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

Posted: November 9, 2014

Despite the threat of rain it turned into a beautiful autumn afternoon with a good  turnout and some familar faces.

We put some more work into beefing up the compost heaps, especially with lots of leafy material. We also cleared out one of the compost heaps, adding nutrients to several of the beds, as well as giving the wooden structure of one of the compost sections a chance to dry out, which should keep it in good condition and minimise the chance that it becomes part of the compost itself.

It’s a good time of year  to take cuttings, so we took some from several plants, mainly the soft fruit, as well as some roses. We may use these for a plant sale next year to raise some funds for the garden.

We gave the fruit cages have had a good clear-out, with lots of weeding.

We also took some of the last broad bean pods to dry out some beans for next year – these are now drying in the shed, and should be ready to go into the soil in the spring.

The mustard is coming up slowly but surely – hopefully this will give us some good ground cover over the winter (suppressing weeds), will fix some nitrogen into the soil, as well as giving us a nice leaf crop when there’s little else to be harvested in the garden.

In terms of harvest, we took a healthy crop of salad leaves as well as some chard (and one of two last raspberries).

Posted:

We continued work on the new bed, digging in the grass that remained on the top.

We gathered more leaves to add to the compost heap, trampling them down to make the heap compact, and covered it with tarpaulin to keep it warm.

Adding to the compost

We dug up the marjoram that was growing in a couple of the vegetable beds and replanted it in between the apple trees.

Moving the marjoram plants

While digging up the marjoram we found a few unexpected potatoes in the earth.

Our harvest this week as spinach, chard and lettuce.

Posted: October 24, 2014

From Sunday 26 October 2014 our dig days will be from 1-3pm.

We hope to see you there.

Posted: October 22, 2014

Garden transport for small people

We had an excellent turnout of volunteers in the garden last Sunday, including more new gardeners, which we’re always happy to see.

All of the steering committee were there, and we discussed some ideas for what to do with the garden in the coming year.

We made a start on digging a new bed. This meant moving a young apple tree from near the garden gate to the back near the fence.

We raked up leaves from the park as well as the garden to add to the compost.

Raking leaves and digging a new bed

We harvested the last of the squashes and pumpkins and then pulled up the plants.

Our harvest this week also included green beans, rainbow chard, spinach, lettuce, radishes and parsnip.

Transport for bigger people

Posted: October 7, 2014

Runner bean harvest

Fantastic weather for our first dig day of October, and a good turn-out meant we got through a lot of jobs.

We paid some attention to the compost heap this week – mixing it and pressing it down. We gave it as good a water as we were able by filling watering cans and the wheelbarrow, as the hose doesn’t quite reach it.

Since there were no fruit left on the tomatoes, we pulled up the rest of the plants, then spread compost over the beds. We’ll leave it for a week or two before digging it in.

We also removed the green beans and covered that bed with compost too.

We made a good start on clearing out the rubbish area, getting rid of broken pots and other damaged materials we don’t need. The garden is looking a lot neater.

We harvested some broccoli, spinach, chard, radishes and runner beans.

Harvest

Posted: September 29, 2014

Sunday, 28 September 2014
We had a great day in the garden last Sunday. It was really good to 
see some new faces as people came to help out who had come to our 
Harvest Feast the previous week.

We harvested all of the tomatoes available - including green ones 
for use in chutnies. We decided to leave the tomato plants in the 
ground for now to see if they produce any more fruit. Some still
had flowers on them which the bees were feeding on.

We harvested lots of runner beans, chard, spinach, borage and 
turnips - which were poking out of the ground!

Jean, Mary and Joe dug over the bed that cabbages are in to help 
them grow, and replanted them in the bed. We also gave the cabbages 
a new netting support to keep out birds and animals.

Prakash helped dig up the borage so we can give the beetroot, which 
is growing in the same bed, a bit more space.

We dug over some other beds and added compost to them. We also 
planted some more lettuce, some onions and some broad beans, along 
with doing the usual watering and weeding.

