Generated by All in One SEO v4.9.10, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # Forest Gate Community Garden A community garden in the heart of Forest Gate ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [Blog](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/blog/) - [Drought, Retting, Breaking, Brushing, Drop Spindles, Friday 31 July 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/drought-retting-breaking-brushing-drop-spindles-friday-31-july-2026/) - We have had no rain since 27 June. That’s 35 dry days. We are in a drought, as evidenced by our flagging plants. Lack of rain has been made worse by the hot weather where much of our watering evaporates before plants can use it. There’s a hosepipe ban, but at least we have our - [Harvesting flax, retting it, and a little history, Saturday 18 July 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/harvesting-flax-retting-it-and-a-little-history-saturday-18-july-2026/) - At the beginning of July, I harvested the flax, I had grown in the small raised bed, when all the flowers had gone and the stalks were turning yellow. This may have been too early as the seeds weren’t ripe. I left the flax in a stook to dry, in the hope there was sufficient - [Wildflowers, garden flowers and hot days to come, Saturday 4 July 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/wildflowers-garden-flowers-and-hot-days-to-come-saturday-4-july-2026/) - In the wildflower bed are lots of marigolds which need dead heading to keep flowering. There’s wild carrot too. I am fascinated how when the flower head goes to seed, it folds and becomes like a bird’s nest. There’s corn marigolds, California poppies, white campion and nipple wort. The latter is in the dandelion family - [Our Tenth Anniversary Bash, Sunday, 28 June 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/our-tenth-anniversary-bash-sunday-28-june-2026/) - So many people! 500 perhaps, so difficult to count. We had three sites: the garden, the street and Durning Hall, with events going on in all the places. We teamed up with Forest Gayte Pride, which might have bemused the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, very identifiable in their whites, but they seemed in party mood - [The Garden Trail, the Green Fair, and Rain, Friday 12 June 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/the-garden-trail-the-green-fair-and-rain-friday-12-june-2026/) - This is a busy month. Last weekend, we had the Garden Trail and the Green Fair. And at the end of the month, 28 June, we have our 10th anniversary celebration. At the Green Fair, I had a stall selling my local crime series, Jack of All Trades, and my children’s books. Next to me - [Water and Jack in the Garden, Friday 8 May 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/water-and-jack-in-the-garden-friday-8-may-2026/) - A plumber has fixed the leak in the water pipes coming to our tap. So we have running water again, and don’t we need it. We have not had a decent downpour since early April when we had 3mm of rain. A dribble. It goes on and on, this dry spell. It was why we - [Open Garden, spring flowers and making linen, Sunday, 17 May 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/open-garden-spring-flowers-and-making-linen-sunday-17-may-2026/) - Today the garden is part of the National Garden scheme. The proceeds we collect go to charity. When I arrive, I am surprised by the number of children with their parents. It is good to see us busy. The ukulele players are not here today. They felt they would take up too much room but - [No rain, no tap, and lots of flowers, Sunday 3 May 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/no-rain-no-tap-and-lots-of-flowers-sunday-3-may-2026/) - We have had 3 mm of rain in the last month. Last night, we had a teaser of rain. It looked like it was going to be a real storm. The BBC forecast suggested it would be. But just a few drops, dark skies, and that was that. It didn’t even register on the garden - [Dry spring, blanket weed, the month of leaves, Saturday 25 April 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/dry-spring-blanket-weed-the-month-of-leaves-saturday-25-april-2026/) - We have had just 3 mm of rain this month. The average for April in London is around 40 mm with 10 to 16 rainy days. We have had just one this month. In a couple more weeks our barrels will be dry. At least, we have a tap. I think of farms and how - [Blooming Spring and Blanket Weed, Saturday 18 April 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/blooming-spring-and-blanket-weed-saturday-18-april-2026/) - The garden is full of spring. At the front of the garden we have the pink cherry with its showy blossom, intermingling with the white blossom of the hawthorn, also known as the May Tree. Here ard there in the garden are three cornered leeks, like white bluebells, the latter around too. The old regulars: - [Frogs & cats, flax & blossom, Sunday 5th April 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/frogs-cats-flax-blossom-sunday-5th-april-2026/) - It’s around 12 degrees but feels colder because of the chilly wind. The sun comes in and out of the clouds. We have been donated a few tadpoles. Yesterday, they were together, more of less, so very visible. Today, they have dispersed and are hard to spot. Tadpoles don’t stay together. They have no collective - [Equinox, Hazel, newts, and cats, Friday 20 March 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/equinox-hazel-newts-and-cats-friday-20-march-2026/) - It is the spring equinox today, when we have equal night and day. After today, the days win out over the nights. From 12 hours at the equinox, the day length will extend to 16 hours by midsummer. Today also hails astronomical spring, as opposed to meteorological spring which began on March 1st. Where are - [Cargo Bike, Frog spawn, a Walk, Saturday 14 March 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/cargo-bike-frog-spawn-a-walk-saturday-14-march-2026/) - We are not to be the host of the cargo bike from OurBike. I feel we were misled as we didn’t realise we were competing with at least one other group. That had not come up when Douglas came down to explain the scheme. We thought we just had to agree the scheme. Well we - [Spring, magnolia, frog spawn & daffs, Sunday 1 March 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/spring-magnolia-frog-spawn-daffs-sunday-1-march-2026/) - Today is the first day of Meteorological spring, covering the three months March, April and May. The year is divided up into four three monthly seasons in this splitting of the year. Astronomical spring begins on the equinox which falls on 20 March this year. It is the day of equal day and night, from - [Cargo Bike, Buddleia, and Wood chip, Friday, 20th February 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/cargo-bike-buddleia-and-wood-chip-friday-20th-february-2026/) - We had a visit from Douglas Leroy from OurBike, a community e-bike company. To discuss whether we would want to be a host for a cargo bike. A cargo bike is one of those bikes with a big bucket in front that can carry cargo, this one up to 100 kg of goods or people. - [Rain, rain and more rain, Saturday 7 February 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/rain-rain-and-more-rain-saturday-7-february-2026/) - We had 118 mm of rain in January, a month which averages 55 mm in London. So well over double the average rainfall for the month. But February has had quite a deluge too. We have had 44 mm so far. February is usually quite a dry month, averaging 39 mm. We have beaten that - [Cold birds, rain, turning the compost, Saturday 24 January 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/cold-birds-rain-turning-the-compost-saturday-24-january-2026/) - We both came in at 8.30 on a cold January morning, 6 degrees, to count birds. There was a wind too, making it feel colder. We had come in before the garden was open. The RSPB Big Birdwatch rules are one hour over this weekend. 8.45 to 9.45 am was our hour. It felt even - [Warmer weather, signs of Spring, a pale knight, Sunday 18 January 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/warmer-weather-signs-of-spring-a-pale-knight-sunday-18-january-2026/) - It has warmed up in the last week. The frozen pond is just a memory. It was surprising how quickly the thick ice melted. The temperature had risen from around freezing, and below at night, to 8 to 12 degrees. And it had melted, like ice cream taken out of the freezer. We are becoming - [Frost and Ice, 7 January 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/frost-and-ice-7-january-2026/) - It is cold, the pavement on Earlham Grove icy with frost. Frost on car roofs too, as I walk down to the garden. Car roofs are the most visible frosty surfaces. They are horizontal and so lose heat easily. Clear nights are the coldest as there are no insulating clouds. Car roof tops are metal, - [A New Year, two Anniversaries, Thursday 1 January 2026](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/a-new-year-two-anniversaries-thursday-1-january-2026/) - We had Auld Lang Syne, fireworks, and drank too much at the changeover from 2025 to 2026. And saw the cheers and joy around the world as 2026 swept in, with hopes for new possibilities this year. Love, money, health and dare one say – peace. It is New Year’s Day as I write this - [Winter Solstice, Our Advent Calendar, Sunday 21 December 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/winter-solstice-our-advent-calendar-sunday-21-december-2025/) - Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. The