Oh Deer?

We have had a visitor to the garden that has taken a fancy to the tops of the leeks ,the tops of the celeriac and polished off what was left of the celery.
Judging by the tracks in the snow we think it is some kind of deer, maybe a muntjac. Anyone brave enough to confirm on the strength of this photo?

The droppings look similar to rabbit, but they're all laid in a line which seems unlikely for rabbits, unless they're doing the conga!
Anyway the only survivors seem to be the few beetroot and parsnips, looks like we're going to have to make the removable fencing panels sooner rather than later.
Here's the chewed out remains of a celeriac, exhibit 1 in the case against our mystery guest

Autumn pictures

A couple of pictures from the garden this autumn.

Garlic groupies!

We planted a bed of garlic yesterday.. with Nick's help, tuition and garlic bulbs!

Here they are before we covered them up..over 50 bulbs went in so we're hoping for a good crop next year.

We also met some new friends, re-planted the blackcurrant bushes, swept up leaves into compost bin, stripped the last of the runner beans and peppers bed and plucked a handful of juicy raspberries!

Souper day!

We had an awareness raising session in Louth Market Place today, I managed to make some moderately interesting soup out of the squash,celery,onions and herbs from the garden.
We distributed that freely to market shoppers( about 24 cups of soup by my reckoning).
Maggie, Noel and Eddie handed out flyers and generally spread the word.


Max Griffin of Griffin Memeorials came down with son Billy and handed over the new slate sign he has made and donated for the garden. We hope the sign will be fixed somewhere near the Crowtree lane entrance to the garden to help direct people to the gardens.
It really is a lovely sign with skilfully etched lettering on green slate..Thanks Max!

Mud, mud and potatoes

Noel and Janet were the first to brave the mud and unearthed a super crop of potatoes before the rest of us arrived. We harvested celery, spinach, squash, beetroot and courgettes and moved the raspberrise to the plot where the potatoes were. The Jerusalem Artichoke looks very unhappy after its move so let's hope it recovers.
We shall soon have bare earth again and will be looking for ideas and or manure!

Cloddygate raspberries and more!

Collected 7 Autumn fruiting raspberries, 3 blackcurrant bushes . 4 caulifower plants, 1 Jerusalem artichoke and four tender leaved broccoli this morning. Thank you to Cloddygate Farm!
Did a quick prune and heeling in of the bushes and planted the other plants. The bushes are in the school plot and the beetroot plot temporarily.
Jobs that need doing , in the next few weeks ,I think are ;
Harvesting the potatoes, beetroot, spinach, celery, green beans, sweet corn and squash and the last few courgettes
Pruning the old stems from the raspberries
Planting the bushes in more permanent positions
Tidying and harvesting from the herb spiral
Collecting leaves for the compost.
I shall go next on Sunday after The Ramblers so probabaly about 3 pm if anyone is about.

Mid week gardeners

Yesterday I met April who is a midweek community gardeners, she walks her dog through the garden and at the same time collects litter and keeps an eye on the garden. She was concerned over the lack of water in the summer and was tempted to bring some from her house. Great idea as we rely on just three water butts! She will help herself to the veg as it is ready and will also mention this to another friend who also enjoys walking through. Brilliant it is being used!

Slugs

Well the slugs are happy, or is it the birds who tucked into the lettuce seedlings. Any ideas? We are going to put some garlic in to see if that deters them.
The beetroot is ready to pick and so is the celery if any one wants to collect some. You can go any time after four in the afternoon or at the week end and then let us know what you think. The celery has a strong taste, really good.

Sunday 5th September

Here is the converted box/cold frame/spooky looking bed! before I modified it this week, the tubs of lettuce and radish seeds that sit inside seem to like the little
micro climate and have come on well in a week. Maggie planted some lettuce seedlings in the lettuce bed and generally tidied up,watered and harvested the plots.
The Louth Leader photographer arrived and took some photos for the community section, which could be in next weeks paper, which hopefully will encourage some more visitors to the site.

September

It's September and still new seeds are pushing their way through, tasted the spinach tonight mmmm delicious. I like the deep bed James it looks big enough to climb in!

Sunday 15th August

No more bare soil!
We planted spinach, Italian (Bianca Piatta) and French (Navette de Nancy Feuille Entiere) turnips, bulb fennel, rocket, beetroot, baby leeks and Mizuna. How amazing is that to be planting seeds in the warm sun starting the third week in August!
We harvested onions, courgettes and beetroot and just one early squash.
Anyone who is waiting for an allotment or curious come and plant, harvest or just chat it is open to everbody in or near Louth.
Having said that we are not there next Sunday but shall be the following week at two, check the blog to see changes to open times.

Sunday 8th August

After a short debate, as to whether it was
ready to be harvested or not, we plucked our first squash!.








We stripped the pea plants and saved the dried pods for next years seed. Then we transplanted the leeks into another bed and harvested most of our lovely onion crop, which we stored in the shed ready for our October soup fest!