Gardeners dig over the cabbage bed

Gardeners dig up some turnips and weed the bed

Posted: September 21, 2014

Our 4th annual Harvest Feast was a big success. Lots of new folks came and feasted, with many planning to come for a dig day in the coming weeks. Plenty of regulars as well, and the table was full of delicious community garden-grown veg. It is still a thrill to eat the veg in the spot where it was grown.
Sharon the beekeeper brought jars of honey from the garden bees. It tasted amazing – like roses and other flowers. We used it in a honey mustard salad dressing as well as on bread.
We feasted on potato gratin, salad with spinach, chard, apple, nasturtiums, mint and courgette, courgette and rice casserole, roasted squash, rosemary and cheese scones, chard tart, apple chutney, tomato chutney, runner beans, courgette salad, homemade bread, tomato bruschetta, and crabapple jelly tarts.
We raised £34 in donations which will cover seeds for next year, thanks very much for the generosity.
Mark planted some mustard, a green manure. It fixed nitrogen in the soil and keeps the weeds from taking over the bare soil.
We harvested courgettes, runner beans, and tomatoes to take home as they needed picking.
There are gluts this time of year, and you might be wondering how to use up the veg. Here are a few recipe ideas:
Spiced Pickled Runner Beans
Runner beans with bacon and hazelnuts
Courgette Rice Gratin
There’s no dig day today because of the feast yesterday. See you next Sunday, 3-5pm
If you’re a twitterer, please do follow us on https://twitter.com/GardenRuskin.

Posted: September 17, 2014

Please come along to our feast in the garden, featuring dishes made from veg we grew this year. We’ll be there from 3pm, doing final harvesting and cooking. Eating starts at 4pm.
Thanks very much to Trees for Cities who have offered their produce to the bounty.
It’s free, but would welcome a small donation to go for seeds for next year.
We’re part of Capital Growth’s Edible Gardens Open Day – http://www.capitalgrowth.org/events/opengardens/

Posted:

Sunday we harvested for the harvest feast, watered, and worked on next year’s planting plan. At the feast, we’ll have: potato gratin, runner beans, tomato bruschetta, lettuce tart, crabapple jelly tarts, roasted squash, and salad with dressing made using honey from our bees!

The planting plan is still being worked on, will have it ready in a week or two.

Posted: September 3, 2014

It felt like summer again on Sunday – so much so that Sadie had to work in the shade so she didn’t get sunburnt!

While she was weeding the beetroot and fruit cage, the rest of us sorted out the netting. We covered the newly sprouting turnip, cabbage and lettuce to stop it getting nibbled. After rebuilding the netting support for the broccoli we managed to cover it all. It seems to be doing better after we covered it in netting last week. We’re going to leave the purple sprouting broccoli to over winter, in the hope that it will produce some stems next year.

We also tended to the tomatoes – again. Some small plants produce surprisingly large fruit, which droop onto the soil. These end up spoiling, so we harvested all the fruit that was on or near the soil, even if they were green, These tomatoes can either be left to ripen on a sunny windowsill (they will take a few weeks to ripen), fried green, or made into chutney. If anyone has a good recipe for green tomato chutney, please send us one.

We has another good harvest this week of tomatoes, runner beans, green beans, chard and spinach. There was no squash ready this week but plenty of flowers, so we’ll have some later on in the year – maybe for Hallowe’en?

Lettuce seedlings

Broccoli netting

Courgette flowers

Harvest

Posted: August 25, 2014

We got lots of work done in the garden on Sunday. Justin gave the worms a feed and got plenty of nutrient-rich matter from them to feed the plants with.

We weeded the beds and gave everything a good water. Nicola and Prakash helped construct more support for the runner beans which had started to outgrow their frame a little.

Maureen planted some more beetroot as its growth was a little one-sided – although the leaves are coming up very quickly after planting the seeds just a few weeks ago.

Gary helped strengthen the tomato canes, which keep getting a battering from the wind.

