Apple trees at Charles St

Just pruned heritage apple trees at Charles St Garden

Exactly 6 years since we planted them in memory of David Fleming 

Charles Street wildbed update

Two weeks on from the unfortunate Charles St wild bed clearance..you'll be pleased to know that the situation has been resolved with the local authorities.We received an apology for the over enthusiastic

management of the bed and it's been agreed that we can continue to host a wild bed along the fence line. 

I've made a sign today at Louth Men's Shed (more of that excellent concept in later posts :)) which hopefully will get the message across for the purpose of the "messy" bed and avoid a similar incident in the future.

I'm really pleased that we're able to keep this bed going for all those residents who've stopped to look and expressed their appreciation for the wide variety of uncommon wild plants on display... it would be great if small beds like this helped make the uncommon, common, don't you think? 

Thanks for all the messages of support

Cheers

James 

The ups and downs of community gardening

Ok I'm sat down enjoying a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit desperately trying to think of the words to describe my feelings about the events of the morning.
First off we had a meeting at the Gatherums tiding up the beds and planting out some seedlings and enjoyed the splash of colour at the herb garden created by the early sowing of the Grow Wild seed kit
that we got from the RHS.

The pollinators were loving the variety of flowers that had appeared in the last two weeks and we were rightly proud of our efforts to help improve bio-diversity in our town.




Ok all well and good and spirits were high until we reached the Charles St garden and discovered to our horror that the contractor
had been instructed to obliterate the wild flower bed that we had sown and planted in December 2012. Sadly we weren't there in time to try and help save some of the wide variety of pollinator friendly plants that were in there.

They left behind the cans & bottles for the volunteers to collect

Bizarrely the only plant they left is a cultivated shrub which I doubt is much use to the pollinators, but on the plus side it looks nice and isn't prickly

A species under threat gets evicted..because things must be tidied up 

From what I can gather from a brief conversation with Cllr Sarah Dodds, ELDC had a walk round and decided to weed the area because of complaints from residents.

We didn't have any sign up to suggest this was being left wild for environmental reasons so no-one thought to ask before clearing it up,

I'm going to put a sign up now to explain what has happened, to all the passers by that I know have enjoyed the bed over the last couple of years.

Apparently ELDC are going to turf it over.

Spreading the good stuff!

We gave the raised beds at the community gardens of the Gatherums and Charles St a fresh layer of compost today ready to feed a fresh crop of vegetables.

This annual "top up" was made extra special by the use of our own Louth made community compost!

We put over 80kg of mature, but un-sieved 6 month old compost on the beds. It looks full of goodness and will add structure and moisture retention to the existing beds...if I was a vegetable, I would be very happy to be sat in it :)

If you're in the area pop in and have a look!

Thank you

I went on a Community Garden trail today and wanted to say thank you for all the different designs and ideas. I really enjoyed pottering in The Gatherums and re experiencing the great casual conversations as people pass.
I heard a little boy saying to another" Don't tread on the flowers." How good is that?
Charles Street:  Where is the water supply? There are so many plants and seeds growing there and the wild flowers have labels. Then to Spout Yard where water is plentiful and seeds are growing in the little "no dig" bed.
Loved it thank you

Going's on in the gardens

Cabbages in the Gatherums

View from the top of the Charles St garden

Wildflowers in the bottom bed at Charles St

The herb bed at the Gatherums being weeded

 Wilderness at Charles St..not being weeded!

Spout yard planter

This is the newly refurbished planter at Spout Yard park, we've recycled compost bags to

form the two little beds on either side of the runner bean tub. The bags are suspended between the frame of the planter with thumb tacks, this mean less compost  and a lighter planter, just hope no one sticks a fork into them! We've planted spring onion, chioggia beetroot, small turnips and corn salad.

After a long cold winter we're gearing up to transform the growing spaces around Louth into fine displays of vegetables and fruit. If you have any spare seedlings that you'd like to plant out into one of spaces then please get in touch.

Thanks

James 

Google Earth image of the gardens currently located around Louth

If you go down to the garden today....you're sure of a big surprise!

Say hello to the latest contribution to the garden from the Kevi's students!

Tap it, unwrap it!

Giant Iced Doughnut!

Todmorden...just do it!

If you needed any convincing about the power of community watch this video

Incredible Edible Inspiration

In the deep midwinter!

We had a great day today, planting out three Lincolnshire heritage apple trees at the Charles St community garden. Fine specimens of Barnack Beauty, Allington Pippin and Sleeping Beauty were supplied by Shaun D'Arcy-Burt of Manby and settled into their new home in bright winter sunshine. The trees were funded from the estate of the late David Fleming and are dedicated to his memory. David was a founder member of the Ecology Party, an inspiration to the Transition Town movement and a great friend of Biff & Jean.

