Posted: September 12, 2016

We managed to get quite a bit done in the garden last Sunday. It was great to welcome a new volunteer and also to see some more familiar faces popping in to say hello.

Weeding one of our beds

Justin did a lot of work on the tomatoes, pruning away the leaves so we could better see what was growing and also to stop the plants having to support so many leaves.

And we had a good harvest of tomatoes at the end of the dig too.

Martha weeded a bed where our garlic had grown, and planted a couple of rows of turnips in it afterwards.

Sadie cleared a bed of broad bean plants, which had had their day, gave everything a good water and added a few more supports to some tomatoes that were struggling under the weight of their fruit.

Planting some onions and cabbag

Joe weeded the empty bed and planted in some onion seeds and some cabbages, as our cabbages in the polytunnel aren’t yet showing signs of life.

And a couple of others dropped in to say hello and soak up some of the sunshine.

Along with our tomatoes we also harvested some potatoes, herbs and crab apples – of which there are plenty now on three trees!

A good crop of tomatoes!

Posted: August 19, 2016

Last Sunday we tied up the tomato plants. We have lots of tomatoes again this year – we even managed to harvest a handful.

We also planted cabbage, lettuce and basil in the polytunnel for planting out later in the year.

We harvested potatoes and broad beans, and picked loads of blackberries.

Sorry we forgot to take any photos!

Posted: August 13, 2016

We dug over one of the beds last week and planted out our chilli and pepper plants. Some of them already have fruit.

Chilli plant

We also weeded the asparagus.

We gave the garden a good watering with our newly fixed hose which now reaches all the way to the fruit cage!

We harvested garlic, kale, potatoes, loganberries and blackberries.

Last week’s harvest

Posted: July 29, 2016

We did some much-needed weeding and watering in the garden last week, and a volunteer pruned the Cedar of Lebanon tree for us.

Pruning the tree

The tomatoes and kale are looking really good!

Kale

Tomatoes growing well

We have so many potatoes! Come and give us a hand this Sunday and take home some freshly-dug spuds – they’re delicious!

Last Sunday’s harvest

Posted: July 21, 2016

Things are changing fast in the garden now. Our tomato plants are looking good after we planted them out a few weeks ago. Broad bean plants are doing well. And we have peppers growing in the polytunnel.

Apples growing in our garden

There were only a couple of us last Sunday, but we did some weeding, tied up our tomato plants so they have stronger support as they grow, and harvested some berries. In our fruit cage we now have black currants, red currants and raspberries growing. And we also have apples!

We also gave everything a good water in preparation for the hot days that followed.

We’ll be in the garden most Sundays from 2-4pm over the summer, and there will be lots to do and more things to harvest. Come along and give us a hand.

Posted: June 30, 2016

A few weeks ago we planted out our French beans ,and built a cane teepee structure to support them.

French beans

We also repotted all the plants that were still in the polytunnel, giving them a bit more space to get bigger before planting them out in the ground.

Repotted tomatoes

Our fruit bushes are looking great! We have currants, raspberries and gooseberries – yum!

A gooseberry!

Posted:

GoodGym volunteers working hard

A belated and very big thank you to the volunteers from GoodGym Brixton who came along a few weeks ago. They cleared a couple of our beds of weeds and dug over the soil, ready for us to plant out our tomatoes. With the British summer bringing an abundance of rain we need all the help we can get to keep the garden in shape. Thank you very much!

Before

After

Posted: May 22, 2016

Last week we found our first asparagus in the garden, after a 3 year wait!

Asparagus

We also harvested the last of the leeks from the demonstration bed at the front of the garden, dug it over and planted out the peas. We put broad beans straight into the ground.

Peas just planted

Last week’s harvest of leeks and spinach

Posted: May 11, 2016

Sunday

We’ll be in the garden this Sunday from 2pm to 4pm. Join us to plant out some broad beans and peas, harvest the last of our leeks and prepare some of the beds for the rest of our crops.

Saturday

There’s also a gardening event by the bowling green on Saturday from 11am to 3pm. We’ll be joining the Friends of Ruskin Park and Trees for Cities to help get the green looking lovely for summer. See the Ruskin Park gardening day 14th May poster for location details.