We had some new faces helping out along with regular gardeners and got a big harvest – including spinach, chard, tomatoes, French beans, runner beans, three squash and a little purple sprouting broccoli.

We also found a few rogue potatoes while weeding the parsnip bed.

Maureen planting beetroot

Nicola harvesting purple sprouting broccoli

Sunday’s harvest

Posted: August 19, 2014

Despite the earlier downpour, Sunday afternoon turned out to be a beautiful sunny day in the garden with a good turn-out of gardeners.

We dug over some of the empty space where the beans had been cleared and planted some turnips and Savoy-type cabbages. We also planted a row of radishes at the bottom of the squashes.

We thinned out the lettuces and beetroot to give the rest a chance to grow. We also checked the tomato plants and tied up any that were being weighed down by their fruit. All of the beds were weeded.

We had a great harvest of tomatoes, runner and green beans, squash, spinach and rainbow chard.

Our harvest of leaves, tomatoes, beans and squash

Green bean

Lettuce seedlings

Posted: August 11, 2014

The harvest – potatoes, tomatoes, runner beans, french beans, spinach, chard

The harvest – tomatoes and squash

Sadie portioning the harvest

The french beans

The lettuce seedlings

Sadie and the kids watering

Watering

The sun shone (surprisingly) on a happy day in the garden. We weeded, as usual, staked and pruned tomatoes, planted lettuce seedlings, and cleared out beds with bolted chard and spinach. We harvested the first of the french beans, plus tomatoes, squash, runner beans, spinach, chard.

Posted: August 8, 2014

Despite there only being 3 gardeners last Sunday, we got through some good jobs and managed to harvest some veg as well.

We planted some beetroot in the mandala bed, in between the tomatoes and the spinach. We also planted some winter lettuce at the end of the bed with the squashes. The lettuces should grow over winter and be ready to harvest in March next year. It’ll be great to be able to harvest something at a time of year when we’re mostly just planting.

We made sure any sagging tomato plants were tied up and watered everything.

We tomatoes, spinach, a few small carrots, runner beans, a squash, potatoes and some purple sprouting broccoli. There were some ripe blackberries but we thought we should wait for them to get a bit bigger before harvesting them, though I did try one and they are delicious!

Posted: July 28, 2014

Had a lovely day at the garden. A few new faces and plenty of regulars. We weeded, watered, cleared the bolted greens (lettuce and chard), and planted pak choi and chard. The harvest was potatoes, tomatoes, chard, lettuce, squash, runner beans and radishes. Digging the potatoes was seriously hard work as the dry soil was like concrete – thanks to Prakash for his persistence. Sadie made harvest piles and we had to draw straws as there weren’t enough squash to go around.

Save the date – Saturday 20 September is the tentative date for the Harvest Feast. It’s Capital Growth’s Edible Garden Open Day. Here’s an image of last year’s harvest feast:

Harvest Feast 2013

Everything is really early this year because of the warm weather. The crab apples are at least a month early. We harvested some of those as well to make delicious jelly – recipe here.

Billy watering the roots of the tomatoes

The harvest

Lynn weeding.

Prakash digging potatoes.

Runner beans on their amazing support built by the Trees for Cities trainees.

Posted: July 21, 2014

This week we welcomed a couple more new gardeners to the group, and were also paid a visit by two of the ‘grow leaders’ from Loughborough Farm, who complimented us on how good the garden was looking!

The squashes are looking good!

We found quite a few more volunteer tomatoes mixed in with the parsnips, but there was no space to move them to so we left them where they were and supported them with canes. Most of them already had fruit on them. We checked all the other tomatoes were properly supported and managed to harvest 3 that were ripe!

We also harvested lots of young carrots, some spinach and runner beans.

Everything looked in good order after all the clearing and planting that was done last week. We were just giving all the beds a really good water when there was a huge downpour!

