A blooming start to 2014

This week the first flowers of the year have unfurled to brighten up our days in the garden.... Spring can't be far away!

Happy New Year from Growing Gardens!

Here in the gardens we have been indulging lots of eating, drinking and merriment over our Christmas holidays, and hope you have too. 

 

But wait! It's not yet time to let go of that festive spirit.... Here are some photos of our wreath making party just before Christmas - a wonderful day with staff, volunteers and visitors enjoying a roaring fire, carols, mulled punch and mince pies :)

 

 

 

Preparing the 'ingredients'.....

 

 

 

   

                         

  .....and then it's time for a spot of fire craft! Nothing like something hot and mulled on a chilly day.

                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                       

 

 

 

On to the serious business of making the wreaths.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

aaaand all finished - don't they look beautiful?

(the wreaths aren't too bad either!)

 

 

 

                 

 

                

 

 

 

So all that is left to say now is.....

Happy New Year!!!!

from Lucy and Cressida 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome Cressida

The fabulous Cressida joined us in the gardens this week 

as our new Community Gardener. She has already been hard at work

with our lovely volunteers - time for winter clear up in the garden!

a little bit about Cressida from Cressida......

I think I must have been a cat in a past life, as there is nothing I like more than being right in the middle of a flower patch. When I was a kid the garden was my domain, with the lawn covered in a complicated circuit of adventure (a climbing frame that I tied to a slide, that went into a paddling pool, with a see-saw waiting on the other end so you could spin dry after the workout) and that excitement of gardens has stayed with me ever since. My first gardening job was at Brighton Marina where I really got to grips with hanging baskets (all 300 of them), then worked in a graveyard where I toiled hours away delicately strimming the grass away from headstones. More than anything I loved the fresh air, whether it was boiling hot or pelting with rain, but I did miss working with people so I decided to work as a community gardener. I’ve spent the past five years doing so at Mudchute Farm and hopefully taught a few folk to do the basics like pruning (all together now, remove the dead, damaged and diseased). I’ve also been trained in ‘risky play’ and can legitimately teach kids how to use knives for whittling, and make fires for food. I’m delighted to be amongst a new landscape and look forward to exploring all the corners of Deen City Farm, and get to know all the staff and volunteers who really are the backbone of the place.

Favourite Colour - Red

Favourite Garden – Carrie Hepple’s Garden (fictional) and King Henry’s Walk Garden Islington (real)

Favourite Vegetable – Corn on the cob

Favourite Musician – Neutral Milk Hotel

Favourite Plant – Erigeron karkinskianus

Favourite Bird – Big Bird…oh no hang on that’s fictional again  so I’ll say House sparrow

Autumn Has Arrived

The last couple of weeks here in the gardens we have really been enjoying all these beautiful autumnal colours!

 

  

 

Alex has been a star with helping to keep the leaves at bay.....

 

 

 And of course the chard is still going strong!!! Pretty much the only veg left standing in our garden beds :)

 

 

 

 

Its good to have your head in the clouds

When was the last time you really looked up at the clouds?

 I watched a good TED talk the other day all about the sky and how much we actually notice whats above us all day.

To see the talk, just click on the link below...

http://www.ted.com/talks/gavin_pretor_pinney_cloudy_with_a_chance_of_joy.html

Merton in Bloom 2013 - Best Community Garden - Winners!

Whoop whoop .... tweet tweet ... beep beep

 

We WON Merton in Bloom 2013 - Best Community Garden

 

 

Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers for their super work throughout the year.

We just couldnt do it without you!

 

Also, thank you to all our kind visitors that come down to the farm and enjoy the project.

Very proud. 

 

 

 

A few of volunteers from the garden project on a wednesday.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to Merton Council for acknowledging the

Growing Gardens Community Project

 and all it does for the local community.

 

 



Halloween down at the farm

Cob building

 

Last night on Grand Designs you could see Kevin McCabe who is the leading living exponent of the ancient art of cob building. He was aiming to build his family castle out of cob. Kevin came to the garden project some 5 or 6 years ago to run our cob building workshop. Here are a few snaps Ive found from that weekend...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To see the episode on Grand Designs just click on the link below...

 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/4od#3587236


Cob is an ancient building material, that may have been used for building since prehistoric times. Some of the oldest man-made structures in Afghanistan are composed of rammed earth and cob.

Cob structures can be found in a variety of climates across the globe; In the UK it is most strongly associated with counties of Devon and Cornwall in the West Country.

Traditionally, English cob was made by mixing the clay-based subsoil with sand, straw and water using oxen to trample it. The earthen mixture was then ladled onto a stone foundation
 in courses and trodden onto the wall by workers in a process known as cobbing. The construction would progress according to the time required for the prior course to dry. After drying, the walls would be trimmed and the next course built, with lintels for later openings such as doors and windows being placed as the wall takes shape.

The walls of a cob house were generally about 24 inches thick, and windows were correspondingly deep-set, giving the homes a characteristic internal appearance. The thick walls provided excellent thermal mass which was easy to keep warm in winter and cool in summer. Walls with a high thermal mass value act as a thermal buffer inside the home. The material has a long life span even in rainy climates, provided a tall foundation and large roof overhang are present.

 

The cob with its Fizzy Bottle Roof

 

For more information about our Cob building and the Fizzy Bottle Roof Project please click here Fizzy Bottle Roof Project

 

For further reading about cob building a good book is...

 

Building With Cob, A Step by Step Guide by Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce. Published by Green Books ; 2006, ISBN 1-903998-72-7


Our cob building is located in the garden project at Deen City Farm, do come down and have a peek if you are interested!