Posted: April 25, 2016

It was a chilly day for the Big Dig Day this year, but that meant the gardeners had to keep moving to stay warm!

Working hard in the fruit cage

We had some keen new volunteers who helped us clear out the fruit cage, which was so overgrown with weeds we couldn’t tell the beds from the path. One of our regulars, the robin, was there, following us along looking for worms as we dug the soil.

One of our regulars

We used bricks to build a border around the bed at the front of the fruit cage – it looked pretty good when it was finished, even if it is a little wonky!

Building a border in the fruit cage

A brick border round one of the beds

We chatted about what we should plant there – wondering if we should get more currant bushes or try our hand at strawberries.

We had a little bit of time left to do plant a few more seeds in the polytunnel.

Planting in the polytunnel

We’ll be in the garden this Sunday from 2 to 4pm if you’d like to come and give us a hand.

Posted: April 14, 2016

Big Dig Day 2016 poster

Join us in the garden from 1pm to 4pm this Saturday as part of he Big Dig.

There’s plenty of work to do planting seeds and preparing the beds.

Our beekeeper will be there too.

Posted: March 30, 2016

We started planting seeds in the polytunnel a couple of weeks ago for this year’s crops. This was slightly later than last year, but February was so cold we thought we should hold off till the weather warmed up a little.

We planted the usual tomatoes, green beans and peas, and left some potatoes chitting to plant next time. This year we’re also trying our hand at sweet peppers, chilli peppers, courgettes and celery.

Seeds in the polytunnel

We also planted some garlic straight outside into one of the beds.

planting garlic into the bed

Posted: February 25, 2016

It was a bit of a breezy day in the garden last Sunday but gardeners were slightly protected by working in the fruit cage.

Be gone weeds!

Three of us tackled the enormous amount of weeds that had grown up there. We got a lot done but there’s still more work to do on it!

We also harvested some of our leeks, and some cavelo nero too.

This weekend we’ll be in the garden on Saturday 27 February to coincide with a Trees for Cities tree planting day. We’ll be in the garden from 11am until 3pm – feel free to pop in and say hello, find out more about the garden and give us a hand.

Hopefully we’ll also be planting up some new seeds for the next harvest too.

Yum – some of our leeks grown in the garden

Posted: February 19, 2016

It was a quiet day in the garden for our last dig, but that meant the chance to do some much-needed tidying.

The planks of wood were moved to behind the compost so we can get to the plant pots more easily.

Tidied wood

The canes were moved from beside the shed to beside the fence, so we can store the bricks under the bee frame.

Tidied canes

And some of the netting was sorted out and folded.

The beds all got a sign with their number on too – so it should be easier for us to communicate what needs doing.

Numbered beds

Posted: February 4, 2016

We got a lot of clearing up done during our dig – and turned up a surprising amount of potatoes in the process!

Some of our potato harvest

Four gardeners came to help. We weeded many of the beds and dug over the soil, to start getting them ready for planting.

We were pleased to find that hiding underneath our compost heaps there is usable compost, and we dug some of this into the beds too.

We harvested a bit of lettuce and herbs too.

We’ll be back in the garden this Sunday 7 February.

Doing some weeding

Posted: January 14, 2016

We had our first dig of the New Year last Sunday, and got a good bit of weeding done. We also moved some parsnips that were growing too close together to give them more space, and even managed to prune the weeping willow tree.

Parsnips

Weeded leeks in the demonstration bed

We had a great harvest of cabbage, kohlrabi, celeriac, spinach and cavalo nero, and we’re particularly proud of having lettuces at this time of year!

Lettuce and cabbage

First harvest of the New Year

Posted: November 26, 2015

Despite yesterday’s dig day coincided with first really cold day of the season, we harvested a surprising amount of produce – celeriac, kohlrabi, lettuce, radieshes cabbage, turnips, cavolo nero and a parsnip which we dug up by accident!

We cut back the brambles which grow through the fence where the garden borders the railway track. There was even one that had sneaked into the polytunnel.