sun rose at 8.02 am and will set at 3.51 pm, giving us 7 hours and 49 minutes of day. The longest day, the Summer Solstice on June 21st 2026, is 16 hours and 38 minutes, more than twice as long. Today’s sunrise - [Adventures in Breadland, Saturday 6 December 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/adventures-in-breadland-saturday-6-december-2025/) - Since doing the Cereal Project in 2020, I have maintained an interest in cereals, their growth and usage. More than half grown in the UK, mostly wheat, oats, and barley, are used for animal feed. In this blog, I am looking at wheat, the most important of our cereals by tonnage. Its primary contribution to - [Leaf fall, rain and cold, Saturday 29 November 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/leaf-fall-rain-and-cold-saturday-29-november-2025/) - The leaves are all but gone on most of the trees in the garden. A few languidly hang on but a strong wind will tear them away, leaving a winter silhouette of skeletal trees. We have two evergreens: a dwarf juniper by the small pergola and the olive tree. There are two distinct strategies playing - [Cop30 and the Fossil Fuel Lobby, Saturday, 7 November 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/cop30-and-the-fossil-fuel-lobby-saturday-7-november-2025/) - Cop30 is in Belem, Brazil, running for two weeks, starting on Monday. It’s the latest climate change summit. Trump won’t be there as he says climate change is the biggest scam ever. One wonders whether he actually believes that all the climate scientists across the world are in a conspiracy to fool the rest of - [The Witch’s Tree, Rain and autumn colour, Sunday 2 November 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/the-witchs-tree-rain-and-autumn-colour-sunday-2-november-2025/) - Last Sunday, I led the Witch’s Tree walk. It was a chilly, dull day, unlike last year’s walk when it was sunny and 18 degrees. Nevertheless, 16 of us set off across the Flats to Bushwood. Once into the trees, we had the autumn colour all around. The pronounced yellow of lime trees, the crinkled - [Trees and Clocks, Saturday 25 October 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/trees-and-clocks-saturday-25-october-2025/) - This time of year, we become very aware of trees. The leaves of deciduous trees are going yellow and some like the cherry tree going red too. The big month for leaf fall is actually November which is less than a week away. By December, we’ll have bare, skeletal branches, in the garden and along - [Waste food, anaerobic digesters and caddies, 17 October 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/waste-food-anaerobic-digesters-and-caddies-17-october-2025/) - Newham Council very soon will be implementing its waste food plan. It should begin for some households before the end of the year, and for all households in 2026. It is government directed. We will all be given what they call a caddy, which is a 5 litre container with a lid. Most people will - [Rain, wind and Jane Goodall, Saturday 4 October 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/rain-wind-and-jane-goodall-saturday-4-october-2025/) - On Thursday and Friday we had an inch of rain, brought in by storm Amy. All around the garden are sycamore helicopters, and scattered along the pavement of Earlham Grove, which made me think how wasteful nature can be. Those on the pavement are being trodden in, and will either be swept up by the - [Rain, ukuleles, and volunteers, Sunday 28 September 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/rain-ukuleles-and-volunteers-sunday-28-september-2025/) - It is an overcast, gloomy day but a very busy day in the garden. There’s drizzly rain which does add up over the day, giving us 2mm, so needed after a dry couple of weeks. The morning was the last session for the ukulele class, after ten weeks, but many of last year’s there too, - [Late apple blossom, doors and the Equinox, Saturday, 20 September 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/late-apple-blossom-doors-and-the-equinox-saturday-20-september-2025/) - The apple tree, given to us by the Irish pensioners, is in bloom. Quite shockingly so, as April is the month for apple blossom. This is five months on. Though, September is very like April in terms of temperatures and day-length. It seems the tree has picked up on these signals, perhaps enhanced by the - [Plant sale, tidy up in the sunshine, Saturday 6 September 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/plant-sale-tidy-up-in-the-sunshine-saturday-6-september-2025/) - There’s a plant sale on, and we are doing well as I arrive. By the time I leave there’s not much left to sell which is the aim. The tables are outside the garden, and there’s three or four volunteers chatting and selling plants. I wander into the garden; it’s pretty busy. Children playing with - [Rain, drought, and bottled water, Saturday 30 August 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/rain-drought-and-bottled-water-saturday-30-august-2025/) - We had a lot of rain yesterday. It started in the early morning. I can’t say when. I popped into the garden at 7.30 am, holding my umbrella. I had one task and that was to see the rain gauge. It registered 10 mm, a satisfying amount after a very dry month. Just 4 mm - [No rain, teff and the Cereal Project, 24 August 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/no-rain-teff-and-the-cereal-project-24-august-2025/) - So little rain this month. All our rain barrels are empty. Our sole source of water is our tap on the standpipe. I have been keeping track of rainfall with our rain gauge, hardly arduous this month. Throughout August, we have had 4mm of rain, while the average rainfall in London for August is 48mm. - [A cooler day, a daft knight, and abutilon, Saturday 16 August 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/a-cooler-day-a-daft-knight-and-abutilon-saturday-16-august-2025/) - A coolish day, somewhat surprising, after the hot days, with the temperature creeping up to the low 20s while I am in the garden this morning. But it remains dry. Two days ago we had 3mm of rain which gives us 4mm this month, which is a paucity when August’s average in London is 48mm. - [Wheat, Nestbox and Dare to Dream - Saturday 9 August 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/wheat-nestbox-and-dare-to-dream-saturday-9-august-2025/) - There’s a sprig of wheat in the wildflower bed, quite short as the bed is dry. It has sprouted from bird seed. There’s a bird feeder over the bed, and birds are quite messy eaters, and seeds drop to the ground and some sprout. I first noticed this when I did the Cereal Project in - [Walnuts, Fothergilla and Jimi Hendrix. Sunday 3rd August, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/walnuts-fothergilla-and-jimi-hendrix-sunday-3rd-august-2025/) - There were six ripening walnuts on the walnut tree, almost occluded by the buddleia. Now there are none. I suspect squirrels have gathered them, as they were too big for birds, the size of ping-pong balls. I find one on the ground, just one. I decide to cut it up to see how much the - [Wild flowers, flax, rain and the pump, Saturday 26 July 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/wild-flowers-flax-rain-and-the-pump-saturday-26-july-2025/) - 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 - [AGM and AI Talk, Sunday 20 July, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/agm-and-ai-talk-sunday-20-july-2025/) - 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 - [Hot and Dry - Saturday 12th July, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/hot-and-dry-saturday-12th-july-2025/) - 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 - [Main Stage - Saturday 5th July, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/main-stage-saturday-5th-july-2025/) - 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, - [Summer Solstice, June 21st 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/summer-solstice-june-21st-2025/) - 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 - [The Humble Teabag - Friday 30th May, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/the-humble-teabag-friday-30th-may-2025/) - 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 - [Science in the garden - Sunday 8th June, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/science-in-the-garden-sunday-8th-june-2025/) - 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 - [Garden Soil - Sunday 25th May, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/garden-soil-sunday-25th-may-2025/) - 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 - [Rock Stars - Sunday 18th May, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/rock-stars/) - 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 - [VE Day Celebration, Thursday 8th May, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/ve-day-celebration-thursday-8th-may-2025/) - 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 - [Damselflies, Friday 2nd May, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/damselflies-friday-2nd-may-2025/) - Damselflies are mating over the pond. The male grasps the female around the head. He flexes his abdomen to encourage the female to loop her abdomen round to interlock with him, forming the ‘wheel’ position where mating takes place. They have spent two years as larvae at the bottom of the pond, before emerging as - [Pond Irises](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/pond-irises/) - The Cherry blossom has gone from our two