Carrots, spinach, runner beans and a tomato

Posted: June 24, 2014

Our clever steering committee member Paula has written this recipe blogpost using last week’s harvest. Yum!

http://lunchforfreeatwork.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/ruskin-garden-salad.html

Posted: June 22, 2014

Despite the fairly late change to a Saturday dig, we had most of the regulars and several new faces. The weather was perfect. We cleared out the bolted spinach and chard, planted French beans and beetroot, put netting on the purple sprouting broccoli (decimated by pigeons), watered, weeded, and harvested lettuce, broad beans, peas, radishes, onions, gooseberries, raspberries.

Trees for Cities were launching their garden, which is looking great. They are running veg growing training during the week. We are going to explore ways to work together. First off they’ve offered to build sturdy supports for our tomatoes and beans (thanks!!)

We are very happy to welcome Sadie to the steering committee!

Thrive have published this fab guide to veg growing

Beans in their new bed

Raspberry harvest

Gooseberry harvest

So pretty!

Fruit harvesting

The bees are busy!

Posted: June 19, 2014

The fruits of our labours are coming through now, literally! All the hard work preparing the soil, sowing the seeds, weeding, and watering has paid off and the beds are full of veg.

On Sunday we weeded and watered and harvested. The diggers agreed that I could take the harvest to the GLA judging visit for the Lambeth Food Flagship award. We had a huge pile of broad beans, potatoes, radishes, gooseberries, peas, raspberries, and lettuce. When Rosie Boycott, who’s judging the award, came to the Lambeth Food Partnership table, she asked if she could eat our peas. Have a look at the photo!

Posted: May 22, 2014

Last Sunday saw even more new gardeners, as well as some familiar faces. Maybe it was the glorious sunny weather that attracted everyone.

We planted out the the larger tomato plants into the beds, using canes to support them.
We also found a few volunteer tomatoes (ie plants that have grown on their own rather than being planted) which we dug up and potted for people to take home and try their hand at growing themselves.

There were some seeds that needed to be planted before they become unviable, so we planted turnips, radishes and courgettes straight into the beds.

After we’d finished planting, we gave all the beds a really good water.

Some beer traps have been laid to try and try and stop slugs helping themselves to the veg, but we will probably need to use some slug pellets too.

We harvested spinach and lettuce from the demonstration bed, plus a little rhubarb from the fruit cage – just enough for a small crumble! There are always herbs for those who want them too — we have a healthy supply of thyme, oregano, sage and mint.

Digging holes in the mandala bed for tomatoes

Tying the young tomato plants to canes

Planting courgette seeds

Patting down the earth around a tomato plant

Harvested rhubarb

Posted: May 13, 2014

Lots of helping hands on Sunday made short work of the weeds. As well as weeding, we earthed up the potatoes and we planted chard seeds in the demonstration bed.
We didn’t plant the tomatoes because it was so windy it could have damaged the stems – we’ll plant them next week.
We had the first harvest of the year – a big pile of lettuce and a big pile of spinach. It was absolutely delicious. The spinach was a bit nibbled by slugs so Justin’s going to try some beer traps.
The garden is looking great – well weeded and nearly all the beds are planted up. We should have a great harvest.

An action shot, weeding the gooseberries

Raspberries will be ready soon!

The mandala bed weeded and ready for tomatoes

Planting chard seeds

The first harvest of the season

Posted: April 28, 2014

We had a lovely, mostly sunny afternoon yesterday. We planted many of the seedlings that we started on 2nd February – purple sprouting broccoli, squash, peas, beans, and sunflowers. Really satisfying to nurture them from seed. We did quite a lot of weeding, and some watering. We used twigs pruned from the trees to create a climbing frame for the peas, and made a tripod from bamboo for the beans. The garden is looking great, and we should have a big harvest. Look for the sunflowers along the fence as you pass the garden.

We have a few extra PSB plants, get in touch if you’re interested.

The sunflowers that we planted as seeds on Feb 2 went in.

The fruit is looking great, particularly the rhubarb.

The bees are busy.

The broadbeans that we planted in November will be ready soon!

Purple sprouting broccoli seedlings planted out. We raised them from seed in the polytunnel – seeds started 2nd Feb.