We weeded the asparagus bed and the large bed with carrots, parsnips, spinach and beetroot in it. The marigolds have done their bit now so we pulled them out to give the veg more space to grow. We also pulled up all the radishes and transplanted some of the parsnips into the space we made.

We also pulled up the rest of the beans, saving any in the pods that were left to plant next year. We left the roots in the ground to put nitrogen back into the soil. We pulled down the cane structures that had been supporting the tomatoes and beans.

Harvest

Clearing the bed

Lettuces

Posted: November 18, 2015

We had a briefer dig day due to rainy and blustery weather. We did a bit of tidying around the garden and raked up more leaves for our compost.

We harvested our chinese artichokes and were surprised to see how much of it we have! Despite looking like grubs they were actually quite nice, kind of like radishes.

Some of our freshly harvested chinese artichokes

We also harvested some of our lettuce, which is doing remarkably well and avoiding being eaten by slugs.

Posted: November 2, 2015

Dear fellow Gardeners

And so we head into winter for real, as the clocks have gone back and the dark nights draw in.  Our last dig was on Saturday 24 October, during which we had a tidy up and harvested as well.  We weeded and tidied up beds and raked in huge piles of leaves to be deposited on the compost heap, as well as dancing on them to pack them well in!  We harvested Cavolo Nero, Lettuce, Spinach, Squash and Purple Runner Beans to round off a productive day.

As winter has arrived, so we move to once every two weeks for digging.  Our next dig day is on Saturday 7 November from 1 – 3 pm and we will do some more weeding and tidying up of the gardens, as well as planting Garlic and Broad Beans.  We hope to see you then.

All the best for now,

The Community Gardeners

Posted: October 30, 2015

Now that the clocks have changed our dig days are every fortnight.

There’s no dig tomorrow 31 October, but we’ll be back in the garden next week.

Posted: October 18, 2015

We had a quiet day in the garden yesterday but did manage to weed the celeriac bed and tidy the shed!

Next week, we’ll do more weeding and gather up some leaves for our compost heap.

Posted: October 12, 2015

We focused on neatening up the garden at our dig last Saturday. Plenty of rain meant we had lots of weeding to do, yet again, so we made a start by tackling a couple of beds plus a section of the fruit cage.

We discovered a few potatoes during the weeding in one of the beds!

Doing the weeding

Our tomatoes seemed to get blight, and we’d dug several of our plants up over the last few weeks. Last Saturday we dug up the last ones from the front of our garden.

We dug over the whole bed, which our leeks are growing nicely in, to neaten it up. We also cut through the grass and weeds that had grown up around the front of the garden – so hopefully now it’s easier for people to actually see into the garden and have a look at what we are growing!

We cut back our bean plants that had finished producing for the year, but we left the roots in the ground as instructed by Monty Don so that the nutrients can go back into the soil.

We had a relatively small harvest compared with some weeks but everyone took away some potatoes, runner beans and green beans. We got a few raspberries from our fruit cage too.

Cutting back the weeds

This was only our second Saturday dig and we’re still testing it out to see if more people can make it.

Last week we had one gardener who came for the first time in years as she hasn’t been able to make Sundays. Another couple of gardeners have said they prefer Saturdays – and a couple have said they prefer Sundays!

If you have an opinion, let us know. We’ll be in the garden again this Saturday from 2-4pm.

Posted: October 9, 2015

Last Saturday we cleared one of the beds and planted out some Cos lettuce which we’d started off in the polytunnel a few weeks ago. We also planted some chard straight into the groud in the same bed after we’d given it a good weeding and turning over. Hopefully this will give us some crops over autumn and winter.

Marking out the lines for the lettuce

Planting out lettuce

We also pulled up the tomatoes in the mandala bed.

Clearing tomatoes

We harvested beans, tomatoes, spring onions and radishes. And we still have an enormous pumpkin in the shed ready to share out.

Harvest

Posted: September 28, 2015

We had great weather for gardening last Sunday and we started to do a bit of clearing out in the garden. Unfortunately our tomatoes seem to be near the end of their productive life as many of the plants seem to have picked up a disease.

