While on holiday in Bourton on the Water, we discovered the Living Green Centre, an organic show garden attached to a gardening & ethical living shop. The first thing we noticed was the grassy green roof, alive with grass and wild flowers.
Green roof
We explored the show garden which had clever ideas such a using wheelbarrows as planters and putting mirrors on the pond floor to reflect light and show up tadpoles more clearly.
Wheelbarrow of salad
I loved the “mouse boat” – a structure to keep the mice away from the pea plants growing safely inside.
Mouse boat
Filed under: Uncategorized
Garden plan
Maze spelling out '250'
Gnarled roots
Rococo gardens
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bourton-on-the-Water, Cotswolds, Rococo Gardens
So! Back from the country. The Cotswolds was lovely – we stayed in this village called Bourton on the Water which is the last word in quaint. Sandstone cottages with climbing roses, wisteria or honeysuckle over every front door, duck infested rivers, cream teas and higgeldy piggeldy pubs. It was a big family holiday with Mellors’ parents and all his brothers and sisters and their husbands or wives. We hired two cottages and members of our party formed little groups to go exploring – some hiked, some cycled, some read books in the garden (guilty face) and some went to watch a cheese rolling contest! (Much more violent than it sounds).
One of the highlights for me was a visit to the Rococo pleasure gardens. Vegetable gardens for Mellors to admire, a maze spelling out the letters “250”, bee hives, gorgeous flowers, beautiful lawns, ponds squirming with crested newts …. finishing with a picnic in the sunshine. Fabulous! http://www.rococogarden.org.uk/garden_walk.aspx.
MuswellHillbilly is back from a week in the Cotswolds (more on this later). When I got home I legged it into the garden to see what changes had been wrought by May. Three of our rose bushes had produced roses and a couple of tomato plants are starting to flower. A pepper plant in the greenhouse boasted a small green pepper. Salad is growing well and the chives and sage have purple flowers. Along with the mountain of fresh asparagus we brought back from a farm shop in the country we ate home grown lettuce and garden radishes today.
After that, Mellors tacked the lawn which had shot up (was there rain in London? Our water butt is almost empty so I think not) with his antique manual mower inherited from a grandfather and I set about weeding the garden (note to neighbours: that plant with the heart shaped leaves flowing over your fence is BINDWEED, please pull it out, it is taking over our garden!). Today was a scorcher that would put any South Africa summer’s day to shame so we perched big squash plants in pots on the roof of the shed for maximum exposure, topped up the barrel pond with rain butt water (no frogs yet!) and watered all the beds, pots and greenhouse plants carefully with a watering can at dusk, round the time when sparrows in the sky turn into bats.
Filed under: GardenAfrica Project | Tags: Africa, conservation, GArdenAfrica, Observer Ethical Award, poverty, sustainable, vegetable garden
Much joy at GA HQ! The Observer Ethical Awards Awards recognise those who pioneer a sustainable future and identify products, ideas and companies that make ethical living possible. GardenAfrica’s projects have been recognised with a nomination in the Best Conservation category.
GardenAfrica, to recap, is a UK based charity working with communities in sub-Saharan Africa, training people to plant vegetable gardens which feed families, free from dependency and debt. These gardens flourish in schools, hospital grounds and private homesteads, providing medicinal plants as well as food.
Futhi Fakudzi and her children
Traditional African agricultural knowledge is harnessed and combined with simple gardening techniques such as mulching and water conservation to create a productive vegetable garden in extreme and adverse conditions. Self reliance is key: local trainers are used and once the project is running, GardenAfrica pulls out, leaving the community with the skills and knowledge to continue growing food for themselves. Thus the gardens are sustainable in every sense of the word.
Cross fingers for GardenAfrica on 3 June when winners will be announced. Click here to view the short list.
Filed under: Wedding flowers | Tags: bouquet, pink, roses, table centers, Wedding flowers
I went to a gorgeous family wedding recently, and once again Mellors’ mum did the wedding flowers.
Oh and I included the bride and groom on the top of the cake because the bride is a police officer and the groom is a paramedic (they met at work) and I love that the cake toppers have little helmets & first aid kits.
Filed under: Our Garden in North London | Tags: blossom, raised beds, tadpole, wine bottle
Tadpoles are wriggling. Asparagus is sprouting. Lettuce coming along super-fast in the new greenhouse.
We got some frogspawn and put it in our barrel pond. Here is Mellors reflection as he snaps a picture of our new tadpoles. Grow fast little poles! Turn into hungry frogs who will eat our slugs!
Here is our new apple tree in blossom.
Mashaka relaxing in the grass
New raised beds made of recycled wine bottles
Buds exploding from bark
Herbs all coming back to life.
Filed under: Edible Gardening, Love the planet | Tags: Allotments, free food, government, peak oil
I received an email today about a petition close to every gardener’s heart. Growing our own food is becoming ever more urgent. With peak oil looming we seriously need to explore our options sooner rather than later! The recession is also the perfect excuse to make your own free food!
As you probably know, this country is woefully short of allotments and an online petition has been started to persuade the government to provide more:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/more-allotments/
If you are interested in signing it you will find the environmental and social benefits of allotments listed on the link.
Just fill in your name, address (which remains private) & email and hit submit. It only takes a second.
I’d be most grateful if you could help, as will those that may get allotments as a result of this petition.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: central park, city garden, community garden, NYC
Mellors and I have just returned from New York, where we have been visiting family. Unsurprisingly we managed to sniff out some gardens in a city renowned for its skyscrapers.
First we took the air in Central Park.
Signs of spring in Central Park
Central Park
Tribute to John Lennon in Central Park
Central Park behind us we then we explored some city community gardens. The Lower East Side or ‘Alphabet city’ was for years a neighbourhood synonymous with drugs, crime, burned out buildings and garbage-strewn streets. But it is changing and one of the reasons for that change, say long-time residents, are the numerous community gardens, almost 40 of which have taken the place of many of the areas formerly debris-covered vacant lots.
NYC community gardens
Community garden in the heart of the city
Garden in Alphabet City, NYC
So now in place of discarded refrigerators, rotting tyres and rats, there are herbs of every variety (rosemary, thyme, sage, basil); flowers such as roses, pansies, marigolds, and mums, and vegetables including tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, peppers, mustard greens and spinach. In one garden there are even peach, cherry, apple and nectarine trees, as well as an enormous weeping willow tree. Visit the Sixth Street and Avenue B garden website for more.
NYC Community gardens
It’s not yet open to the public but we were fascinated to learn about Friends of the High Line, a non profit organisation who have saved an old railway line above the city and intend to rejuvenate the space for public use. The High Line comprises 6.7 acres of space atop elevated rail deck. One of the plans for the High Line, which was built in the 1920’s, is to create public parks and gardens. Check it out: http://www.thehighline.org/