large cherry trees. First on the white blossomed tree where it had come earlier and then on the pink blossomed tree. The fall on the pink tree was like snow. Outside the garden, under the tree, was a large pool of blossom. I saw it at 7.30 - [Pond Problem, Saturday 12th April, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/pond-problem-saturday-12th-april-2025/) - Our pond has had a green bloom for the last year. The bloom is composed of microscopic algae, tiny single celled plants. When the bloom first occurred last April, I thought the bloom, by cutting out light, might kill off underwater plants. But there was no effect over a month or two, so I forgot - [Spring Growth - Sunday 6th April](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/spring-growth-sunday-6th-april/) - There are four pigeons up in the sycamore tree. They are not eating but grooming. They are a pretty bedraggled bunch as if they have been out all night at a party. I can’t get the fourth in the photo. Three scruffs will do. Another pigeon, on the same tree, but some way from the - [Eclipse](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/eclipse/) - There was a partial eclipse of the sun this morning, starting at about 10 am, peaking at 11.04 and finishing just after noon. An eclipse of the sun occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun. I had some eclipse glasses which I shared with garden visitors, as you must never look - [Spawn to mature frogs](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/spawn-to-mature-frogs/) - Last week, I estimated the proportion of frogs eggs that become mature adults. I wanted to know what wildlife groups were saying. So I trawled the internet. An assortment of figures are quoted for eggs to mature adult. 1 in 50 is a common quote, though 1 in 12,000 is heard in our garden, an - [Frog Blog](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/frog-blog/) - In the garden yesterday, there were at least six frogs in the pond, and two more on the concrete outside the pond, hearing the croaking above them in the pond, but not knowing how to get to it. We have what we call a frog ladder, a ribbed piece of wood, slanting from ground to - [Sunshine and Frogspawn](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/sunshine-and-frogspawn/) - In the shelter, it is warm and sunny. The walls are transparent plastic as is the roof. It is about 15 degrees outside but considerably warmer in the shelter. The extra warmth is due to the greenhouse effect. Not global warming this time, but due to its original meaning: the extra heat gained in a - [Earthworm](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/earthworm/) - Three Cheers for Earthworms! There are 29 different species of earthworms in the UK. Of these, 16 can be found in British gardens, varying greatly in size and colour. Charles Darwin was keen on worms, and thought few other animals played so important a part in the history of the world, which is quite a - [Catkins - Sunday 16th Feb, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/catkins-sunday-16th-feb-2024/) - Signs of Spring It’s cold today but spring is on the way. Tulips and daffodils are coming up around the garden. Not flowering as yet. The euphorbia by the side wooden fence has its hardly noticeable green flowers. They have a long season, so they will be noticed. The kerria by the Dare to Dream - [Street planters - Monday 3rd February, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/street-planters-monday-3rd-february-2025/) - [This is the closing speech by Fiona Leckenby to People Powered Places at the Gate on 22 January 2025. Fiona is the Garden’s outreach worker but has also cares for local street planters over the year. Derek] Save our Street Planters came out of a real sadness about the state of the planters around our - [Pagenstecher - Saturday 25th January, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/pagenstecher-saturday-25th-january-2025/) - Gustav Pagenstecher 1829 - 1916 Our interest in West Ham Park begins with Dr Fothergill who owned the house and estate, that was to become the park, from 1762 to 1780. Originally smaller than it is now, but over the years he increased his holding, able to do so from the income from his lucrative - [Light in the Garden - Sunday 4th January, 2025](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/light-in-the-garden-sunday-4th-january-2025/) - Our garden depends on light for growth, for it to be seen at all, and for its colours. We are now converting sunlight energy into electricity with our solar panels. Light is either particles (photons) or a wave. Which is confusing as how can anything take two forms? But this is the realm of the - [What's the Time? 14th December, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/whats-the-time/) - In 1840, Great Western Railways set a standard time on its lines. Over the next seven or so years, this was taken up by other railway companies. London time was used, which was the time at the Greenwich Observatory, already called Greenwich Mean Time. Initially GMT had to be carried by an operative with a clock going on a train. He would stop off at the various stations to correct their clocks. By 1855, the telegraph put him out a job. There was resistance to London Time. Town Hall clocks and station clocks in some areas gave different times with up to 20 minutes variation. Though, by 1858, 98% of towns had adopted London Time. The final step, which went beyond the railways, was the Definition of Time Act of 1880 which set one time for the whole country. - [Our Advent Calendar - 24th December, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/our-advent-calendar-24th-december-2024/) - On Christmas Eve, we had the celebration of the area’s Advent Street Calendar. Date numbers went up in house windows, one house at a time, from the 1 December to the 25 December (with one exception) in the streets participating: Earlham Grove, Clova Road, and Sprowston Road. The garden was 24, the only one not - [Mussel - Sunday 7th April, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/mussel-sunday-7th-april-2024/) - The pond has been taking our attention over the past week. The tadpoles are eating the remnants of their jelly. There are black masses of them, so thick, you can hardly see the individuals but for the wriggling of the mass. All the tadpoles are out of the jelly, and eating like crazy. There are - [Coppicing - Sunday 1st December, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/coppicing-sunday-1st-december-2024/) - It is the first day of meteorological winter. This system simply splits the year into four seasons, each with three calendar months, and so winter runs from 1 December until 28 February, with 1 March being the first day of spring. It sort of works, depending on the year. The leaves are gone from the - [Storm Bert and Climate Change-Sunday 24th Nov, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/storm-bert-and-climate-change-sunday-24th-nov-2024/) - I am writing this mid afternoon as the high winds are beginning to ease. A little while ago we had sunshine and blue skies but the wind is still strong enough to change the weather every ten minutes, blow it in and blow it out again. When I left the house, I was instantly struck - [Hygge - Saturday 9th Nov, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/hygge-saturday-9th-nov-2024/) - Today we are welcoming winter, and have adopted the Danish word ‘hygge’ for the event. It means cosy, comfortable, warm, perhaps with cake and coffee. I have looked up the pronunciation, and without getting into phonetics, the closest I can get is that it rhymes with cougar, the mountain lion, which is definitely not a - [Witch's Walk - Saturday 27th Oct,2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/witchs-walk-saturday-27th-oct2024/) - On Sunday, I led the walk to the Witch’s Tree. You never know in advance how many are going to come to such events. My daughter guessed seven, I was more optimistic and reckoned there’d be ten of us. We were both wildly out as 34 showed up, half of them children. The walk started - [Rose Chafer - Friday 18th Oct, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/rose-chafer-friday-18th-oct-2024/) - I have been reading Insect Crisis by Oliver Milman. It’s quite a tough read as there are so many insect species, and we are mostly given species names such as Coccinella septempunctata (the seven-spotted ladybird). Having got this far, and needing to check the zoological name for ladybird, I got waylaid by this site: It - [Witch's Tree - Sunday 22nd Sept, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/witchs-tree-sunday-22nd-sept-2024/) - This week, I have been on search for the Witch’s Tree in Bush Wood, woodland at the northern end of Wanstead Flats. I tried to find it nine months ago for my latest crime novel. I couldn’t find it and decided that one of the characters couldn’t find it either. Well, he does in the end and is found murdered under the canopy. - [Full Pond - Sunday 29th Sept, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/full-pond-sunday-29th-sept-2024/) - Warm air holds more moisture. But you may have noted, I said it is chilly. Well, moisture in the air is picked up over the sea, mostly the Atlantic and that retains its summer warmth well into late autumn. Warm air also has more energy, which gives us fierce winds and storms. Around the country there has been some very wet weather, with extensive flooding in places like Looe in Cornwall: - [Grapes - Saturday 14th September, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/grapes-saturday-14th-september-2024/) - We have had quite a bit of rain this week, including a couple of furious, rainbursts. They lasted less than ten minutes, but the rain belted down in stair rods, to replenish our almost empty metre cubes (IBCs). Except one. We have three, they hold about a 1000 litres each. Two were filled by the rain to about a third, but one not at all. The pipe from the pergola gutter wasn’t quite reaching the orifice of the IBC. It must have become dislodged, and the water would have gushed out and onto the ground. We have added a piece of pipe to make sure the water goes where it should. - [Last Songs - Saturday 1st September, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/last-songs-saturday-1st-september-2024/) - I look for spiders in their webs about the garden. This should be their breeding days. I see a web or two but no spiders. It has been so dry and that’s bad for insects and spiders, and for the garden in general. Our water barrels are empty. We have three metre-cubes (IBCs) each with a capacity of a 1000 litres, and smaller barrels too, giving us roughly another 1000. So 4000 litres in total, all used up in watering plants. But we have the hose and we fill up the central cascade of barrels so we can water until this drought breaks. - [Benjamin Plaque](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/benjamin-plaque/) - And then, I asked the audience who else would like to come to the mic. My fear was nobody would, and I had prepared some readings if this proved to be the case. But six came forward, at least three of whom were teachers. And, if you think about it, who are used to speaking to large numbers daily? Teachers, of course. They spoke of Benjamin’s work in schools, making poetry accessible to children, and getting them writing it themselves. A man spoke of Benjamin’s desire to have children. He was infertile, and so wanted to adopt, but in spite of much effort he was not allowed to because of his police record. This, he found heartbreaking. A woman told us of Benjamin’s veganism, his refusal to eat any animal products, hating the cruelty of the meat industry. These days, the environmental impact of livestock produces around 15% of climate gases. Benjamin was an honorary patron of the Vegan Society. - [Plums - Saturday 10th August, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/plums-saturday-10th-august-2024/) - I am a volunteer in the community garden today. My shift runs from 10 am to 12.30. There’s always two of us on at any time. That’s a safety thing, we haven’t had much trouble, a difficulty person occasionally, but back up is more comfortable. It’s warm and windy, but when the sun goes in - [Harry - Saturday 3rd August, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/harry-saturday-3rd-august-2024/) - The weather was warm, but windy, with music sheets blowing. The ukulele band was the first group on. This was led by Misty with around 20 of her students from the Sunday morning sessions. They played and sang folk and pop, mostly well known. Misty did some solos to give her group a break, and to vary the session. Among her solos were Moon River, Jolene and Dream a Little Dream of Me, whose best known rendition is by the Mommas and Poppas in 1968 with lead vocals by Momma Cass. I came into the garden when the whole group was playing Leaving on a Freight Train. It was good to see their first gig. - [Agapanthus - Saturday 27th July, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/agapanthus-saturday-27th-july-2024/) - The summer has been wet and warm, on other days a little cool. An English woman living in New York says she yearns for cool, wet British summers as she swelters in east coast heat. Which makes me reckon that in twenty years, we’ll yearn for the cool summers of the mid 20s. Climate change has us firmly in its grip; we cannot assuage our fossil fuel fever. Old habits keep us flying and driving, as if our tiny contribution is of no accord. Multiply that by 30 millionfold. - [Much Ado. Friday 14th July, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/much-ado-friday-14th-july-2024/) - The garden is very green (not counting plastic grass). All the rain we have had over spring and summer has increased chlorophyll in the leaves, the green pigment that works with sunlight and water to make glucose, giving plants sustenance to grow, and to make yet more greenery. In a drought, the absence of water kills off chlorophyll, unless there’s regular hosing. Though, there’s nothing to beat a good downpour when it comes to giving the ground a real soaking. All our fruit is coming on well. I note apples, pears and plums, and under the small pergola bunches of tiny grapes. We have planted out some of the tomato plants that were getting too big for their pots, so we’ll have some in late summer to add to our sandwiches. - [Ukelele - Sunday, 23rd June, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/ukelele-sunday-23rd-june-2024/) - A tadpole was seen with legs. I don’t see it, the pond water is still green and a little murky, though not as bad as it was a few weeks back. A couple of days ago, I saw blue damsel flies, none today. I see no sign of a bulrush stem, plenty of leaf, higher than the pond irises leaves, but a reluctance to flower, for that’s what the bulrush sausage is, an intense cluster of female flowers. There’s two pairs of water lilies. A grand, surprise of a flower, like a white regal boat, seeming to be floating on the water. They have stems, of course, sometimes visible but more often under the water, hidden under the lily pads. The pond irises have developed their seed heads, like long green lozenges. - [Lavender - Saturday 15th June, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/lavender-saturday-15th-june-2024/) - Where have all the tadpoles gone? Just a week ago there were hundreds and now there are just a few. I doubt it is predation. There are no big predators, like fish, in the pond. We haven’t seen any tadpoles with legs, so it’s not possible that those hundreds have developed legs and lungs in the last seven days and left the pond. Which leaves two possibilities, the first is shortage of oxygen, but the pond is full of aerating plants and rain brings aerated water too. The second is disease. Disease can kill very quickly, culling high numbers in days, as is the case. To my mind, disease is the likely cause. I can’t think of anything else. - [Leafcurl - Sunday 9th June, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/leafcurl-sunday-9th-june-2024/) - In a mid raised bed, we have a beautiful cluster of deep purple lavender, with the bonus of its scent. Growing by it, we have purple toadflax, almost merging with the lavender, and lychnis with its reddish purple flowers, like an ad for lipstick. The same bed has globe thistles. As yet, they are small and green. It will be a couple of weeks before they are blue planets in a weird solar system. A few yards away, there’s a plum tree with clusters of plums, still green, but will ripen in the next week or so. Who will get the fruit? The birds or children? In the Fothergill beds, the geums are hanging on, with poppies and marigolds and penstemons taking over. Just behind is the buddleia tunnel suffering from leaf curl, the leaves blotchy and crinkled. I look closely at the leaves. - [Poppies - Saturday 1st June, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/poppies-saturday-1st-june-2024/) - Nearby, there are giant scabious, popular with bumble bees, and at its feet purple cranesbill. Around the garden are small clusters of purple toadflax, one of my favourite wildflowers, though there’s none in the wildflower bed itself. The banana plant is outside, it was in the greenhouse over the winter. About 1.8 ms high, the plant doesn’t look too happy, I see no new growth. It wants warmer days, but if we get them it will grow too tall for our greenhouse. Then what? - [Purple Toad Flax - Sat 26th May, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/purple-toad-flax-sat-26th-may-2024/) - I was leading a wildflower ramble on the Flats. And saw what seemed to be a host of dandelions, but on closer inspection, I noted the flower was right but the stalk was too tall, and the leaves less toothed and were furry. Not dandelions but a related plant, commonly known as cats ears. We didn’t see a single dandelion, but lots of plantain, and across the Flats, into the distance, the broom a mass of yellow flowers. This is an area of acid grassland. The soil is poor in nutrients, and low in pH, and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) supporting scarcer insects including solitary bees and wasps. We tend to take the Flats for granted, being on our doorstep, but it’s worth a visit to see some of its unusual flora and fauna. - [Spring Garden - Saturday 11th May, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/spring-garden-saturday-11th-may-2024/) - The pond is definitely clearing. For over a month, it has been a murky green, created by growth of single celled algae in the water. It seems that was a temporary phenomenon. The growth would have brought about by a flush of nitrates in the water. And my inclination is to think it was from the waste created by all the adult frogs we had in March, possibly as many as forty over the month. The pond is now clearing as the nitrates have been used up. We hope. - [Bulrush - Saturday 4th May, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/bulrush-saturday-4th-may-2024/) - A