Why not pop along next Sunday and see how the garden has progressed? It'll be lovely to see you.

Abundance

Ready for harvest we have cabbages, broad beans, peas, blackcurrants and herbs with courgettes, squash, onions, sweet corn and potatoes ready soon, it's productive in the garden and some ready for swaps at the Summer Fayre. Any solution to the many little black flies on the squash they seem to be doing little harm so shall we leave them in peace?

Sunday 18h July

Just Eddie in the garden for the first hour today but we had a relaxed and potentially productive time, planted three rows of spinach with plenty more seeds for another three rows next month and planted two rows of parsnips in the harvested end of the broad bean bed . Watered the celery and celeriac and then Jude joined us when we were tucking into fig rolls and tea. Harvested some herbs and lettuce and admired the emerging raspberries, one alsmost ready but only two strawbwerries this week. Next week we shall be at the Summer Fayre in the market place with some of our produce.

Harvest and planning

We picked some of the produce and then Noel got all creative!

Then we sat down drank some juice and thought about a planting plan, which Noel has kindly tidied up

into a display format. This plan is available from the right side bar for reference when this page disappears into the archive

Music in the Garden 4th July

The wind was wild but the sun was bright!.
The day proved to be every bit as enjoyable as we'd hoped.
We picked ,cleaned,cooked and consumed our lovely crop of new potatoes, we plucked fresh salad leaves and  sweet young pods of peas and broad beans, we steamed the rampant cauliflower and red cabbage, we had a lovely time!

We listened to some fabulous music, that entertained and soothed our souls. Thanks to Martin, Patrick and the fantastic "Swings" duo for their marvellous contribution and a special thanks to Noel for the inspirational toot on his flute! 

Lots of fresh faces to be seen and everyone left with a smile and perhaps some fresh produce! 

Well done everyone for your help and support.

btw  I'm in the process of writing another 16 verses to "Veggies are growing".... something to look forward to, I'm sure you'll agree!

Summer solstice surprise!

 Look what we found on Sunday! we hadn't realised we had a cauli among the cabbages.  






We also planted out some peppers and made a cloche, then used the remainder of the bed to plant out the runner beans. We made a bunny proof screen with the salvaged plastic matting we found when we first started on the site. 

The first strawberries were consumed, very tasty they were too!

Here's a photo of the broad beans being planted in March

And here they are now!

Quite a transformation!

Hope to see you for the "Music in the Garden" event during Louth Music Festival Week. We shall be at the garden from 3pm on Sunday the 4th July, so come and join us to share in a musical celebration of the garden and all of the lovely produce that's growing there. Please bring food & drink to share, and we shall make something nutritious and (hopefully) delicious from any crop that's ready for harvest!

13th June A Shed Tea Party

It rained, the magic water butt overflowed, Noel wrestled with his sign of the century in the making, Anisha ( back from Mexico and wonderful to see) found the baby leeks and rescued them from the weeds, Janet filled many wheelbarrows to finish yet another deep bed and Eddie and Maggie put the world and the shed in order with conversation and a big tidy!
So finally a little bedraggled we celebrated in the dryness of the shed with tea and biscuits before James and Alison came to give support. Runner beans are ready to plant out and more seeds and plants to put in next week when the eco club join us to make another bed with the last of the wood. Plans are under way for a Music Festival Celebration in the evening of July 6th in the garden with our salad crops to share, more info on the way.

Overflowing water butts

After the deluge last night no need to water the garden today!

The broad beans are nearly over the top of the rabbit fence! they look magnificent don't they?











We filled the empty bed with top soil and performed some weeding around the onions and shallots. The potatoes are thriving and some of the lettuce are ready for harvest.

The peas are coming on nicely too.

For those of you who have received the latest Yellow Pages, check out page 9!
Eagle eyed Eddie spotted some familiar faces lurking at the bottom of the page!

Sunday May 30th

Thank you to Nick and Sarah we now have squash, sweet corn and courgettes! Nick will you let us know the varieties planted for our records? Eddie's hacked nettles were added as mulch, full of nitrogen for the worms to work on.
One more bed was nearly completed with cardboard as a base and a very creative method for keeping the rabbits away using salvaged materials from the grounds. Well it might shock them by its temporary nature if they try to jump over.
Janet thinned the lettuce and after tasting on the plot we all took bags home for ourselves and neighbours. Open as usual next week 2.00 to 4.00, see you there!

Mad dogs and English folk

It was really was too hot for manual work at the garden today but we didn't let that stop us!

Here is Noel making two new beds for even more lovely vegetables..not sure what just yet!

 Eddie harvesting nettlesMosaic in progress

We continue to be thoroughly impressed with our lovely broad bean crop and runner beans in the mini cloche are coming on nicely.

Hoping we can make some progress with more rabbit proof fencing soon, sadly we lost all of the sunflower plants and some herbs to our little bunny friends over the last few days.

We sampled some of the lettuce today which have filled out really well, looks like our temporary bunny proof wire is working on those beds at the very least!