Our tomato harvest

We harvested all the tomatoes we could, which was quite a lot, and left the very green ones in the hope they will be ok next week.

Sadie dug up some of the plants completely as the stems were beginning to rot, and we may have to pull up the rest next week.

Doing the watering

Justin also cut back the squash plants, which had taken over a big part of the garden, and things look much tidier now we have got rid of the excess leaves. Tom did a great job in cutting back the raspberry plants in the fruit cage too. It’s much easier to see what we have now – and we have added to our compost heap!

We also did some watering and Imogen gave the bed with our carrots in a good weeding. We tied up our asparagus plants and harvested some beans, cabbages, kohlrabi and another squash.

Doing the weeding

From next weekend (3 October) we’ll be in the garden on Saturdays from 2-4pm. All gardeners, new and old, are welcome to pop in and give us a hand. And we are also planning our planting plan for the coming year. So if there are things you’d like to see growing in the garden, please let us know.

Posted: September 27, 2015

What a fabulous afternoon for last Saturday’s annual harvest feast! It was great to meet some new friends and see some old faces too.

Some of the food at the harvest feast

Special thanks to all the gardeners who prepared dishes from our vegetables and herbs. We had some delicious dishes to share, including warm pumpkin soup.

Justin heating up soup

Special thanks also to Capital Growth for visiting us.

We hope to see some new faces in the garden this afternoon – we’ll be there from 2 to 4pm.

As of next week, we’ll be gardening on Saturdays. Sign up to our email alerts to be kept posted.

Posted: September 15, 2015

Join us on Saturday from 3 to 5pm for our annual harvest feast.

Some of the gardeners will be preparing dishes made from our produce, so come along and try some!

We’ll be in garden as part of Capital Growth’s edible open garden’s day so come in for a chat and find out what we do. We’ll also have a few jars of local honey for sale.

Last Sunday we weeded the beds and harvested lots of vegetables to prepare for the feast.

Posted: September 10, 2015

Last Sunday was such a lovely day to be in the garden that a few of us ended up staying quite a while. We weeded some of the beds – the recent rain meant that the weeds were growing everywhere. We cut back and tied up the tomatoes to stop them drooping on the floor and rotting – a job that needs doing every week at this time of year.

We also repotted the cos lettuce we have growing in the polytunnel into bigger pots to strengthen the roots before we plant them out in the ground.

We harvested beans, tomatoes, spring onion, chives, shallots, Savoy cabbage, the last of the beetroot and a lonely turnip we found.  We also have another huge pumpkin which we left for next week (tomato for scale).

Next week we’ll be doing some  more weeding and planting some seeds to see us through winter.

Sunday will be our last dig before our harvest feast on Saturday 19 September.  If you’d like to prepare something for the feast please come along on Sunday to collect some of the harvest.

Posted: September 1, 2015

One of our enormous squashes grown recently in the garden

We had a great harvest at our dig day last Sunday. We harvested lots of our tomatoes, some runner beans, a few green beans, a couple of potatoes, a couple of cabbages, a bit of cavelo nero and some rhubarb. We also took a knife to one of our huge pumpkins that were harvested a few weeks ago and divided it up among the gardeners who were there at the time.

We have been a little quiet in the garden over the last few weeks and many people will have been on holiday. This isn’t very unusual for us. But there is always lots to do and it’s great to see new faces.

Last Sunday we gave a couple of the beds a good weeding. The combination of warm weather plus plenty of rain meant they had shot up! We trimmed back some of the leaves on our tomato plants as they had also grown enormously and it was getting a bit hard to see all the tomatoes for the leaves!

We strengthened some of the structures for them and added new ones, to try and stop them lying on the ground and becoming easy prey for birds and squirrels. Although it was nice to have a visit from our regular robin during the dig.

Some of our tomatoes and beans harvested during last week’s dig

Next week we’ll be continuing the weeding, harvesting more crops and possibly planting more seeds so we have a regular supply of produce as we go into autumn. We’ll also be discussing more about our upcoming Harvest Feast – which is on Saturday 19 September between 3pm and 5pm.

Our plan is for gardeners to volunteer to make a few things using produce from the garden. If you have ideas about things you’d like to make, please get in touch or chat to us at the dig.

