Day 2 at Foundation House

We prepared some more fruit beds today and planted out Blackcurrant bushes, we also had some very useful help on the potato planting and top soil retrieval!

Next jobs are to establish water butts around the site and continue with the planting of onions...lots of other exciting things too that hopefully someone else will clarify on the blog!

Nick finishing off the sowing of the broad beans, we covered the bed with fine nylon netting hoping that this might  rodent interest..we shall see!

 End of day , blackcurrant bushes on the right hand bed.
Thanks again to all who came to help today , we shall be back in the garden Wed 4-6pm.

First day of spring!

We had a great start today, setting the first plots of the garden at Foundation House.

Here is Nick expertly cutting away the first turf with a Chillington Hoe.

                                          The wood for the beds arrives, thanks to Biff.

The magnificent dozen! 

That's Jackie in the deckchair on supervisory duties, after a hard dig of the nearby mulch pit.

Nearly finished , the three beds furthest left with freshly planted raspberry canes and rhubarb crowns.

In the centre the raised beds filled with topsoil from the nearby nettle patch all ready for planting. To the right the we've laid out cardboard on the de turfed plots for further fruit planting.

Thanks to everyone that helped to bring about such a fantastic transformation in just a few hours. We will be at the Earth Hour Gig at the British Legion in Louth this Saturday 27th, hoping to raise a bit of cash to buy posts and mesh to temporarily rabbit proof the raised beds. See you there!

First Jobs

We have been donated rhubarb crowns, black currant bushes, strawberry plants and raspberry canes, all that could do with planting asap.
Also we have been donated a strain of garlic that does well in this country but it needs to go in soon so it can have the cold it needs to develop cloves, and a long enough growing period to make sizable bulbs. Hopefully we can get the fruit in and the garlic bed made at our next session to be confirmed shortly...

Planting proposals for Foundation House

 Summer crops  

Photos from the Foundation House Site

First Photos from the Foundation House Site. It might look like a game of rounders!, but we are just working out a starting plot of approx. 6m sq. More details to follow.

Transition Town meeting 9th February 2010

Brief discussion about the Community Food Gardens at last night's TTL meeting.

• Maggie proposed that we submit a small grant claim to ELDC for £250 to purchase resources needed for the initial set up of the Foundation House garden. All agreed to proceed.
•  Maggie has drafted a letter, targeting Louth businesses for donations of required equipment, etc. It was also suggested that we produce a flyer that we could letterbox drop at homes within the neighbourhood of the garden, asking for help, interest, support, old tools! Also list wants on Freegle.
• Bob passed on contact names of Staff members at KEVIs who would be able to help with the project.
• Meeting set for Wed 17th to confirm initial requirements and project time line.

A vision

Here is an idea.
On any site that we are going to be offered to have a community food growing garden there will be some factors which are not ideal for food growing. A slope, shade, bad soil, overhanging trees, bad access,rabbits, etc etc.The Foundation House site shares many of these problems in different parts of the plot.
But in the real world of people's gardens and allotments these are the problems they have to deal with. None of the situations I have mentioned above would mean no food could be grown, it is just a matter of the careful design of that particular type of plot.
Maybe this is what we could do with a community food growing garden in Louth. We could demonstrate that it doesn't matter what your garden or growing space is like there is a way that it could be used to grow food. The plot could be divided up in relation to the type of issues that that area will present. A section under the trees, a section on the steepest slope, etc.
Then a food growing garden to suit those conditions could be built in that area so show people it is possible.
Just an idea...