O/T - Community Garden. A request for some advice...

[The Large One]

Fantastic stuff, TLO, it's been a brilliant year for growing stuff. Congrats on the award too.

It has. We've had a good harvest of everything.

Our produce list this year has included - with apologies to any vegetables I've left out - new potatoes, carrots, shallots, beetroot, sweetcorn, runner beans, borlotti beans, broad beans, sweet peas, tomatoes (at least 25kg), radishes, leeks, artichokes, cucumber, aubergines, green peppers, apples, rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, whitecurrants, redcurrants, blackcurrants, josterberries, chard, rocket, mizuma, rosemary, fennel, sage...

I've got to say the winner from the garden was corn on the cob. I'd never had it straight from the garden, as it were. I just brushed a load of melted butter and garlic on to a sheet of foil with some salt and pepper over the top, wrapped it around the corn, and put it under a medium grill for 15 minutes - it was sensational.

We also had three 12' sunflowers, and an array of colourful wild flowers. A busy place for the bees.

That's on our list for next year - have a beehive next to the garden, possibly on our garage roof.

Congrats on the award too.

Cheers, bloke.

 

[jevs]

Grew loads of corn on the cob this year, TLO....it was bloody lovely until the farmer next to my allotment harvested all his crop (corn, Wheat ?who knows) and all the rats moved gown and ate my cobs almost over night.

Mangetout, courgettes, runners, french beans, onions, beetroot, leeks, parsnips, strawberries and potaotoes have all been superb.

Have you been to Preston Park and had a look at the small "Harvest" section just behind the rotunda cafe ?

 

[Hillian1]

It has. We've had a good harvest of everything.
sweetcorn

I've got to say the winner from the garden was corn on the cob. I'd never had it straight from the garden, as it were. I just brushed a load of melted butter and garlic on to a sheet of foil with some salt and pepper over the top, wrapped it around the corn, and put it under a medium grill for 15 minutes - it was sensational.


.

Sweetcorn is what my Wife insists growing every year, there is nothing quite like going into your garden and pulling a cob off, stripping the leaves and silks and eating almost immiediately.

We never did get our communal garden going, it was decided the oiks coming back from the town at night would destroy it, which to be fair to the other rsidents, they probably would have.

 

[jevs]

Sweetcorn is what my Wife insists growing every year, there is nothing quite like going into your garden and pulling a cob off, stripping the leaves and silks and eating almost immiediately.

We never did get our communal garden going, it was decided the oiks coming back from the town at night would destroy it, which to be fair to the other rsidents, they probably would have.

What a bloody shame. Hope you re-think and get it going. There are some absolute c**** out there but luckily, they are in a minority. Hope you re consider and go for it.

 

[The Large One]

Grew loads of corn on the cob this year, TLO....it was bloody lovely until the farmer next to my allotment harvested all his crop (corn, Wheat ?who knows) and all the rats moved gown and ate my cobs almost over night

We've been lucky with pests. We might have had a snail in our garden once during the summer. It had got lost, I think.

Mangetout, courgettes, runners, french beans, onions, beetroot, leeks, parsnips, strawberries and potaotoes have all been superb.

Have you been to Preston Park and had a look at the small "Harvest" section just behind the rotunda cafe ?

I have. Two of the people who work on our garden also work down there. It's where we got a few ideas from.

Oh yeah, forgot courgettes. Parsnips, funnily enough, are the only things which failed us. Don't know why.

 

[The Large One]

We never did get our communal garden going, it was decided the oiks coming back from the town at night would destroy it, which to be fair to the other rsidents, they probably would have.

What a bloody shame. Hope you re-think and get it going. There are some absolute c**** out there but luckily, they are in a minority. Hope you re consider and go for it.

This.

We considered the oiks and went ahead anyway. The worst vandalism we had was one night when two or three lads fell into the runner beans frames and the peas (blimey, this is sounding more and more like 'Ever Decreasing Circles'). I don't think they did it for any spiteful reasons; they were just being twats. No major damage done.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

What a bloody good use of dead space !!!! We should have more of this all across the city especially when you consider the shortage of allotments.

Did you get funding from the council or did they just give you the permission to do it ?