group are working on the scrapheap challenge. This is to make features for the garden out of scrap material. You might see it as a green initiative as, other than for garden use, the scrap might go into landfill. Today’s though is quite a challenge. - [Aquilegia - Saturday 20th April, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/aquilegia-saturday-20th-april-2024/) - The silver birch too is in leaf, tiny as yet, not that the leaves get any great size. Last week, there were only male catkins, yellow like dangling earrings. But, all of a sudden, the female catkins have arrived. They are reddish, quite a bit smaller. - [Pedal Energy - 13th April, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/pedal-energy-13th-april-2024/) - A beautiful, sunny day for our Spring Celebration. There’s plenty of cakes, pizza, and drinks. We have done away with plastic cups, using washable ceramic, and today washable plates too. This takes more work to wash them each time, which is why throwaway cups and plates are so popular, but we must green our lives - [Tadpoles - Saturday 30th March, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tadpoles-saturday-30th-march-2024/) - It is a warm, sunny day, 15 degrees, with a slight breeze. Yesterday, it was a little colder and felt more so with a sharp wind. I came in then, and found a few free tadpoles, but today there are many more. Nearly all of them are within the earthenware pot, on its side in - [Mating Frogs - Sunday 10th March, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/mating-frogs-saturday-10th-march-2024/) - I saw the first mating pair of frogs in our pond on 18 February. The male lays on the female’s back and grasps her, holding on for many hours. A breeding pair can be spotted by the two heads, his and hers, and you can see more legs than a single frog would have. She’s - [Spiereae - Sunday 17th March, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/spiereae-sunday-17th-march-2024/) - It’s raining as I open up the garden. This morning doesn’t feel like spring at all, as if spring is all frolicking lambs and pussy willows. But rain too is spring. Without the showers, no spring flowers. A shivery breeze too. One of those days. After 40 minutes, the rain stops and I wander the - [Iris Spears - Sunday 25th Feb, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/iris-spears-sunday-25th-feb-2024/) - Twice I have seen mating frogs in our pond. The male is on the back of the female clutching her with the nuptial pads on his hands. On both occasions, I thought there would be frogspawn the next day, and, in both cases, there wasn’t. So the matings came to nothing. Obviously, the female didn’t - [Pregnant Frog](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/pregnant-frog/) - Along with a couple of garden visitors, I was looking at a stationary adult frog in the pond. Hey - said a woman, there’s an extra pair of legs, one frog is on top of another. What had seemed a single frog was in fact a breeding pair. Prior to fertilisation, the male gets on - [Sparrows - 4th Feb, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/sparrows-4th-feb-2024/) - Before the red squirrel became rare, it was regarded by hunters and farmers as vermin. They ate the seeds in the fields and grouse-feed too. And much less well known, they added to their diet with birds eggs and chicks, Game keepers shot and trapped the cuties. The grey squirrel was introduced from the US - [Dancers - Sunday 24th September, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/dancers-sunday-24th-september-2023/) - Last Sunday, around 60 of us came to the garden, to hear music in celebration of the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. We listened to the violinist Adriana Cristea playing traditional Jewish melodies, as we ate honey cake and apple with honey. The violin sound covered much of the garden. I was surprised how far - [Honeysuckle Berries - Saturday 14th October, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/honeysuckle-berries-saturday-14th-october-2023/) - It’s a cold day, the breeze adding a chill. Spates of sunshine warm us up, but they don’t last long as the sky is full of drifting cloud. This is autumn seasonal weather, while we have been spoilt by an Indian summer with temperatures in the 20s, so temperatures 10 degrees cooler are a shock. - [Sycamore - Sunday 1st October, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/sycamore-sunday-1st-october-2023/) - A tree makes news! How beautiful, how sad. I am of course referring to the sawing down of the tree in Sycamore Gap along Hadrian’s Wall. A tree made famous by its inclusion in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) with Kevin Costner as the outlaw. It was voted tree of the year in 2016 - [Our Frog - 29th October, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/our-frog-29th-october-2023/) - Sunday was our Welcoming Winter celebration. It came in with a blast of rain over most of the day. We put up three gazebos, one for the children’s area, one for the musicians and another for their audience. The food tables were under our pergola, which is sizeable and close enough for the music to - [Late Roses - 26th November, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/late-roses-26th-november-2023/) - It has been cold the last few days, with a frost this morning. Frosts mean the end of the mushroom season but also has benefits in that they kill off pests like greenfly that would survive the winter. If our winters continue to be mild, and we get them without frosts we will have more - [Forest Voices - Saturday 16th December, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/forest-voices-saturday-16th-december-2023/) - It’s not quite the end of the year, but all the signs are there. Short days, bare trees, and few birds. Today, we have our mince pies, mulled wine and carols from Forest Voices who have grown in number from last time I heard them. Their volume swells through the garden with old carols and - [Festival Countdown - Sunday 31st Dec, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/festival-countdown/) - On Christmas Eve we had our last event of the year. A children’s event with a search game round the garden and art too, with Santa Claus in the book shed. Grown ups were invited too, for hot chocolate or tea, mince pies and biscuits, and a natter. It was also the culmination of Forest - [Sparrows - 28th January, 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/sparrows-24th-january-2024/) - On Sunday 28 January, we did the Big Garden Birdwatch. For one hour, over this weekend, the public is asked to spend an hour watching and recording the birds in their garden or local green space, and then send their results to the RSPB. We chose the hour between 11am and 12 noon on the - [Vine Leaves - Sunday 12th November, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/vine-leaves-sunday-12th-november-2023/) - Another wet November day. Chilly but not yet cold enough to deter mushrooms. On the limit though, perhaps the ground is holding a little heat, as in a walk in Epping Forest yesterday, I saw more mushrooms than I’d ever seen in the forest before, growing on the ground, on decaying stumps, and growing off - [Temperature - Sunday 10th December, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/temperature-sunday-10th-december-2023/) - It’s wet and its cold. We swaddle up to keep the heat in. We tell each other it is close to zero. That is the Celsius scale, formally known as Centigrade. The scale was invented by the Swedish Astronomer, Anders Celsius in 1742. 0ºC is the freezing point of water and 100ºC its boiling point. - [Acanthusigloo - 13th Jan 2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/acanthusigloo-13th-jan-2024/) - 2024 came in with rainy days that soon ceased, and the temperature dropped. The cold days have kept the garden quiet, but the low temperature is no bad thing. Frost kills bugs, such as greenfly, who would otherwise survive the winter and reproduce in greater numbers in the spring. Daffodils and our apple trees need - [Hawthorn - Sunday 17th September, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/hawthorn-sunday-17th-september-2023/) - It is autumn, or as, they say in the US, fall, an apt name as the big signifier is falling leaves. Meteorological autumn began on September 1st, astrological autumn in a few days with the equinox on September 21st. Deciduous trees will lose all their leaves between now and December. This is very noticeable along - [Garden Crucifix Spider - Saturday 9th September, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/garden-crucific-spider-saturday-9th-september-2023/) - We have our standpipe. Thames Water put in the meter and piping, ready for us to fix a standpipe which we did midweek. It was quite an effort getting through the concrete and needed a hefty drill. But it has been done. We have used it for watering the garden. I did one of the - [Cyanotypes - Saturday, 2 September 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/cyanotypes-saturday-2-september-2023/) - On Bank Holiday Monday, we had a celebration in the garden. Some fried vegetables from the raised beds were shared around, we had a plant sale, drawing for children and cyanotype printing. The latter was organised by Max, the garden co-ordinator, and was very popular, mostly with adults but some older children had a go - [Art on the Street - Saturday 26th Aug, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/art-on-the-street-saturday-26th-aug-2023/) - Forest