London Permaculture Festival coming up soon – I will be the one wandering around trying to find carrot cake – click on the flyer for more info – see you there then!
Filed under: Doing
my dad just sent me a few photos of his summer salads looking fairly happy growing in polystyrene packing bits… perhaps not my choice of container…
I prefer the big oil cans which all of the fast food places regularly throw up around here… but each to there own and the salad looks happy which is most important!
I get the tops off the oil cans using an old kitchen knife which needs a few bashes with a hammer to get it going and when it gets stuck
Filed under: Doing | Tags: beans, cat guarding, potatoes in bag, raised bed salad, string hanging from tree, tomatoes patio
Back in late march I helped my mum to set up a few raised beds; see post here. Last month I brought over a few cuttings, seedlings and other bits and bobs to which she has added to… the results are below:
Mum with her new raised beds
Potatoes growing in an old plastic bag
Lara on salad guarding duty - keeps the pigeons and squirrels away
Close up on raised bed - note the twigs and trellis at the back for the peas to grow up. From front left clockwise - nasturtium, orache, buckler leaf sorrel, peas, calendula, spinach, lettuce, rocket, carrots and ruby chard!
Tomatoes growing in pots
Beans in a basket growing up string into a tree
Filed under: Doing | Tags: farleigh road, guerrilla gardening, n16, pimp my pavement, stoke newington
Inspired by the ‘pimp my pavement‘ website I have recently been spending time with other residents making mini gardens on the street.
The sun did not shine and we had to flee inside shortly after due to a downpour but we now have two pretty little beds at the bases of the street trees on Farleigh Road.
They were made using lime branches pollarded from other street trees and planted up with flowers and beans which should climb up the tree cages. I propagated the beans myself and the flowers came from Columbia Road flower market.
Filed under: Doing | Tags: beans, companion planting, squash, sweetcorn, the three sisters
I just learnt about the ‘three sisters’ companion planting last week so when my dad invited me over to have a peek at his little corner of an allotment I thought it would be good to give it a go…
One lesson learnt from the day is always carry a proper camera about with you – as you can see below the camera on my dad’s phone is AWEFUL!
…anyway – the three sisters is a trinity of plants which all assist each other to grow… sweetcorn grows tall, beans climb the sweetcorn stalks and squash provides ground cover surpressing weeds and generally being green. I would write more but wikipedia has a pretty comprehensive bit of info here, and there is more info here although it all sounds far more technical and scary than I am really into.
One thing which I learnt from my friend Hedvig from Get Growing is that you need to plant the sweetcorn bunched together in a group rather than in a single line – they need to pollinate each other, which won’t work so well in a single line.
I did not build a mound which seems to be recommended in quite a few places so watch this space to see if it works :-)
Filed under: Doing | Tags: charles dowding, no dig, raised bed, raised beds, rocket gardens
The bug has started to spread around my family – my dad was talking this morning about sharing an allotment with a friend and my mother and stepdad have decided to sacrifice some of their lawn for some raised beds :-)
I would more normally used recycled scaff planks for raised beds but my mum had already plumped for a B&Q kit. It was rather unnecessarily high so we cut into two and filled up with compost that my mum has been hoarding for a while. Once filled we temporarily covered with plastic to stop cats, squirrels and others diving in for a cheeky dig.
I have recommended that she buys one of Rocket Garden’s excellent growing kits from here which i have now used on a number of occasions.
I have also set her some homework of reading up about salads – for those of you not familiar with Charles Dowding then please have a read of his site and perhaps even buy his book – http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/Books-Salad-Leaves-For-All-Seasons
Filed under: Doing | Tags: alex collings, anna garforth, apple trees, council estate, hackney, helen babbs, j&l gibbons, LDA, london, London Development Authority, london orchard project, louisa thompson, muf, orchard, play pathfinder, somerford grove
This winter I have been blessed with the opportunity of working with the residents of Somerford Grove, a council estate bordered to the north by my road, to plant thirty two fruit trees. This includes a mulberry tree, a few pear and plum trees as well as twenty six different varieties of apple tree.