 

[Nitram]

Just noticed this thread did not know anyone from here was involved. We are just around the corner from you and have been watching this develop. A great credit to the local community. Congratulations to all involved.

 

[Hillian1]

Oh yeah, forgot courgettes. Parsnips, funnily enough, are the only things which failed us. Don't know why.

Try Cucumbers next year TLO.

We did in our little back garden and they are superb*

* When I say superb, they wren't your supermarket long thin shape and the skins were almost leather but the flesh was like no other cucumber I've tasted, sweet and firm not watery and tasteless.

 

[The Large One]

What a bloody good use of dead space !!!! We should have more of this all across the city especially when you consider the shortage of allotments.

Did you get funding from the council or did they just give you the permission to do it ?

When the council narrowed the road / widened the pavement at the beginning of 2013 (something we'd petitioned them to do as there was no pavement on one side of the road), they asked the community what we wanted in the 'pavement' area. We said a community garden, so they paid a local contractor (Brighton Up Your Garden) to build the 18" retaining wall, and gave us a flatbed lorry's worth of compost from Stanmer Nurseries - and a golden maple tree. After that, it was down to us to get on with it.

On the opening day (June 2013), it was a bit disorganised and guerilla garden-ish, but good fun. At the end of last year, we formed a committee, with a community bank account, and one of the people designed the layout. We got some funding from Brighton & Hove Food Partnership (for some tools, a little bit of infrastructure and a couple of water butts; we already had seeds and one or two other bits and pieces), and got on with creating the garden.

We're lucky insofar at the garden gets a lot of sunshine, and seems to be in a bit of a heat trap. But with help from the four regulars, plus occasional assistance from others, we've managed to get what you see in the pictures.

Regarding the 'dead space' bit, I would be interested to know if there's places / junctions / dead ground that occur to you that could benefit from this kind of thing across the city which local communities could start...?

 

[The Large One]

Try Cucumbers next year TLO.

We did in our little back garden and they are superb*

* When I say superb, they wren't your supermarket long thin shape and the skins were almost leather but the flesh was like no other cucumber I've tasted, sweet and firm not watery and tasteless.

'Cucumber' was on our list of produce for the year, with spiky skins. They were excellent.

A friend of mine - someone who people know on here - came round for supper one evening and we had some mizuma and rocket as part of a salad. He was bowled over; he was delighted you could have salad leaves that actually tasted of something. We may have missed a tiny bit of wildlife when washing it, but he's still here to tell the tale...

I don't get this obsession with supermarkets having identikit size-and-shaped fruit and veg on sale. They say that's what the customers want; I'm not so sure. The salad you get in supermarkets is the lowest common denominator and washed in a very concentrated solution, devoid of any remaining minerals. So what if you have a carrot that look like it should be on 'That's Life'. If it's straight out of the ground, it's fresh, and as good as you can get.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Regarding the 'dead space' bit, I would be interested to know if there's places / junctions / dead ground that occur to you that could benefit from this kind of thing across the city which local communities could start...?

The city burbs seem to have an awful lot of those triangles of grass ( a good thing ! ) - I would have thought they would make great community gardens. Two spring to mind - one at the junction of Beechwood Ave and Westfield Crescent and the one near me at the junction of Park Rise and Northease Drive. There are tonnes more though.

 

[Hillian1]

'Cucumber' was on our list of produce for the year, with spiky skins. They were excellent.
.

Ah yes, having just re-read your extensive list I must have skipped cucumber. Ours too had spikey skins, and I must admit to having a bit of reticence in eating them at first, bloody glad we did though.

As for carrots, ours looked like they were caught in mid photo doing some crazy Kung Fu move (they all had at least 2 main roots) but the taste was brilliant.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Ah yes, having just re-read your extensive list I must have skipped cucumber. Ours too had spikey skins, and I must admit to having a bit of reticence in eating them at first, bloody glad we did though.

I grew yellow round cucumbers in my greenhouse this year and they were fantastic.

 

[The Large One]

The city burbs seem to have an awful lot of those triangles of grass ( a good thing ! ) - I would have thought they would make great community gardens. Two spring to mind - one at the junction of Beechwood Ave and Westfield Crescent and the one near me at the junction of Park Rise and Northease Drive. There are tonnes more though.