One of our regular visitors

Posted: July 28, 2015

The bad weather put everyone off this week – there were no volunteers in the garden!

Paula spent some time cutting back the tree over the water trough and the blackberries near the railway line. Some of the blackberries are already ripe!

Posted: July 23, 2015

We had a record turnout in the garden last Sunday – 11 volunteers came to help! We were glad to welcome lots of new faces and the big numbers meant we got a lot done.

Watering the cabbages in the fruit cage

We weeded pretty much every bed in the garden and gave everything a really good water. We also fed our crops with some fertiliser from our wormery.

We cleared out the herb boxes next to our bees and planted new herbs in them, including basil.

We had a big harvest – including some potatoes, beetroot, turnips, shallots, garlic, radishes and chard. And clearing a little space meant we could also plant a bit more, so we planted some spinach where our turnips had been. We also planted some more radishes and onions in the bed where the chard had been.

Planting some spinach seeds

We cut back the gooseberry bushes a little and also the tree so we can get to our water a little easier!

Thanks to everyone who came and it was great to see so many new faces. We will be there again this Sunday from 2 til 4pm.

Posted: July 18, 2015

Posted: July 12, 2015

We had a quiet day in the garden last Sunday but did tie up the tomato plants so they weren’t falling on the ground. There’s plenty of green tomatoes already and lots more flowers, so it looks like we’ll have a really good crop this year.

We gave everything a really good water – a job that takes a couple of hours at this time of year.

We harvested a few more lettuces and planted some more seeds in the same place in the fruit cage. We also planted a few spinach seeds in the last empty section of the mandala bed.

We also harvested beetroot, spring onions, garlic and chard.

Posted: June 28, 2015

We had a brilliant afternoon at the Ruskin Park Summer Fete on Saturday. We didn’t get a lot of gardening done because we were busy chatting to lots of people! Hopefully we encouraged some more gardeners to join our group.

Lots of people were interested in our bees, and our beekeeper Sharon was there to answer their questions.

We did manage to plant some radishes and lettuces.

We had a good harvest of chard, garlic, spring onions, turnips, lettuce, raspberries, redcurrants and gooseberries.

Redcurrants

Posted: June 25, 2015

We had plenty of gardeners on Sunday which meant we gave the garden a good weeding – something we need to do regularly through the summer months.

Weeding

We dug a trench around the asparagus bed to keep the grass out of the bed, weeded it and tied the stalks up to longer canes. Only another 3 year to wait before we can harvest the crop!

Digging a trench round the asparagus bed

We thinned out the carrots and turnips and planted some kohlrabi.

Unfortunately the broad beans weren’t doing very well and we had to pull most of them up.

We harvested potatoes, lettuce, broad beans, radishes, some tiny turnips and raspberries.

Posted: June 17, 2015

With the help of a new volunteer we weeded many of the beds, which were in real need of attention! They look much better now. We also watered everything and had quite a good harvest – including gooseberries, radishes, lettuce, rhubarb and a few broad beans.

In future digs we will be thinning out our root veg and planting more seedlings in the polytunnel. And if volunteers have raw vegetable scraps that could feed our worms, please feel free to bring them!

Posted: June 13, 2015

We got lots done at the dig day last Sunday. We planted out our leeks in the display bed and also planted out our squash plants.

We planted horseradish plants in our new bed as they looked a bit uncomfortable in their pots! Joe dug trenches around the beds to neaten them up and protect our plants from weeds and grass.

We were joined by a sociologist doing some research into community gardens, and he helped us weed the beds.

We cut back weeds at the front of the garden and gave everything a good water – which takes some time these days. We also put more canes with our tomato plants to give them more support and strengthened the supports for our broad beans.

We also had a little harvest! Volunteers took home some broad beans, radishes, mazuma mustard leaves and gooseberries.

Posted: June 3, 2015

We missed the downpour on Sunday but a few of us came along and planted out the last of the tomatoes.  Tom dug a trench around the mandala bed where we planted them to stop the grass encroaching.

