by Derek Smith
The wild flower bed is past its best but we still have California poppies, wild carrot, hedge mustard, corn marigold, flax, purple poppy, white campion, cornflower, borage and teasel. The most prominent is the wild carrot, its flowers somewhat like cow parsley, but when they go to seed, they curl into green, miniature birds nest type structures. It’s the first …
Yesterday was the garden’s AGM. We looked back on the year’s achievements. These included: – Increased footfall from 4546 to 5758 over the year. – Completion of our all-weather shelter, and a side door in the container. – Two solar panels on the container which we use for lighting and hot drinks. – Regular income from plant sales. – The …
In the early hours of Monday (7 July) through to 8am, we had 21 mm of rain as measured on our rain gauge. The average for July is 41 mm; so that’s half a month’s rain in one day day. It gave the ground a good soaking. I examined the earth with a trowel and the rain had soaked down …
The garden had a stall at Forest Gate Festival today, held yearly on Osborne Road. Kate brought a bin of soil and showed some soil science. Wooden medallions were painted, many by children and some adults too. And we had a plant sale, mostly with plants donated by Underleaf. The owners of Underleaf, a couple, moved into the new flats …
Today is the longest day of the year, 16 hours and 39 minutes between sunrise and sunset. The sun rose at 4.42 am and will set at 9.21 pm. As well as being the Summer Solstice, it is Midsummer’s Day, halfway through the year. We get the long day of the summer solstice because the earth’s axis is at an …
On Saturday we had a very successful plant sale in spite of the rain, 2 cm in the last two days as measured by our new rain gauge. Underleaf donated plants for the sale, a van full which I helped to unload on Friday. They supply plants to businesses and for events, and had a lot over. We were certainly …
The garden is working to become environmentally friendly. Not just in what we grow, but in other aspects. It’s a slow trek, all the time fighting the power of habit. A much underestimated power, the great flywheel of society as William James called it. He said we need to get rid of bad habits, and foster the good ones, like …
Kate Spencer was the second speaker in our fortnightly series of Sunday afternoon talks. About forty attended. Kate is a professor at Queen Mary college. Her research is in pollution. She lives on Earlham Grove and has been a friend of the garden since its beginning. Most of the audience had brought along a little of their garden soil. They …
Volunteers are the heartbeat of the garden. The garden can’t run without them. They meet and greet, they do lots of work: planting, clearing up, watering – and keep the place going. So on Sunday, 18 May we had a volunteer session. It was planned to be informative and enjoyable, and to help volunteers get to know each other. The …
Around 70 people attended our VE Day celebration. It began with Peter Williams telling us about Newham during the war: the evacuation of children, the phony war, the blitz, the prisoner of war camps on Wanstead Flats – one for Italians, the other for Germans. There were anti aircraft guns on the Flats too and barrage balloons. Forest Gate suffered …
