We have received funding!!!!

We are very excited as for the first time ever Tribe Roots for Resilience who we know as the Urban Forest Tribe – our partners in creating our Growing Garden – have been accepted into the Aviva Match Fund. This means that Aviva will ‘match’ every donation they receive up to £250. (Click here to know more about the fund, how it works and who it supports.)

As Paula says: ‘This is a huge milestone for our little CIC (Community Interest Company) and for the community space we’re working so hard to build. Our crowdfund has now gone live and we have 6 weeks to raise what we can. If anyone is able to donate, share, or spread the word, it would mean the world to us. Truly, every share and every pound makes a difference. Thank you so much for being part of our community and for helping us create a beautiful, accessible Outdoor Learning and Wellbeing Space for all our families.’

If you are able to support with even with just a few pounds that would be brilliant – and remember that for every £5 that you give £10 goes into the UFT bank account thanks to Aviva.

GO HERE TO DONATE. OUR MATCHED FUNDING ONLY LASTS FOR 6 WEEKS – UNTIL MONDAY 5TH JANUARY – SO DON’T DELAY!

MEANWHILE…. WHAT OF THE GROWING GARDEN

Well it is looking very wintry and some things, such as the slug defying nasturciums, are definitely finished!

I’m afraid we were also too late with our second sowing of carrots and beetroots – they all grew lots of leaves but you needed a microscope to see the roots. But I was fascinated to know what had happened to the spuds which had said ‘plant in September – harvest in November’! Up till our really chilly few nights ten days ago they were looking OK if not amazing.

But I am afraid the frost got to them also and now the leaves are no more. However, I did investigate below ground and found two little (early Jersey size) potatoes under one plant so got very excited and took them to the kitchen. Unwisely, I then left them on the side for two days in some water. Not a good idea…..

I am not giving up hope though and will go back in another three weeks or so and see what I can find.

But it has not all been disaster. The pak choi, true to their claim to actually like cold wet weather, are doing a treat. I have already harvested two serious helpings of leaves from them and as you can see, there is a lot more to go. And both the lettuces and the cabbages are looking very healthy.

Meanwhile my good friend Sue who had helped us lay the path and sow the grass round the planters came to stay. Wanting a project we decided that in the absence of children (too cold and not enough really for them to do), we would try deal with the central path which even after we made the new veg beds, was a weedy mess.

We did have some paving left but not enough to create that big a path and on our principle of only using what we had or was donated, we didn’t want to buy any more. So finally we decided that we would:
• dig out the area to left as far back as the rather tumble down wall up to my wild garden to make a second veg bed
• straighten out the path area,
• see if we could rescue enough bricks to edge the veg bed (we did, just)
• and for now, just cover the path in a thick layer of mulch/bark pending a better or more permanent idea.

But, just covering the path with bark was not an option as those weeds would be up through it in no time. We did have some memberane but Sue, who has more experience of this sort of thing than I do, thought that the bark would slip on the membrane and be dangerous. Queue a major raid on the local builders merchants and hardware shops in search of heavy duty cardboard. Followed by a lot of cutting, fitting and laying cardboard.

We were quite pleased with the result although how well it will stand up to the winter – or whether that carboard will keep those weeds down, is another matter. However the job did involve a fun visit to Crews Hill in Enfield (home of all the MEGA garden centres) to get our cheap bark. We took in a fish centre where we saw everything from luminous 2 centimetre long mini fish to massive silver and red carp costing £3,500 each!!!

To finish, a little throw back to our plant recovery ward in the summer; all ‘recovered’ plants have now been moved back into the main garden or given away. Their place has been taken by new residents most of whom are looking very healthy and are on their way to new homes. An olive, a fern, three geraniums and no less than 19 small pots of alchimella mollis from just two plants in the main garden. And there is another big clump to break up!