Planting tomatoes

Watering and digging a trench

Planted tomatoes

We also secured some of the netting which was coming away from the beds.

We harvested the first of the broad beans and some lettuce!

The first of the broad beans!

Next Sunday we’ll be joined by a sociologist who is  writing a book about community gardens in London and Berlin and wants to chat to some of the gardeners.

Posted: May 26, 2015

The Sunday before last we found a swarm of bees near our shed when we went to open up for our dig day. We called Sharon, our beekeeper, who came down straight away. The bees had come from outside looking for a new home. Sharon gave them a new hive and they have settled in well. We’re very happy they chose to come and live in our garden. We now have 2 full hives.

Beekeepers in action

We had a delayed start due to the bees but still got lots done. We planted some pumpkin seedlings and finally got round to weeding the last bed in the fruit cage.

Planting pumpkin seedlings

We also built some structures to support the tomatoes which we planted out.

Posted: May 12, 2015

We had a great day in the very sunny garden last Sunday. Along with many regular gardeners we had a new volunteer helping out.

We planted swiss chard, celeriac and red onions out into the beds from seedlings. We also planted parsnip and radish seeds directly into the beds.

Planting some celeriac

In the polytunnel we sowed some squash seeds and gave everything a good water.

We put a few French marigolds into some of the beds as they are good for protecting against diseases and bugs. We also did some weeding, watering and general tidying, and made a new structure with netting to protect our newly planted seeds and crops.

Gardeners make a net structure to protect our crops

Next week we hope to finally finish clearing out the fruit cage and tidy up the beds. We will also need to make new structures for our tomato plants, which hopefully can be planted out from the polytunnel later in the month.

All gardeners welcome to join us!

Posted: May 7, 2015

We had another busy day in the garden last Sunday and welcomed a couple of new gardeners to our group.

We clearing the demonstration bed at the front of the garden and dug it over.

We also planted out some purple sprouting broccoli next to the cauliflowers. We spread mulch over the bed to suppress the weeds and covered the bed with netting, as the caulis were already showing signs of being eaten.

We build another cane structure to support more beans and planted out the seedlings that had been growing in the polytunnel.

Creating support for the green beans

We pulled up all the chard that’s been growing since last year and we all took home a huge bunch. If anyone has any good chard recipes please let us know!

Posted: April 29, 2015

Cheeky robin on Justin the Scarecrow

We had a great turnout on Sunday and got lots of jobs done. The garden is looking fantastic!

We weeded the herb bed, garlic, and the border with the apple trees and oregano. We also cleared the mandala bed and a couple of other beds, ready for planting out some seedlings next Sunday.

Meeling weeding the garlic

Weeded garlic

Mandala bed unweeded

Mandala bed after weeding

We repotted the cucumbers into larger pots in the polytunnel.

Outside, we planted some cauliflowers and potatoes into the prepared beds.

We planted green beans in the bed where we’d already built a cane structure to support them. We have some kohlrabi already in the same bed.

We also sowed some carrot seeds and covered the bed with netting to stop the birds from eating the seeds.

Tom and Jean pretend to be fishermen

We harvested the last of the chard – next week we’ll take it out as it’s starting to flower.

Posted: April 15, 2015

We got lots done in the garden on the dig day last Sunday. Jean and Tom helped clearing out more of the fruit cage and adding compost to help the fruit trees grow.

We transplanted the loganberry tree outside the fruit cage where it can grow alongside the fencing. We also planted more kohlrabi plants in the border along with some lettuce.

We dug over the border next to our polytunnel, weeded and gave everything a good watering.

We also dug up rogue potatoes and put them in their proper bed, and moved two broad bean plants to a bed where overwintering broad bean plants are already growing.

We dug over a bed to give it a good weeding but ran out of time to plant the parsnips and turnips that are due to go in there! Hopefully we will get that done this week.

Now the weather is getting warmer there will be lots more to do – so everyone is welcome to join us at our next dig, this Sunday from 2-4pm.

Posted: March 17, 2015

Get digging this Saturday as part of the Big Dig Day.

Grow food, make friends and learn how to garden.
Or just come along to see what we do.

Everyone is welcome, whatever commitment you can give.