Gate Community Garden Saturday, 26 August 2023 We have two cherry trees at the front of the garden. The larger of the two may be 50 years or more old. It is certainly in peak condition with no rot or decay. In late April or early May, it is a glorious froth of pink - [Helicopters - Sunday 13th August, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/sycamore/) - 100s of sycamore seeds are dangling from our two sycamore trees. They have mostly lost any green colour, now light brown, and are in pairs connected at the ‘heads’ with the wings at right angles. We call them helicopters because when picked up in the wind they twirl and fly some distance from the mother - [Honey Bee in Marigold - Sunday August 6th, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/honey-bee-in-marigold-saturday-august-6th-2023/) - There are many honey bees about the garden. In the hollyhocks, around the globe thistles and deep in the penstemons. Though, you often see a bee head into a flower and immediately back out and go to another. They have smelt an earlier bee in the first flower, and know that there will be little - [Globe Thistle - Sat 29th July, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/globe-thistle-sat-29th-july-2023/) - The pond is a green oasis. Under the surface are a forest of two oxygenators: hornwart and Canadian pond weed. It is difficult to see any animal life in the density of foliage. I am curious about our Peter Pan tadpoles, those that refuse to grow up. The usual state of affairs is that tadpoles, - [Reedmace. Sunday 16th July, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/reedmace-sunday-16th-july-2023/) - We had eight hours of rain on Friday. Most of it gentle, but heavy in patches. It was very welcome, after a dry week. The pond hardly looks any higher but our IBCs (big tanks) are fuller. And the rain was everywhere, all over the garden, which sounds a little obvious, but if you are - [Veg Beds - Sunday 2nd July, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/veg-beds-sunday-2nd-july-2023/) - It is cooler but mainly dry. Any rain we have had hardly soaks into the soil. The wildflower bed is sad, the flowers gasping, the stems languid. Drought rushes plants through their cycle as they are stressed, and must set seed before lack of water kills them. Our plants in pots dry out quickly, one - [Tropical Peru - 25th June, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tropical-peru-25th-june-2023/) - Hot, dry weather and no sign of Thames Water. Will we see them this summer? They have to get borough permission to dig up the road. Is that in train? Well, expect no rush from them or the Council. How these things play out is always dispiriting, delay the watchword. Our standpipe, hardly comparable to - [Sowthistle - Sunday 18th June, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/sowthistle-sunday-18th-june-2023/) - Sauvages de ma rue, wild things in my road, or in our case: plants just outside the fence. They are in the little soil that slips out of the garden into the gap between the paving stones and the fence. We have sow thistle, hedge mustard, various grasses, white campion, purple toadflax, nettle and chickweed. - [Poppies and White Campion. Sun, 11th June 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/poppies-and-white-campion-sun-11th-june-2023/) - The wildflower bed is a sea of red poppies; most have come out today as yesterday the scentless mayweed, that largish white daisy-like flower, held sway. Poppy flowers only last a few days, the petals easily detached in the wind. But they will keep coming for the next month of so, leaving behind their pepper - [Corncockle June - Sunday, 4th June 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/corncockles-sunday-4th-june-2023/) - We have quite a number tadpoles in our pond that have not developed into froglets. They should have done so by the this time of year, having been released from the spawn in late March. I have noted this in previous years. There are always a few who remain tadpoles, but there are more this - [Derek - Monday, 29th May 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-monday-29th-may-2023/) - Forest Gate Community Garden Monday, 29 May 2023 The last half of May has been dry, after a very wet April and March. The garden is still green as the earlier rain has soaked into the soil, but another week or so and the plants in the soil will begin to suffer as those in - [Derek - Sunday 21st May, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-sunday-21st-may-2023/) - Forest Gate Community Garden Sunday, 21 May 2023 The bright yellow pond irises are out, catch ’em quick, some are already fading. There’s a pond in Epping Forest called the Lost Pond. I used to go there with Woodcraft Folk over half term while they were camping at Debden, end of May. Usually the irises - [Derek - Friday 12th May 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-12th-may-2023/) - Forest Gate Community Garden Friday, 12 May 2023 On Bank Holiday Monday, a group of volunteers, organised by the garden, planted out Earlham Bridge. After the planting, it rained overnight, giving the plants a good start. And they will need it, as these beds have proved difficult for us. Last year, we had a - [Derek - Monday 1st May 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-1st-may-2023/) - Forest Gate Community Garden Monday 1st May 2023 A busy weekend for the Garden, beginning with a plant sale on Saturday, with the Garden having plenty of visitors. Then, on Bank Holiday Monday, we had a stall at the Green Fair in Forest Lane Park. I was on the Forest Gate Festival stall, which - [Derek - Sunday, 23rd April 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-23rd-april-2023/) - Forest Gate Community Garden Sunday 23 April 2023 Six months ago, I suggested we have a display of wild flowers. This was agreed at a steering group meeting. But how to get them? My first thought was to buy seeds. But the seeds, I could find were mostly collections of wild flowers suitable for - [Derek- Saturday 1st April, 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-3rd-april-2023/) - Saturday 1 April 2023 Forest Gate Community Garden It’s cold, with a biting wind. I look at the tadpoles in the pond; the mass of them are clustered under water over the remnant of the jelly. I am surprised they are not nearer the surface. Are they clustering to keep warm? I would expect - [Derek - Sunday 26th March 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-sunday-26th-march-2023/) - Our tadpoles are just coming out of the jelly. A few are free-swimming, though masses of them are clinging to the jelly, and plenty are still inside. In a few days, there will be lots all over the pond. I don’t see any adult frogs, which were present for the spawning. They have done their - [Derek - Sunday 19th March 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-sunday-19th-march-2023/) - I look at the frogspawn, the embryos are growing in the jelly. We might get the first tadpoles next weekend, if it doesn’t get cold again. We will have thousands of tadpoles, very popular with school visits. They begin as a large black patch on the jelly. If you look close, you see it’s made - [Derek - Saturday 11th March 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-saturday-11th-march-2023/) - We were given various Fair Trade foods by the Co-op on Woodgrange Road: tea, coffee, bars of chocolate, a range of biscuits, and a bunch of bananas. Fair Trade was set up so that small growers get a fair price for their produce, so they can feed themselves and their families, buy the necessities of - [Derek - Saturday 25th February 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-saturday-25th-february-2023/) - On Saturday, we had the culmination of Learn Draw Grow – an artistic exploration of Dr John Fothergill’s legacy. He lived from 1712 to 1780, and in 1762 he bought Upton House, now West Ham Park. There, he amassed a large plant collection, said at the time to be second only to Kew’s. Fothergill employed - [Derek - Saturday 4th February 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-saturday-4th-february-2023/) - February is very much a “between” month, still winter but in sight of spring. February, though, can be treacherous, or unseasonably warm. On 26 February 2019 it was 21º in London, but last February it was minus 23º in Scotland. Meanwhile, Storm Eunice was wreaking havoc in the Garden, blowing down the painted hoarding and - [Derek - Friday 20th January 2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-20th-january-2023/) - It has been icy cold for the last week, but dry. This weather is bad for birds, many will freeze to death, as will many insects including bees. We keep our bird feeders full, doing what we can. Nature is an uncaring parent, the trials of her offspring are of no concern. I am reminded - [Derek - Saturday 31st December 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-saturday-31st-december-2022/) - Winter is a fluid season; when it begins and ends is arguable. With climate change all the more so, as warm spells follow cold spells adding to the confusion. We had a heavy fall of snow on 11 and 12 December. It stuck around for a week, on days that hovered around zero, then the - [Derek - Saturday 10th December 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-saturday-10th-december-2022/) - It’s been very cold the last few days, no rain, with temperatures close to zero and a few degrees below overnight. There’s ice on the pond and