I have no idea what competition there is but I would love to think that this may be one of the biggest and most varied orchards inside the M25 …and i still have the budget to plant another 30 trees next winter!
The first nine trees were planted as part of the ‘Making Space in Dalston’ project by J&L Gibbons with muf architecture/art for the London Development Authority. The London Orchard Project donated the trees.
The rest of the trees have been funded by the Play Pathfinder scheme actioned by The Learning Trust. Cllr Louisa Thompson has been a great source of support in helping this to happen.
The trees were all bought from Blackmoor nursery who have been excellent. Hedvig Murray from Get Growing has been working with me to make sure all the planting went off without a hitch.
The trees are mostly M27 very dwarfing rootstocks where near buildings (max height 2-3m) and M26 semi-dwarfing rootstock in the bigger patches of green (max height 3-4m).
I decided to not protect the trees with stakes or mesh, having faith that the residents will look after them having planted them. Also by not spending money on protection, I was able to plant quite a few more trees so if any do get damaged then nothing will have been lost overall.
Alex Collings, Anna Garforth and Helen Babbs all deserve a shout for pitching in to help too.
The first nine trees were planted as part of the ‘Making Space in Dalston’ project by J&L Gibbons with muf architecture/art for the LDA. The London Orchard Project donated the first nine trees.
Filed under: Collecting | Tags: compost, free, hackney, hackney marshes, homerton, marshes, recycled food, wood chip
free compost in hackney marshes
Okay, East London Community Recycling Partnership are gods – officially.
A few weeks back I helped Stepping Stones Farm in Stepney pick up a few tonnes of free compost from a depot on the south edge of hackney marshes – they have wood chip too, a LOT of woodchip… and a LOT of compost… did I mention that yet? LOADS OF IT.
The picture above gives you an idea of a small part of the depot which is officially open during the day on week days… but you could easily pop in at other times as much of it is not really fenced off.
Address is Hackney Parks Depot, E5 9PF- you can see it on via the map below – it is just at the top of the car park
A few days after I went and picked up the compost they called me up and asked me if I could take a few tonnes more… seriously get your arse down there and get growing!
There website mentions nothing about this – go figure – http://www.elcrp-recycling.com/
If you also need leaf mould try here – http://hackneypermaculture.org.uk/2008/09/22/free-compost-from-hackney-downs-park/
Filed under: Doing, Recycling | Tags: music magpie, selling second hand cds
Selling second hand cds using music magpie
I curiously manage to be a hoarder who aspires to have few posessions. Every so often my ruthless streak overcomes my hoarding streak and I eBay, freecycle or put things out on the street to get rid of them.
Music magpie (http://www.musicmagpie.co.uk/) is a service for online buying of second hand cds and I have to say I am pretty impressed by their service. You type in the bar code, they make you an offer for your cds, then they send you postage stickers which you use to post them the cds using recycled jiffy bags which you have been hoarding too. Brilliant.
…and yes I did sell my Burt Bacharach cd… £36 for 27 cds was the final count – that is quite a bit of carrot cake.
Filed under: Collecting, Doing | Tags: apples, farleigh road, hackney, london, orchard, scrumping, st jude street
Not exactly rocket science but picking apples in London does seem to be a fringe activity. So many trees dripping with fruit, most of which ends up getting swept up by the street cleaners. Not this year :-)
Buying a telescopic fruit picker was the first action – I got mine second hand from ebay, here is a new one that is similiar – http://garden4less.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=RGM
Now off to these two trees on St Jude Street -
View Larger Map
We had so many apples from our scrump that I set up shop on my street and started giving them away to neighbours which then resulted in my being invited into various back gardens to pick more!
Time to make some chutney now i guess :-)
The Brox
I am now the proud owner of this rather splendid recumbent quadcycle called a ‘Brox’ which I bought from Bikefix (http://www.bikefix.co.uk/). Unfortunately they are not in production anymore so you will have to search about if you want one. It has been absolutely amazing for transporting tools and plants around hackney.
Today I managed to attach the wheelbarrow to the back to make it a pentacycle! Happy days.