Posted: March 3, 2015

We made a good start on planting the seeds for this year’s harvest at our last dig of February.

Planting up some seeds at Ruskin Park

Until we were forced to abandon the dig due to rain we planted brussels sprouts, spinach, calabrese, kale, purple sprouting broccoli, cabbage and lettuce in pots and put them in the polytunnel. We will be watering them regularly and keeping a close eye on the seedlings until it is warm enough to plant them outside.

Seeds safely installed in our polytunnel

We also planted out some more broad beans into one of the beds. And we were pleased to see that our garlic has started to grow! Next time (Sunday 8 March) we’ll be planting many more seeds, including tomatoes, in the polytunnel. We’ll also be planting some parsnips out in the garden – hope you can join us.

Posted: February 8, 2015

It was a beautiful nearly spring like day in the garden. The broad beans and spinach are looking good and the daffodils are coming up. We weeded the mandala bed.

Posted: February 2, 2015

We got quite a bit done on our second dig of the year – despite the fact that the cold kept most people safely indoors! With a small number of us, we managed to get a few of the beds well weeded and turned over the soil in preparation for planting things. We also harvested a little chard.

We “chitted” our potatoes, putting them into egg boxes and plastic containers, and they are now safely in the polytunnel to start sprouting. A couple of weeks in a warm flat had already got them on their way!

In the coming weeks we’ll be planting more seeds to sprout in pots in the polytunnel so the pace will pick up a bit! Our next dig will be this Sunday, 8 February.

Posted: January 20, 2015

Sunday 11 January was the our 1st dig day of the year. The weather was cold and bright and we had a good turnout, with some of our regular gardeners and a couple of new faces too.

We cleared one of the beds, prepared it and planted garlic.

We planted a row of carrots in the same bed, although it might be a little early for them. The rest of the bed has onions in it – it’s best not to grow garlic and onions next to each other so the carrots will go in between them.

We also cleared and weeded some of the other beds.

We dug up some radishes, but they were pretty small!

Radishes!

We also harvested parsnips, and found some oyster mushrooms growing out the side of the herb bed in the Trees for Cities garden next door.

Posted: December 14, 2014

We had a lovely day in the low winter sun, ‘team weeding’ and setting the world to rights. Next dig day will be in January.

Posted: December 11, 2014

We had a small team of gardeners on our last dig day, including a small gardener!

Ishmael helping with the digging

We finished digging trenches around the outside of the beds to protect the wood over winter.

We cleared out the runner beans and the frame, and weeded the bed where they’d been.  We also dug over some of the beds.

We planted some silverskin onions to over-winter and harvested parsnips and chard.

We also sorted out the seeds and made a list of what we need to buy.

Sadie planting onions

Posted: November 26, 2014

Depsite a bit of rainy weather we had a good day in the garden. Around five volunteers came to help out. We added compost to our newest bed and dug small trenches around several beds in order to protect the wood over the winter.

While doing this we seemed to disturb a couple of frogs’ homes. The frogs distracted a couple of gardeners for a little while…

One of our new visitors during our dig on 16 November

Justin got to dance on the compost in the name of making it more compact and so decompose more quickly!

Justin helping to push the compost together

We planted more broad beans in one of our beds towards the front of the garden for overwintering.

We also harvested lettuce, chard, spinach and even some mushrooms growing wild in the garden – which Jean assured us were safe to eat and proved it by eating a couple during our dig.

Some of the wild mushrooms growing in Ruskin Park community garden

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Upcoming Dates

• Big Dig Day – Saturday 16 April
• Upcoming dig days 2016

Other Things of Interest

• Spring Summer Planting plans
• Notes from permaculture day
• Green manure
• Notes from Maria’s veg growing workshop – what to plant now, crop rotation, and books/websites
• Brassica pests
• Preserving the harvest glut
• What to plant when
• Watering guide
• Companion planting, crop rotation – from Growing Southwark

Wish List

• If you have any of these items spare and would like to donate them, please email us

  • bricks to hold down netting
  • canes
  • netting
  • shears
  • watering cans
  • hand tools
  • strimmer
  • greenhouse