Just had a look on Google Maps to see what you were on about. That's here, right...?



If you or anyone else were so minded, you could get a leaflet together, send it round to the houses in the immediate vicinity and canvass opinion. You'd need to speak to someone at the council - we dealt with the Transport Planner - to see how you'd go about getting this done; they're generally very supportive of this kind of thing The soft landscape is already there in that picture, so funding may well come from the like of BHFP.

The principle issue is getting the community motivated to do it. If they're up for it, they can speak to us and find out how it could be done.

 

[LamieRobertson]

It has. We've had a good harvest of everything.

Our produce list this year has included - with apologies to any vegetables I've left out - new potatoes, carrots, shallots, beetroot, sweetcorn, runner beans, borlotti beans, broad beans, sweet peas, tomatoes (at least 25kg), radishes, leeks, artichokes, cucumber, aubergines, green peppers, apples, rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, whitecurrants, redcurrants, blackcurrants, josterberries, chard, rocket, mizuma, rosemary, fennel, sage...

I've got to say the winner from the garden was corn on the cob. I'd never had it straight from the garden, as it were. I just brushed a load of melted butter and garlic on to a sheet of foil with some salt and pepper over the top, wrapped it around the corn, and put it under a medium grill for 15 minutes - it was sensational.

We also had three 12' sunflowers, and an array of colourful wild flowers. A busy place for the bees.

That's on our list for next year - have a beehive next to the garden, possibly on our garage roof.



Cheers, bloke.

Thats a fair old whack ....congrats to everyone involved...'home' grown veg/fruit is the best...but carrots are my fav...pull one out of the ground and they smell good delicious

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Just had a look on Google Maps to see what you were on about. That's here, right...?

View attachment 58968

If you or anyone else were so minded, you could get a leaflet together, send it round to the houses in the immediate vicinity and canvass opinion. You'd need to speak to someone at the council - we dealt with the Transport Planner - to see how you'd go about getting this done; they're generally very supportive of this kind of thing The soft landscape is already there in that picture, so funding may well come from the like of BHFP.

The principle issue is getting the community motivated to do it. If they're up for it, they can speak to us and find out how it could be done.

Yep that's the spot. Thanks, I'll be looking in to this.

 

[The Large One]

Thats a fair old whack ....congrats to everyone involved...'home' grown veg/fruit is the best...but carrots are my fav...pull one out of the ground and they smell good delicious

Beetroot is up there too.

For me, the most important thing about eating beetroot is remembering you ate beetroot, especially when you go to the loo the next day - and scare yourself witless...

 

[AmexRuislip]

The corner junction near our house was, until recently, a 120ft wide old coach turning circle, with no pavement on one side. It was pretty dangerous.

The residents petitioned the council to narrow the junction, hence widening the pavement, and the council agreed to do the work. It meant we had a 50ft wide pavement/pedestrian area, so the council asked the community what they'd like done with that area, and a community garden was the most popular answer. The council then built a raise bed of around 30ft by 20ft and filled it with soil, and have now left the community to grow what it likes.

So this Friday we're having a little bit of a do to 'open' the plot for people to come and see what's going on. We've had many ideas, including herbs, flowers and vegetables, but what we're short of is on-going expertise. We've got Brighton & Hove Food Partnership involved, plus people from one or two other community gardens across the city, but knowing NSC is a haven for keen gardeners, we were wondering if anyone could impart some advice.

Better still, if you're in the area, feel free to come along to the corner of Stanford Avenue and Cleveland Road on Friday afternoon and fill us with wisdom.

Hi, I have an allotment close to where I live.
At first it was hard work, but eventually it became easier to grow all kinds of fruit & veg.
I found this site helpful:

https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/publications/128-community-garden-starter-pack



Good luck.

 

[The Large One]

Hi, I have an allotment close to where I live.
At first it was hard work, but eventually it became easier to grow all kinds of fruit & veg.
I found this site helpful:

https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/publications/128-community-garden-starter-pack

View attachment 58971View attachment 58972

Good luck.

Looking good.