Another bed of peas with sticks to grow on, mixed in with volunteer potatoes.

We’ve used sticks to build a frame for the peas to grow on.

Self-seeded tomato seedlings, rescued from weeding.

Posted: March 2, 2014

We had a productive day in the garden. There are definitely signs of spring – the daffodils are beginning to come up. The overwintering broad beans and onions are looking good. And the seeds we planted four weeks ago are doing well in the polytunnel, thanks to our watering rota crew.
We weeded the fruit beds, much easier now that they’re protected by the fruit cage rather than netting. We also weeded a bed in the mandala bed.
And we planted a lot! We put in peas and chard in the veg beds. And nasturtiums, echinacea and poppies in the beds next to the beehives. We put twigs over the peas, as pea shoots are like candy to birds.
The crows have defeated our venetian blind labelling system, so we’ve tried something else this week. We’ve cut small white plastic pipes into lengths and written on them. Fingers crossed that will do the trick!

Posted: February 18, 2014

With nice weather today were were able to get on with the various tasks: digging compost into the beds, planting Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Broad Beans, weeding and turning the compost. The seedling pots in the polly tunnel looked saturated so we drained the trays – waterers might want to keep an eye on that. We’re trying out a new system for marking the beds – marker pen on strips of old Venetian Blind (which, being longer than the markers we’ve used before, might be more resistant to crow-vandalism!) The garden’s been tidied and is looking nice after recent building work work.

Posted: February 4, 2014

A good system allowed us to get lots of seeds planted on Sunday, including pumpkins, squash, sun flowers, tomatoes, spinach and chard. These are now in trays in the Polly tunnel where they’ll germinate over the next few weeks, some ready to plant when we meet in mid March. New garden infrastructure is almost complete. Next dig in two weeks time we’ll give the soil in the new raised beds some attention to make sure it’s ready for planting. We’ll also try to come up with a new system for marking the seeds planted – the crows have tended in the past to dig up our labels.  Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Broad Beans can be planted out and the compost can be turned.

Posted: January 31, 2014

Come along Sunday 2-4 to plant up pots with seeds – everything from tomatoes to squash. We’ll raise the seedlings in the polytunnel. In 6-8 weeks we’ll plant them out and sell the spares to raise money for next year’s seeds and tools.
We’ll need to set up a watering rota so please get in touch if you can spare 15 min a week.

Posted: January 19, 2014

We had a nice day in the garden, with low winter sun. There wasn’t a huge amount to do as nothing can be planted in January. We dug up all the parsnips from the bed – a bit like a treasure hunt as there were loads that weren’t visible. Our friendly robin stayed near to pounce on the exposed worms. And there are lots of worms in the soil, a sign of healthy soil. We each took home a big pile of parsnips, enough to make soup. The cold has prevented the weeds from growing, so we did the little weeding there was to do.
The overwintering broad beans, garlic and onions are looking good. The Trees for Cities work is well underway, with the compost beds being built. Still to go is the fruit cage and raised bed in the front.
Next dig day is 2 Feb, 2-4pm. We’ll be planting up seeds in pots to raise in the greenhouse. Some to plant out in the beds and some to sell to raise money for seeds, tools, etc.

Posted: November 25, 2013

We had a really productive day yesterday, planting up onions, garlic and broad beans. Getting the veg in the ground now means we’ll get an earlier crop next spring.  We also weeded, and all the beds are looking great.

The new fence around the bees looks amazing. It’s from the planter boxes that were up at the South Bank.

Next dig day will be 8 December 1-3pm.

Posted: October 27, 2013

Posted: October 18, 2013

6pm-10pm Saturday 19th October 2013
Garden Museum 5 Lambeth Palace Rd SE1 7LB

Posted: October 7, 2013

We had a fantastic day in the garden yesterday. The warm sunny weather brought out the diggers and we got loads done. We dug out the rest of the potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes, weeded nearly all the beds, and tidied up in preparation for the coming improvements in the garden. Trees for Cities has won a Pocket Parks grant which will be used to improve the area outside their offices and parts of the community garden. One of the most exciting improvements is a forest garden in the shady area in the front near the Denmark Hill end. Forest gardens are a permaculture concept and we’re hoping to organise a workshop on their design and maintenance.

