Big Garden Bounty

It's Apple Day at the Big Garden tomorrow. It's been a good year with bountiful harvests of pretty much everything we've grown! The poly tunnels are planted up with leaves to keep us going over winter, spinach, chard, mustard leaves, kale, lettuce. Outside, cabbages, kale, leeks, squash, main crop potatoes are doing well and we're still picking runner beans, courgettes, carrots and tomatoes.
Here are our super huge swedes, first time we've grown them successfully! 

NEW growing project in Colchester!!!

There’s an exciting new veg growing project starting in the town center for young people age 16 to 25 interested in learning to grow food. Contact 

Toni Peers, Go Green Project Lead gogreen[at]colchesteryes.org.uk

y.e.s - Colchester and Tendring Youth Enquiry Service
Colchester  01206 710771
Tendring  01255 434601
www.yesyouthenquiryservice.org

Edible Mach

I've spent the week in Machynlleth in mid Wales and have enjoyed eating delicious purple kohl rabi, lettuce, peas, kale and fresh herbs from some of the Edible Mach plots outside the swimming pool and library!

There are some great outdoor growing projects here including Gerddi Bro Dyfi Gardens and GPs at the local health centre can even 'prescribe' volunteering at the garden to patients!

Help needed at new community garden!

Hurrah for residents at Balfe Court in Greenstead who are creating a new community garden with help from Colne Housing.

They would welcome any help and advice from gardening enthusiasts.

Contact Amanda on 01206 520585 or email her palangatura[at]gmail.com

Spring at the Big Garden

Clare's mixing our own potting compost using a recipe from I don't dig peat:

Ingredients
1 part sand
1 part leaf mould
1 part garden compost
1 part loam (soil from a garden bed)

What you do
Just sieve it all together!

We're experimenting  and comparing it to a bought organic peat free compost. Will let you know the outcome. 

Here's Matt using some coppiced hazel from the woods to make some woven fencing.

The uprights are cut from the red alder we've felled from the shelter belt. It was planted as a fast growing tree to get the belt established while slower growing trees developed.

New Year Plotting

compost making workshop at the TTW plot

Volunteers are invited to join in at the Transition Town Wivenhoe allotment this Sunday 5th January between 2pm and 4pm.

There'll be a variety of jobs on offer, bring a digging spade or fork if you have one.

07926 463568 hello@transitionwivenhoe.org.uk

Colchester Urban Permaculture

"I'm so happy that I think I might puke!!" ~  was how I described my feelings after the first Colchester Urban Permaculture meeting, held this evening at The Waiting Room. I have been brainstorming ideas for an Urban Permaculture Garden for the past month, reading books; studying the site; mulling over the possibilities and the challenges. I have been immersing myself in organic farming, gardening and permaculture for the past 18 months ~ sparked off after an Introduction to Permaculture day course at The Big Garden (Highwoods, Colchester) early in 2012, Ben Lambert and Bob Mehew opened the door to a whole new direction in life. I left Colchester, with my bike and backpack looking for more ~  WWOOFing on smallholdings in the beautiful South-West.
 Since then I have been learning about permaculture and the possibilities, earlier this year I found myself on a Permaculture Design Course in Sweden and after that, was lucky enough to gain a funded place on a 4 week Organic Farm Management Placement in the The Czech Republic. Landing back in Colchester, I decided it was time to harness all my new knowledge into planting some seeds and grow some stuff!

An Allotment? A garden? A smallholding? Any piece of land to nurture myself? I realised I had access to none of these! I have a work share on a local C.S.AFarm (Bennison Farm) and volunteer at the Big Garden so get to work outside plenty but have never have the opportunity to grow things myself and it dawned on me that the majority of people face the same situation ~ concrete jungles filled with plastic wrapped vegetables from supermarkets.
There are many positive organic growing projects around, it took me a while to discover them ~ so how would everyone else  find out about what can be done to become more sustainable? This is where I decided I wanted to set up an Urban Permaculture Garden in Colchester Town Centre ~ and was graced with the opportunity after the opening of St. Botolphs Waiting ~ they wanted to have a gardening project as part of the new community ~ they needed someone with some knowledge ~ perfect!
I set up a meeting a week ago, sending an invitation out to anyone interested in my idea, to come along, share and see what happened. I spent a week agonising over the meeting ~ wondering who would turn up and how I could persuade them on board. Ten lovely faces turned up, a few familiar faces amongst strangers ~ I preceded the meeting, explaining my ideas, hopes, plans and asked "What do you think?". Nothing could of prepared me for the enthusiasm and positive reactions, everyone was so fervent!
We left the meeting all with allocated jobs and new friends, while I am writing this blog entry I got invited to a new group on Facebook ~ Colchester Urban Permaculture ~ smiling as I realised I had met a group of like-minded individuals with the a get up and go attitude!

The aim of this project, is to create a productive urban garden ~ demonstrating permaculture principles, providing inspiration and education for all the community, as well as a beautiful space for all to share. We are going to defeat the concrete and create a resilient container-style garden, using recycled pallets, local resources and the hands of many to share our enthusiasm and demonstrate that you can provide organic food in any environment.

In the forthcoming weeks, keep an ear out for the first workshops and volunteer opportunities ~ an Introduction to Permaculture course and a chance to hack apart pallets and make raised beds and benches for the urban Garden.
 Find us on Facebook ~ https://www.facebook.com/ColchesterUrbanPermaculture and feel free to contact us on our brand spanking new email permaculture@stbotolphs.org