Rhubarb feast

We planted a full bed of marrow fat peas 6" apart (well almost!) , some calendula, geraniums, herbs, sunflowers and more lovely lettuce (Thanks to Nick for providing yet more plants for the garden).

    It was a warm and sunny afternoon so we celebrated with Jude's lovely rhubarb dessert,(Thanks to Bob for the rhubarb) the first of hopefully many feasts we'll enjoy at the garden 

We had our picture taken for the East Lindsey Messenger that will accompany an article about Transition Town Louth in the next edition.

We plan to extend the garden with a few more plots next Sunday so please come and join us 2-4pm, perhaps

we'll have a bit more Rhubarb to cook! 

Sunday, May 9th

The garden looks better each week with the broad beans getting bigger, strawberries and fruit bushes flowering and the rhubarb ready to harvest. Next week it will be tasting time for the first crop of the season cooked in the garden!

Welcome to David and Sarah who were immediately busy with seeds they had brought, they planted two large pots of runner beans, one of radish and one of salad leaves all cunningly protected with plastic supported by scavenged flexy wood.

Also planted were beetroot seeds, rocket and two courgettes. Herbs were split and planted in the spiral centre piece. Jude decided to take the two pots of mint home to pot in larger containers and bring back next week.

Noel was technical expert for devising ways to secure the polythene over the courgettes. The last bed was filled with top soil which leaves decisions to be made on new beds, what to put in them and how big they should be!
It must be nearly time to put our three courgettes in a prepared bed and the squash and sweet corn, all donated by Nick and Sarah, plus more herbs and edible flowers.
Everyone welcome to come next week on Sunday from 2.00 -4.00pm.

Billy finds his spuds!

Billy is reunited with his seed potatoes that went missing last week. We found them and planted them before Billy had a chance to do it himself, that's him in the top right guarding the plot!
Today we made a protective shield around the rhubarb which should stop stray balls rolling into the patch.

We assembled the herb spiral and planted some parsley seeds, we'll transplant some more herbs soon to fill out the spiral. We started to fill the last raised bed with top soil and abandoned the idea of a mini poly tunnel, but made a rabbit proof net cover instead for the leek seeds. We also installed an overflow tub for the water butt to try and save even more precious rainwater!

Then we had a cup of tea!

Green shoots!

This probably isn't too exciting for all you hardened gardeners, but here are some signs of life in

the community garden!
If you look very closely the onions are shooting up.

The broad beans are looking very healthy,
we've also got the early potatoes showing themselves and the seeded lettuce sprouting too!

This is the start of the herb spiral, we're aiming to do more this Sunday 12-2pm, Hope to see you there!

Mosaic marvel!

The mosaic gang put together a lovely picture made up of broken tiles ,beads and teapot scraps!.
The rest of us barrowed more top soil for the herb spiral (which we're going to assemble once the soil has settled down) and the furthest central bed for which we intend to make a mini poly tunnel for salad crops. The broad beans are coming on nicely. We planted the selection of brassica that Maggie brought along last week in the other small square bed and erected a bunny proof fence around it.We planted 6 seed potatoes that someone had kindly donated and then gave everything a good watering.
It was very warm and an ideal day for picnics and play!

Thanks to everyone who helped out today, hope you enjoyed yourselves!

Magic Water Butt!

Arrived this afternoon to a marvellous sight the huge water butt that we temporarily installed at the
end of the guttering last Sunday was brim full of rainwater..it's a miracle! Had I imagined that it would fill so quickly  I probably wouldn't have wheel barrowed 25 litres of H2O from my house quarter of a mile away.
Anyway Eddie watered some of the crops while I dug some soil to pin the netting over the strawberries, Maggie fetched some discarded bricks from GBM to make a start on the herb spiral. It was a good day for scavenging as Maggie managed to get some old plant pots and sheet plastic to make mini poly tunnel over the cauliflower plants. I found some green plastic tiling on the soil heap that would make excellent pathways for when the grass turns muddy. Sorry no pictures to share this time, forgot the camera!
See you Sunday

Building a base for our butt

We had a very productive day today!

• Installed water butt (work in progress) :Eddy and James
• Planted Sarpo and Avona potatoes      :Noel and Janet
• Planted Lettuce, Onions and Chives     :Jennifer and Jen
• Made a groovy "dig as long as you like bed" for the little ones : Claire, Jacob and Arianne
• Kept the beds watered : Jude and Jude's sister
• Kept the troops watered, encouraged and found an excellent bird table!: Maggie 

Janet enjoying a cuppa after spud planting!

You wouldn't think it would take 2 hours to balance a butt on a plank , would you? (It would have taken another hour without Eddie!) Thanks to Claire for the searing logic that enabled the butt to be fitted at the lowest end of the gutter.

Jude calculating how far one tea bag will go round!

Thanks to Nick and Sarah for donations of plants, much appreciated!
On Wednesday we still need to rabbit proof small bed, start ideas for herb spiral/centrepiece, water beds
try to locate water standpipe. See you then!