 We also prepared and planted out a wildflower patch alongside the fence. A variety of plants were donated by Biff & Jean including, cowslips, willow herb, pink campion, mullein, foxgloves and Alison's contribution Verbascum virgatum, aka twiggy mullein !
All in readiness to impress the 2013 East Midland in Bloom Judges...all the local passers by...and most importantly the BEES!

Look at that lovely Russian Kale!

Hot boxing!

Bit excited because my hot box composter is steaming away!
Thought I'd share this video of the box in action all I've done is make sure there's a reasonable mix of
browns and greens kept the airway clear and the micro beasts are doing the rest!
The makers say you should get mulching compost in 30 days and mature compost within 90 days
I'll have a look in a couple of months and let you know!
You can get more info on them here hot bin composting

And no, I'm not on commission!

Tools Shed donation

I collected a refurbished set of garden tools yesterday from Steve Russell of Morton Hall IRC (immigration removal centre).
The tools are publicly donated and then restored by detainees to be re-distributed to community use.

This was the first handover of tools in Lincolnshire though the same scheme has been running in London for the last 5 years.

This is a clip from the press release

“With more and more schools and community groups ‘growing their own’ there is great demand for garden tools and rarely any budget” says Conservation Foundation Director David Shreeve. “A recycling project that helps to equip the next generation of gardeners, reduces waste and provides practical skills for detainees, seems the ideal solution” 

If you know of a community group or school that would benefit from the scheme then please contact the Conservation Foundation  tools@conservationfoundation.co.uk

Spout yard planter

Thought you'd like to see a photo of the latest addition to Louth's "Footpath of Food".
We've installed a small metre square bed by the riverside in Spout Yard, we've planted strawberries and courgettes to give passers-by a little taster of "growing your own".
The plan is to make another similar bed on the other side of the path in the next few weeks.

Charles St Picnic!

We had a great time yesterday afternoon putting together the first of the raised beds in the Charles St garden.
The sun shone and we had many conversations with passers by interested in the project. Still work to do so if you'd like to get involved with the second stage please get in touch.

We made 4 raised beds and planted sunflower plants (thanks Johnathon!) Leek seedlings (thanks Noel & Janet!) radish and spring onion seeds (thanks Jackie & Jean!).
 If you have some plants/seeds you'd like to add to the plot then please let me know.

 Celebrating the summer solstice in sunny style!

Sowing seeds at KEVI'S

Alexa, Janet, Noel, Ros and I met up with some of the students at the Grammar school yesterday. Janet, Noel & Ros helped Tom and Owen  plant 18 Arran pilot seed potatoes that I had chitted earlier, Charlotte and Sam were happy sowing out the broad beans with Alexa and I helped the two Billy's and Harry to sow coriander seeds and a clump of Jerusalem artichokes in the white sacking beds.
Thanks to both Sarah Pillans and Sue Nelson from Kevi's for bringing the students along we're hoping to
start a regular Thursday lunchtime club, if you'd like to join in then please let me know.

The changing face of Foundation House garden

Not a great photo is it? but it gives you a bit of an idea of how the beds are in the garden right now.
We have removed some of the fencing and bed surrounds to be used on other growing projects around the town. We've also joined two of the beds into one long open area for a crop of potatoes and partially prepared another open bed for broad beans. We've decided to open out the beds so that the school students will be better able to access the crops, the gamble being that the wild life might get there first!
We hope to sow the crops one lunchtime in late March with students of the food technology course. The tutor, Sue Nelson is keen to get them involved with the growing as well as the cooking of vegetables. This is brilliant news and hopefully just the start of greater school involvement in the garden.
If you'd like to come along to help sow the crops and meet the students just let me know and I'll confirm the date and time.

Healthy Cooking Sessions in your Community

10
week programme to include basic cooking skills, cooking on a budget, food
hygiene and a variety of healthy recipes for you to cook.
Sessions
will be up to 2 hours

(no fee
as NHS Funded)

Trinity Centre, Eastfield Road, Louth
Commencing
Thursday 19th January 2012
10am

To
register your interest, please contact the
Food
for Life team on:
01507 601111 or on our mobiles:
Tracey:
07500 020193/Miranda: 07767 664186

Then if you want to grow the food for the cooking contact James, we are hoping to start new gardens so new people to join in are always welcome.

Maggie goes walkabout

Late autumn

We have tidied up the beds in the Gatherums, reduced the amount of marigolds that have been so spectacular over the summer and transplanted spring cabbage (thanks Nick!) and hardy lettuce (this variety survived last years severe frosts so we're hoping they'll do well)

We also transferred some of the alpine strawberry to the Church St plots also planting garlic cloves.I rigged up a small sign to encourage local residents to contact me if they'd like some help to grow their own vegetables. The owner of the site is quite happy with what's happening so watch this space there may be some more beds very soon!