Progressing together

Volunteer showing off her
handy wood carving skills

Warmest greetings on this wet autumn day. Still moaning about the wet weather this season. Many rivers in parts of the UK have burst their banks and caused loads of damage due to flooding. We have been very lucky, though we have had pretty much non stop rain for weeks we have not had any flooding. 

Herb Spiral build --
Multiple mulch layers 

On the odd occasion when the rain breaks for a few hours we managed to get out and do some work. We've completed our herb spiral. The herb spiral is a Permaculture form that allows you to create your own ecosystem and become self sufficient. The format can be adapted to large gardens if space is available. We found a large stack of bricks which were as a result of a demolition job near us. Bricks allows for retention of heat and insulate plants in colder weather or at night, while acting as a backbone for the structure. We used fermented grass as a base layer for the structure and filled it with layers of manure, straw, fallen leaves and compost. Thanks to the rain the layers have been watered in very well and have now settled and ready for planting up in spring. I am very excited about this project. The spiral was placed just outside the kitchen door and will act as a living spice rack conveniently placed to be utilized during cooking.

Planting plan -- Herb Spiral

The spiral is a natural form that provides an efficient method for managing space, storing and sorting. Using the natural universal design of a spiral, the forces of gravity and water flow are utilized to their fullest allowing for proper drainage downhill. Herbs that thrive on drier soils live at the top, whereas those needing more moisture reside at the bottom where water collects. This form allows for planting of a widely diverse number of plants, and creates natural, sunny and shady areas -- a perfect miniature microclimate landscape environment. The herb spiral also creates a bio-diverse habitat for creatures who come to visit the garden. For a more detailed look at the creation process check out our facebook link. Herb Spiral Build -- Autumn 2012

Beginning stages -- Biological toilet

We have also been working on the biological toilet. We have a rough design plan which keeps evolving to best match the materials we are able to salvage. Hardcore from old paving slabs were used to strengthen the foundation posts, discarded fence post for the framework, we've used palette wood to construct the composting chambers and later on in the build willow poles will be used to create a living shield which will not only enclosed and protect the structure from the elements but will also use up the excess liquid that will accumulate in the chambers, preventing undesirable leaks. We aim to have this project done before spring and will make a start on the communal structure shortly after the Christmas period. 

Andrew of Syon Lane
Community Allotment Project
helps to bag up compost

I mentioned in the last post that our composting system has grown significantly and has been very efficient and productive. We harvested over fifteen 60lt bags from one of the heaps and have used a lot of it to top up most of the growing beds and feed all our fruit trees and bushes. We've also had visits from old friends from the Syon Lane Community Allotment project and Runnymede Eco-village and had a good old catch on whats' been going on the the world of community eco-project. We have also just returned from a two day conference involving a number of food growing community projects. The conference was organised and facilitated by the UK Permaculture Association. We  were one of the featured projects and asked to do a short story telling session on our experiences and visions. The notion of food growing in the middle of a city environment engaging local communities is one that large environmental organisations are keen to support. And only two days ago we were asked to join a meeting hosted by the Councillors of Merton and the people responsible for the maintenance of the green spaces in the borough. This meeting was called to discuss the potential of forming a collective of community food growing and other ecological projects. This is great news for us as it means that we will be have the support of both the council and the many other community projects operating in Merton. We have been provided with maps showing many of the green spaces which may be freed up for community food growing in the near future.

Thanks to all our dedicated volunteers who have stuck with us all through the rough weather to help us realise our goals for creating an inspiring, educational, productive and relaxing community space. Peace, Love and more Blessings.  
               

       

Atumn Bliss

The May team at Deen City
Farms' harvest day

So after a challenging spring/summer period, we are now carrying on into the winter months. So far it's been cold, wet and very windy. But that hasn't dampened the spirits of the true eco worriers  We have had a steady inflow of visitors and volunteers helping us get our herb spiral, composting toilet and communal space built before next spring. Over the past month we have been focusing on winter planting and early spring harvest. We have been making good use of our neighbors garden and have planted loads of golden chard and broccoli. 

Broccoli under plastic soda bottle
greenhouses/slug barriers 

We are still fighting with the slugs and snails but have an ally in the form of miniature white spider creatures which we have identified as a type of nematode. We have been noticing the increase of injured sickly look slugs being found around the garden and on closer inspection observed that these nematodes were crawling all over the poor slimy creatures. Natures balance. However we are still taking precautions and have added extra barriers to help keep the pests away.  We had a slight frost a few weeks ago and all of our younger tomatoes we were hoping to have a late harvest off were damaged. Next time we will aim to build some sort of temporary weather protection from the later succession crops. In our garden we have planted out the salads we had sown back in September. Most of which we planted in the polytunnel and the rest in large pot indoors. We are hoping that we will be able to harvest grees all through winter. 

Winter greens and seed balls/
green grenades

We have also planted loads of chard, broccoli, leek, kale, parsnip and cabbage all of which were sown last month and are now incubation in the winter nursery in the polytunnel. They all seem to be doing very well despite the low temperatures and limited sunlight available. In the last post I mentioned the workshops we have been hosting and all the groups and organisations we had visit. Well we were invited to be part of our local farms' harvest festival and were featured in the local newspaper as a result. We had seed balls making workshops and had jams and cider for sale. It was a great day and we were received very well. We have been growing slowing in popularity and are now been seen by other, larger more established, organisations as potential beneficial partners. This is great for us as it means that we have the backing and resources of more experience ecological institutes. 