Seb the beekeeper was there to do some hive maintenance.

Posted: October 1, 2013

Good work done this week. Seeing that blight was beginning to appear on the tomatoes we decided to pick what we could and prepare those beds – perhaps for winter planting. Some of the green tomatoes are in the shed for ripening. We’ll make chutney with the rest. We dug out a barrow-load of nice-looking compost. There’s plenty more ready for use. Also harvested this week: Crab Apples.

Posted: September 23, 2013

We celebrated our fourth annual Harvest Feast on Saturday. It’s still a thrill to eat what we’ve grown, and it seems to taste particularly delicious. The table was overflowing with tasty dishes – jerusalem artichoke soup, roasted jerusalem artichokes, apple pie, pesto, potato/rosemary bread, crabapple jelly tarts, beetroot/carrot salad, fried green tomatoes, spinach/tomato salad, roasted pumpkin, sautéed kale, green tomato chutney, and more. We had a steady stream of eaters with many people keen to come back and dig on another day. We celebrated with the staff and gardeners from Thrive; it was great to meet them as we’re in the garden at different times. Thanks to Andrew for fab folk songs and sea shanties on the accordion, and to the Lewisham Concert Orchestra.

More pics here.

Posted: September 17, 2013

Final preparations are underway. Thrive have their dish list (pictured) and let us harvest kale (pictured) and pumpkin which we’ll cook and bring on the day. Lots of other dishes including crab apple jelly tarts (made with the crab apples in the community garden), roasted jerusalem artichokes, carrot/beetroot salad, and spinach and tomato salad. The weather looks decent and the Lewisham Brass Band will be playing.
So come along!!! 2-5pm, free, all welcome. If you want to bring something to share, please try to keep it local. Hope to see you there!!!

Posted: September 9, 2013

Despite rain showers we had a very nice day at the garden yesterday. The weeds have been thriving in the rain, so we tackled them. The beds are looking really well tended. We harvested potatoes and tomatoes – the potatoes are absolutely delicious and taste nothing like supermarket ones.

The lettuce and radish seeds we planted last week have come up!

We’ve got carrots, tomatoes, beetroot, spinach, lettuce, potatoes, jerusalem artichokes, and courgettes to harvest for the harvest feast (Sat 21 Sept 2-5pm). We’ll harvest the potatoes and jerusalem artichokes this coming Sunday so people can take them to prepare a dish for the feast at home. Do come along this Sunday 3-5pm if you fancy cooking something.

We need a camp stove! Please get in touch info@ruskinparkcommunitygarden.org if you have one we can borrow for the Harvest Feast.

Posted: September 1, 2013

We had a lovely productive day in the garden. We cleared the front bed and planted lettuce, radish and turnip – something to harvest in the darker days of winter. We also planted lettuce in on of the raised planters. Neil defeated the brambles that were attacking the compost and did quite a lot of strimming. We did lots of other weeding and watering, and harvested tomatoes, potatoes, blackberries, and onions. The garden is looking well loved.

We also harvested crabapples to make jelly – here’s a recipe. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7661/crab-apple-jelly. Delicious and easy.

The harvest feast is September 21, details to follow. We’ll prepare veg harvested from the garden and have a shared meal. Hopefully Seb will come with his ukelele and Andrew will bring his percussion instruments.

Posted: August 15, 2013

We had a lovely sunny afternoon at the garden. Lots of weeding and tidying was done by Daniel, Darren & Kate. Neil and Maureen picked an abundance of blackberries, some beetroot & we shared a few potatoes that were dug up. Everything was given a good lot of water.

The tomato plants are looking healthy with lots of tomatoes on them – looking forward to enjoying them soon!

On the bee front this week, the beekeepers (Seb and Neil) gave the hive some attention to help out the bees and they are looking pretty happy.