If you are interested in finding out about other workbikes have a peek at this amazing blog – http://onelessvan.blogspot.com/
Filed under: Collecting, Doing | Tags: climbing, device, fruit, fruit picking, harvest, picker, plum, scrumping, telescopic, tool, tree, wolf garden, wolf garten
Robin picking plums using telescopic fruit harvesting device
I was never quite sure how we were going to get all of the plums harvested from the top of such a huge tree and then someone suggested I buy a special tool to do the job which I must confess hadn’t occurred to me!
A quick bit of googling and eBaying later and… ta da… one ten foot extendible fruit picking gadget. Happy days…
The one I bought was second hand on eBay but if I was going to buy new the one that caught my eye was the multi-use fruit picker made by Wolf Garden – http://www.wolf-garten.co.uk
The rest, as they say, is plum jam, plum pickle and assorted other forms of plum joy history.
The picking team with over 10kg of plums... we only stopped when it got dark!
The tomatos in the front room have not given much fruit yet but are making rather wonderful curtains – an unexpected yield!
Perhaps I was a bit over keen putting two in each oil drum planter.
Tomato curtains in the front room
A few months back...
Filed under: Doing | Tags: 19th july, big lunch, farleigh road, hackney, london, n16
Farleigh Road Big Lunch
Last week Farleigh Road held a street party as part of the national ‘Big Lunch’ campaign (http://www.thebiglunch.com/)
The road was shut, residents of all ages and nationalities pulled together to create a truly awesome feast and the street was transformed for a day.
I took the liberty of carrying furniture and plants from my front room into the street – happy days.
I am lucky to live on such an amazing street – full of diversity and life – a little positivity can go a long way.
Farleigh Road Big Lunch
Filed under: Doing | Tags: barrels, harvesting, rain water, recycled food drums
Joe plumbing in recycled food drums/barrels to increase our rain water harvesting capacity
A little while back I set up a rainwater harvesting system which you can see here – http://hackneypermaculture.org.uk/2009/03/27/rainwater-harvesting/
I decided it needed upgrading as we kept running out of water and after some surfing I found a source of recycled plastic food drums/barrels from this gem of a place in Wales – http://www.dvfuels.co.uk/category.asp?catID=4
Delivery worked out cheapest when buying a palette of eight so I got eight and found others to buy them using the local Transition Town Hackney mailing list.
Joe and I had a fun day plumbing them into the existing water butt. Nearly got the hang of using the power drill now!
Robin trying to fix the pipe in place
Piping and fixtures from local hardware shop
Filed under: Doing, Learning, Planning, Thinking | Tags: fan, fruit tree, grapevine, pruning, training, trellis
When we first cleared back some of the undergrowth in the back garden we discovered an old grapevine stump that looked like it was dead. To our delight it started to sprout a tonne of leaves a few months back so todays job was to start training it up a trellis into a fan.
There is some good advice here – http://www.realenglishfruit.co.uk/content/treetraining.htm
Grapevine at the start of day
Grapevine after haircut - we cut it back to just two leaders
Grapevine with leaders tied to trellis ready to grow into a fan
Filed under: Doing | Tags: cauliflowers, nasturtium, peas, potatoes, rocket, young m27 apple tree
Okay so it is my first growing season which means just like your friends who bore you with baby photos, I have to upload photos of stuff growing.
Sure I am not going to win any awards for photo journalism but THESE THINGS ARE GROWING IN MY GARDEN!!!!
Young cauliflowers planted amongst rocket on the rear raised bed
Potatoes growing alongside an apple tree and nasturtium
Yes, they were as tasty as they look!
Loads of the turkish food places around me leave used oil drums out with the trash and I have taken quite the fancy to their bright colours and patterns and begun collecting them (I have seven different sorts so far!)
They make nice planters…
Newly planted tomatoes in oil drum
So we now have quite the tomato patch in the front room…
Tomatoes take over the front room!
Filed under: Collecting, Learning | Tags: ladybird, larva, larvae, photo, picture
Just in case you are as clueless as me – here is a picture of a ladybird larva hanging out in the sun in the back garden. They are our friends - eating aphids and generally looking kinda badass.