Mushrooms growing in the QR
composting heap

Another thing which has grown dramatically this year is our compost making capacity. We have created so much compost this year that we are slightly struggling to find places to store the excess. I still have to publish a post completely dedicated to our composting system.We have five different composting processes but my personal favorite is the quick return (aerobic) system. During this time of year (summer - autumn) there is almost always lots of excess fruit laying about. This year our apple tree didn't do very well (compared to previous years) but we were blessed with locating a number of neglected fruit trees, both public and private. We collected a great deal of apples, plums and pears and had juicing sessions, and made a selection of jams and chutneys which went down a treat. 

A selection of jams

We have also been playing around with planting crops outdoors to see how they will cope with the harsh change in weather. The spring onions recently got demolished by slugs, but the beetroots are still going strong even after the frost. Also the forest garden has been really living up to its' name. All the trees have put on a hell of a lot of growth this year. We restricted them from bearing fruit by prick out the blossoms as they began to form fruits which I think allowed them to concentrate on working on root and wood development. We have also been dividing up the comfrey plants we have and planting them up around each tree. This will serve as feed for the trees next season when we will allow them to produce fruit.  

Chard and leek beds

So it hasn't been all dull, wet and gloomy this season. Though the harvest wasn't as abundant as we would have expected, we still managed to form valuable connections, learnt valuable lessons and are now even more confident for the development in the coming seasons. We've got a compost toilet, communal structure, and herb spiral on the horizon. This season was all about creating awareness of the project, building up our network and developing the main focus of the project. This come season we will aim to increase the educational aspect of the project and step up community engagement. We always welcome new ideas and energies to the project so if you have anything to offer or just want to get involve and learn about ecology please visit our website and get in touch. Peace Love and Blessings.      

The challenge is carrying on.

The Challenge

This summer has been full of many activities. We have been holding regular workshops on ecological topic such as making wildlife habitat from recycled materials, wild food foraging, and composting. We had two groups of young people for the organisation called The Challenge come round and got involved in compost making, seed, firewood collection and apple pressing. It was a such a privilege having them over and seeing them get excited about their environment the potential they posses to make a difference. One of the groups went off and did a sponsored barefoot walk as a direct result of their visit. The other returned and built themselves a few bird boxes. It was great having the young people over but it was also challenging. We had to convince them that it was alright to get dirt under your nails and that worms were actually really cool creatures and have a very important role to play in the grand scheme of things. It took a while to convince them but at the end of the visit the vast majority of them were happy playing around in the soil and holding worms. So we now have a new member organisation to add to our network and for that we are thankful.

Courgettes (marrows)

Collecting straw and manure

Our bond with Deen City Farm has also grown stronger. For the past few months we have been helping them get their allotment space up and running and it's doing amazingly well. We have also been harvesting loads of courgettes from our little plot at their growing gardens site located at the farm and we often collect straw and manure from their muck pile. Deen City Farm is an amazing place and has a number of exciting programmes ongoing. We will be a feature at their harvest festival on the 29th September. Our theme for the event will be Permacultue and Guerilla Gardening. We will be engaging the public by making clay seed bombs and a wormery made from used tyres. We are very excited about it all. We have also been collecting straw and manure for mulching and compost making from the farm. This is an amazing resource to have just outside our doorstep and everyone gets involved in the process. 

So the rains have finally held off for a bit and we were graced with a long spell of both dry and hot weather. As a result we have seen the number of volunteers increase. Many came and helped out in the harvesting and maintenance of the garden. We had a good potato harvest this year, and we are picking tomatoes on a regular basis. We did loose a lot to blight and mildew but luckily we were prepared and had quite a lot of seedlings on standby, we always sow about a third more than we think we might need. The excess can be given away or planted out on a disused site. 

Volunteer digging for potatoes

Golden sunrise tomatoes

We have also been harvesting peppers, aubergines, beans, sweet corn and beetroot. Our onions didn't do well this year, many of them were repeatedly attacked by slugs and snails and as a result did not get very big. Our garlics on the other hand were a success and were surprisingly strong flavoured this time round. We lost the majority of our pumpkin crop but managed to save one and she now lives in the polytunnel. During the hot periods we move our nursery outside the polytunnel. We used pallets to make a temporary table and this is where we keep our young plants. We are getting ready for winter and have sown the majority of our winter crops this year we are going for leeks, parsnips, broccoli, chard, cabbages and kale. We will also be trying to have some salads going over the winter period as well.

Roasting sweet corn on the BBQ

We have been doing a fair bit of salvaging over the past few months and have came across some really good finds. It's amazing what people throw out in a country where surplus is in abundance. A few weeks ago we found a cut little cast iron BBQ and a large heavy duty waterproof tarp which we used to waterproof the pallet shack we have been building since last November. The wormery we built a few months ago has been doing very well and was made using old tyres we found while out scouting. We recently harvested the first bit of worm castings and the texture is amazing, very light and airy. The wormery was made by attaching chicken wire to the bottom of each tyre and stacking them on each other. We then lined the inside of the tyres with straw and laid down a generous layer of absorbent organic material like newspaper, egg cartons, and dead leaves at the bottom of each tyre. The bottom tyre was filled with well rotted compost, leaf mould and some partially rotted organic material (kitchen waste, garden weeds, etc), then a few handfuls of worms which we collected from our already existing composting systems. This was then covered and left for two days to allow the worms to settle into their new home. The second tyre was filled with organic kitchen waste and two weeks later the final tyre was also filled with organic kitchen waste and the wormery was complete. The wormery was built in May and approximately four months later we harvested the first of the bounty. We refilled the harvested tyre (bottom one) then refilled it with organic kitchen waste and topped it off with the worms from the previously harvested batch.

Fresh tyre of organic kitchen waste(left) and topped off with worms and some compost(right)

Lots learnt this season. Though we had a very challenging summer we harvested loads and are hopeful for the autumn and winter months so we carry on.