, ( apparently to see off mice ) has worked !


we're holding a forest garden making day soon, sunday march 29th, 11-3 - everyone welcome, it should be really hands-on, do get in touch if you'd like to know more.

new year news

this is a photo of the purple sprouting broccoli in my garden, it was planted at the same time as the patch at the allotment so we'll be keeping an eye out for it to be ready soonish.

jo has very generously offered to help us transform an area of the plot into a forest / forage garden, using mainly perennial plants. i think this was something that we all liked the idea of but were a bit sketchy on the details. we're aiming to incorporate it with some manner of demonstration so that folks can recreate something similar at home, it'll probably be around the end of march.

Excitingly, 'A Transition Guide to Food' is in the making in the form of a book due out in the summer. we have participated in the questionnaire and supplied some photographs so if we're lucky we might get a mention.

Ashley has been promoted and is now in charge of planting / what goes where, and when. please have a chat with him if you want to donate or plant anything specific or unusual.

isobel is planning a seed swap afternoon at the good food cafe, jewry lane. she has contacted several seed suppliers to request a few packets to get us going and was very pleasantly surprised by the avalanche of seed packets that arrived on her doorstep over the following days. happily, this means that even if you don't have any seeds to swap you will certainly be able to leave with some and clear instructions as to how to grow them. more details soon.

i was lucky enough to get some really great books for christmas:
if you would like to read any of these i'm very happy to share.

lastly, if the weather is fine and the ground has warmed up a bit we shall endeavour to dig a pond this sunday morning, about 11ish get in touch if you'd like to help, or just show up.