Harvest Feast – we will be holding our annual harvest feast on Saturday 21st September. There will be yummy food to enjoy (mostly grown in the garden) and it’s a lovely time to enjoy being in the garden. More details to follow soon but make sure you have it in the diary!

Posted: July 31, 2013

We had a super productive afternoon at the community garden with only a few of the predicted

rain showers interspersed with sun!

The demonstration beds were cleared & tidied, worm juice was given to the tomatoes, a few squash plants were planted out and we did a good amount of harvesting!Justin dug a load of potatoes up, Maureen dug some lovely coloured beetroot & a few onions and Kate pulled up all the garlic & has braided them together to hang & dry ready to bring back to the garden over the coming months.

Take a look at our harvest!

Posted: July 14, 2013

A lovely day for sitting around and enjoying the heat – consequently not much gardening done today. The beds have had a good water though. Some work has been done managing the bees, which have been extremely busy building comb in various directions over the last few weeks. The tomatoes are looking healthy, as are the potatoes and the Jerusalem Artichokes. Next week more work can be done on the front beds – still looking a bit in need of attention.

Posted: July 7, 2013

We had a lovely afternoon at the garden in the hot sun. We watered everything and harvested raspberries, black currants, gooseberries, rocket, radishes, and broad beans. We did quite a lot of weeding, and started work on trimming excess leaves from the tomatoes and staking them. Thanks very much to the person who donated the fantastic bamboo canes, they came in handy. Great to see new faces, old faces, and new-ish faces. A few of us were regularly checking the Wimbledon scores on our phone, and being cheered by the good news.
The garden is looking great. The onions and garlic are nearly ready to harvest. In the next few weeks we’ll start to have lots of potatoes, then loads of tomatoes and salad, and a good crop of chard and celeriac and carrots. And jerusalem artichokes and squash. The beds have really benefited from the application of manure earlier in the year. We left the borage in because the bees were loving the flowers. It is great to have bees again, and how cool to get them via a swarm!

Posted: July 6, 2013

We had a lovely sunny dig on Sunday 30th June. There were 4 of us and we netted the salad and fruit beds to protect the crops from birds. Some of the fruit beds were weeded as well as the demonstration bed. Lots of watering was done too.

We had a lovely harvest of broad beans, rhubarb onions and garlic.

Posted: June 21, 2013

Transplanting salad seedlings

Last Sunday there were 3 of us at the garden on a nice & warm afternoon. We gave the broad beans some attention, staking them, cutting the tops off & spraying them with ecofriendly cleaner to help remove the black fly that have arrived.

Happy seedlings

We then tackled the big job of transplanting the salad seedlings from one of the hospital beds where they were running out of space. They are now housed in 2 hospital beds as well as the new bed alongside the fence. Lots of rocket and lettuce seedlings with much more space to fully grow now. You can watch them grow as you pass by the garden over the next few weeks.

Don’t forget there isn’t a dig day this Sunday as we will be at the Ruskin Park Summer Fair on Saturday 1-5pm. Hope you can come by our stall. Dig days will continue again from next Sunday.

Posted: June 13, 2013

Weeding and watering; work done on the front bed, which is ready for planting now. Compost is still waiting to be turned. There’s some more grass-cutting that could be done. Some of the fruit beds need netting. Everything’s coming up nicely.

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Upcoming Dates

• Upcoming dig days 2015

Other Things of Interest

• 2012 Planting Plan
• Important update from Friends of Ruskin Park
• Friends of Ruskin Park – Summer Newsletter
• Spring Summer Planting plans
• Notes from permaculture day
• Friends of Ruskin Park 2011 Calendar on sale now!
• Green Manure
• Garden Plan, October 2010
• Notes from Maria’s veg growing workshop – what to plant now, crop rotation, and books/websites
• Brassica pests

Wish List

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

  • bricks for the cold frames
  • water butt
  • canes
  • netting
  • shears
  • watering cans
  • hand tools
  • strimmer
  • tool store
  • greenhouse