on the trays we have left out for birds. Meteorological winter began on 1st December; we were spoilt with warmer days in November. Now we are at seasonal - [Derek - Sunday 27th November 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-sunday-27th-november-2022/) - Leaves are falling. The few left in the cherry tree are yellow and red. A fierce wind will clear the branches. The sycamore is two-thirds gone, its yellow leaves continually swept off the paths. Its helicopter seeds are scattered, like invading forces threatening to overwhelm us by sheer numbers. Our birch still has its leaves. - [Derek - Friday 11th November 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-11th-november-2022/) - We have had a lot of rain recently. October had over 100 mm, twice the usual rainfall. November too is giving us daily showers. All our water barrels are brimming, which is ironic, as when you have lots of water, you don’t need it. But Thames Water informs us the hosepipe ban is still on. - [Derek - Saturday 29th October 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-saturday-29th-october-2022/) - We had our festival, Welcome To Winter, today. A warm, sunny day, on the verge of Halloween. Halloween is short for All Hallows Eve, which is the day before All Saints Day. Traditions associated with Halloween go back to pagan times, and were taken up by Christianity. It was said the recently dead couldn’t go - [Derek - Sunday 16th October 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-sunday-16th-october-2022/) - It’s a bright sunny morning. Warm in the sun but a little chilly in the shade. The ground is scattered with helicopters from the sycamore, its leaves beginning to yellow. Around the garden are half a dozen artists, painting or using pastels, to portray aspects of our garden. I admire their hardiness as well as - [Derek - Sunday 2nd October 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-sunday-2nd-october-2022/) - These are the chilly days as the nights grow longer and autumn deepens. Day temperatures are in the mid-teens, and at night below 10 degrees. I see no animal life in the pond except snails. They are cold-blooded, and dormant. This is the advantage of cold-blooded creatures, by dropping into dormancy they need little food. - [Derek - Sunday 18th September 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-sunday-18th-september-2022/) - It is Autumn, or nearly so. Meteorological autumn began on 1 September, so we are well into that. But astronomical autumn starts in a few days’ time. The Greenwich Observatory give the date as Friday 23 September. That day will have equal day and night, 12 hours apiece. After the equinox, the nights win out - [Derek - Sunday 4th September 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-sunday-4th-september-2022/) - On Friday, we tidied up the hundreds of pots filling the back stage in order to make it usable for functions other than storage. This threw up the problem of what to do with the pots. We have far too many. Pots come to us in various ways. We buy plants in pots, plant them - [Derek - Friday 26th August 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-26th-august-2022/) - Forest Gate had 12 hours of rain yesterday, from fierce downpour to drizzle, almost filling the metre cube that collects water from our pergola. It has the largest roof area and we take advantage of that in water collection. Other barrels filled but to a lesser extent, as they are supplied by smaller roofs. The - [Derek - Friday 19th August 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-19th-august-2022/) - It feels like autumn in the garden. There’s lots of leaf fall and leaves on the sycamore and birch are yellowing. This is the effect of heat and drought. The trees are distressed. Getting rid of leaves helps alleviate water shortage, but it is at a cost as the early shutdown of photosynthesis means less - [Derek - Friday 12th August 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-12th-august-2022/) - The weather has been hot and dry for many weeks. July was the driest month on record in the UK, and August continues that way. The garden is suffering. Last Friday, I spent much of my time pulling up dead plants and throwing them on the compost heap. As the drought has gone on and - [Derek - Sunday 24th July 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-sunday-24th-july-2022/) - It’s been a busy period in the garden this month. There was Forest Gate Festival at the beginning of the month, which split us in two. We were one of the 120 stalls on Osborne Road, and also kept the garden open on the same day. Last week, we had our Summer Celebration with musician - [Derek - Sunday 10th July 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-sunday-10th-july-2022/) - The pond is low, a foot lower than it was in spring. The hot, dry weather is drying it out rapidly. The underwater plants, hornwort and elodea, are crowding the pond, their fronds and runners weaving all through it, growing in the hot weather but with less room for expansion in the falling water level. - [Derek - Sunday 26th June 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-sunday-26th-june-2022/) - These are busy summer days, making up for the listless covid days of the last couple of years. The Garden organised the Forest Gate garden trail last weekend, when 18 gardens around the area opened up for visitors. The week before, we’d had a preview morning for the gardeners so they could at least see - [Derek - Friday 27th May 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-27th-may-2022/) - The elder (Sambucus nigra) is in bloom, a white umbrella of tiny flowers, hundreds on our tree. Last week in the countryside I saw many of them in bloom in the hedgerows. One of those trees not too sure whether it is a hedge or a tree. Ours is a tree but quite an untidy - [Derek - Friday 20th May 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-20th-may-2022/) - I water the herbs on the sleepers and in the square raised bed, though we have had a fair bit of rain this week and our tubs are filling. But one mustn’t get complacent, a hot fortnight and we’ll need every drop. It rained all morning through, and brought out the snails. I inadvertantly crushed - [Derek - Friday 13th May 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-13th-may-2022/) - The mystery chewers? Thursday last week, I came into the garden and found four leaflets we had put up had been attacked, up to a third of each chewed away. I replaced them with pristine leaflets. Three days later these were as bad. I suspected snails, but didn’t know they attacked paper. Then we found - [Derek - Friday 29th April 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-29th-april-2022/) - We had a bumper crowd for our Spring Celebration on Saturday, over 200 attendees eager to be out and meeting again after a depressing couple of years. We had music from The Smoke Remains with Paul M. Jones guitar/vocals, and Paul Romane harmonica/vocals. Then the Dog Jammers who had more than a dozen performers with - [Derek - Friday 15th April 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-15th-april-2022/) - Both cherry trees are in bloom, the large pink blossoms merging with the white of the smaller tree. Theirs will be a brief show, but let’s enjoy them on these sunny Easter days. More than half of the new fence has been put in. At the front, there’s a new gate, with the fence stretching - [Derek - Friday 8th April 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-8th-april-2022/) - This weather is typical of April, see-saw temperatures, chilly followed by warmth and back to chilly. ‘Don’t shed a clout till May is out,’ goes the old saw. It is not referring to the month but to the may tree (hawthorn) which will flower in late April, depending on the weather. If we took it - [Derek - Friday 25th March 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-25th-march-2022/) - We’ve had some very warm days for the time of year, touching 20 degrees. There’s lots of wriggling in the frog spawn. Heat accelerates hatching time, as the various chemical reactions are sped up. I wonder how much of the mass is unfertilized. Some to be sure, with so much of it, and fertilization such - [Derek - Friday 18th March 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-18th-march-2022/) - Not only has our pond a mass of frog spawn, but we have had adult frogs too. Not surprising as you can’t get the former without the latter. But we don’t usually see the adults, and we have witnessed them mating too. That’s a lengthy process, with the male on top of the female for - [Derek - Friday 11th March 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-11th-march-2022/) - It is spring. The garden says so. There’s flowers, buds are beginning to open, and there’s birdsong. In the pond I see a great cluster of frog spawn. Such a mass of it, around a square foot I estimate, though not of course regular, but amorphous like a cloud. I do a little counting, and - [Derek - Monday 28th February 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-monday-28th-february-2022/) - We are crowdfunding to replace our fence. The current wooden fence was painted with a bright mural in 2016, now looking rather battered and less bright. A section of the fence on Sprowston and on Earlham, along with the front gate, got blown down by storm Eunice 10 days ago. Temporary repairs have been done, - [Derek - Monday 21st February 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-monday-21st-february-2022/) - The storms keep coming, first Dudley, then Eunice, and as I write along comes Franklin. The not so cuddly threesome, bringing rain and high winds. Storm Eunice hit the garden in some quite surprising ways. A clear plastic pane from the greenhouse roof was blown away to some place unknown. We can’t find it. Not - [Derek - Friday 4th February 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-4th-february-2022/) - It’s been dry for the last four weeks but today it rained. At last. A long dry spell in winter hinders growth, as plants are coming out of winter dormancy and need water in order to make new shoots. But the trouble with rain is you either get too much or too little. And with - [Derek - Friday 21st January 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-21st-january-2022/) - January is the longest month. Beginning at the tail end of Christmas and finishing in sight of spring; it is a shivery time to get through. The days, though, are slowly getting longer and the garden, like a drowsy sleeper, rubs its eyes in the growing light. Buds in trees and bushes form in the - [Derek - Friday 7th January 2022](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-7th-january-2022/) - It was -2ºC in the early hours and the pond is still frozen when I come into the garden at 10 am. The ice isn’t smooth but has ribs in places, rather like a church ceiling. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that ice has more volume than the same weight - [Derek - Friday 26th November 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-26th-november-2021/) - It is biting cold, the wind blowing the last leaves off the sycamore. The cherry is already stripped, though the birch, its leaves gone yellow, has still plenty of little flags. The pond is withered, the iris leaves languid and browning. The papyrus is unhappy this weather, this exiled plant dreaming of the Nile, crocodiles - [Derek - Friday 19th November 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-19th-november-2021/) - We have got our 2m strip back from Gateway. This was ‘loaned’ to the site as they needed it for access for their building work. For us it meant flipping over our roofed pergola, and moving any plants in pots. Plants growing along the boundary in the ground such as ash and Russian vine were - [Derek - Friday 12th November 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-12th-november-2021/) - It has been a typical November week, with rain and temperatures slightly above average, and lots of leaf fall. Most fall this month, some in October, a few in the first week of December, but November is the month when the mass comes down. Most of the fallen leaves, so far, are from the big - [Derek - Friday 5th November 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-5th-november/) - It’s chilly in the garden with a biting wind. This is November without doubt. On Saturday we had our Welcoming Winter festival. There was home-made soup and bread to keep the cold away. We had bulb planting, mostly by children (‘pointed end up’) but a few adults too. Some were planted around the garden but - [Derek - Friday 29th October 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-29th-october-2021/) - COP26 starts on October 30 and is due to finish on 12 November, but is likely to extend through that weekend with all the arguments and attempts at getting coherent policy from the differing interests. In 2009, I went to Copenhagen with the Campaign Against Climate Change. This was COP15, and we were there for - [Derek - Friday 22nd October 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-22nd-october-2021/) - Changeable weather has come in with the autumn winds. We’ve had lots of rain in the last few weeks, some sun and up-and-down temperatures. The days are shortening; at the end of the month we lose an hour of light. Well, not actually lose; we play with the clock to push an extra daylight hour - [Derek - Friday 15th October 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-15th-october-2021/) - The fencing is going up between us and the Gateway site as the estate nears completion. I recall the trains of concrete lorries going in as work progressed. The main ingredient of concrete is cement which in its manufacture accounts for 8% of climate change gases. At the only consultative meeting between the housing association - [Derek - Friday 8th October 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-8th-october-2021/) - It rained hard in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with thunder and lightning too. I came into the garden in the late morning to find the rain barrels full. The pond could take no more, and was noticeably a little lopsided, the water its spirit level, the westerly end filled to the brim, and - [Derek - Friday 1st October 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-1st-october-2021/) - We had an Indian summer through September with temperatures above average until the last few days. But the weather demon commands: Enough! No more pretending, autumn is autumn not a pretend summer. The temperature has dropped to mid teens, but at least we have no worries about water with the rainfall we are having. The - [Derek - Friday 24th September 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-24th-september-2021/) - Last weekend, the garden had a green couple of days with Dr Bike in the garden helping cyclists keep their bikes maintained, a mini open gardens trail, a plant sale and a tree climate walk. Green issues and climate are much on our minds these days as we home in on November’s COP26 summit in - [Derek - Friday 17th September 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-17th-september-2021/) - Over the next week, we’ll disassemble the display of plants from the continent of America. Reluctant as I am to part company with the Americana, those plants on the sleepers are becoming an eyesore. We’ll leave the sunflowers while they are flowering; the largest are over 6 feet high with their bright yellow clock-like faces. - [Derek - Friday 10th September 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-10th-september-2021/) - It rained on Wednesday, after ten dry days, with temperatures up to 30 degrees, just to test our mettle and our watering cans. Our tap was removed at short notice two weeks ago, so our water butts were on the low side. The rain has partially filled them. So we are OK for now. I - [Derek - Friday 3rd September 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-3rd-september-2021/) - Water, Snails, CCU The garden has lost its water tap. Without notice, the next door contractors cut us off. We knew this was likely but some notice would have been polite, so at least we could have filled our water barrels. The only plus point is that it is September and cooler, so there is - [Derek - Friday 27th August 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-27th-august-2021/) - We segue into autumn. The garden knows it, with the seeds and the beginning of leaf fall. Though autumn has two definitions, and you may take your pick. There’s meteorological autumn which breaks the year into four sections of three months. September, October and November are autumn. And there’s astronomical autumn, with autumn beginning at - [Derek - Friday 20th August 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-20th-august-2021/) - Autumn is in the air, unavoidably, as the earth makes its yearly journey around the sun. Though the weather can make it seem as if summer is extended or autumn has charged in earlier. This year looks like we are having the latter, but we mortals are playthings of the gods, and things may yet - [Derek - Friday 13th August 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-13th-august-2021/) - The brown slug (Arion ater) that I thought had been eaten by a bird has re-appeared, or perhaps it’s not the same, as I see another shortly after. The former is about as long as my middle finger, plump as a chipolata. The back half of its body has ridges rather like a fingerprint, but - [Derek - Friday 6th August 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-6th-august-2021/) - Last Sunday, for the first time since 2019, we had music again in the garden. About 40 people turned up to hear Lucky Thomas playing his pan (or steel drum as you might know it as). Lucky played a mixture of reggae and popular tunes in a rhythm that made one think of Jamaica and - [Derek - Friday 30th July 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-30th-july-2021/) - Last Sunday Forest Gate had a month’s rain in a few hours. I checked this by measuring with a ruler the water collected in a tin bath that’s in the garden. You can’t put one freak weather event down to climate change, but climate change makes such events more frequent, with the outliers becoming more - [Derek - Friday 23rd July 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-23rd-july-2021/) - On Wednesday evening I came into the garden to water the plants, only to find the tap not working due to a fault on Gateway’s site next door. The garden was gasping, plants in pots wilting after a week of hot, dry weather. With watering cans we do what we can, using what is in - [Derek - Friday 16th July 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-16th-july-2021/) - There remain tadpoles in the pond even in mid July. Some have left, others are almost frogs with froggy heads and limbs and the tail yet to be absorbed. Others are tadpole-like but with the addition of hind legs. Having got this far, will these tadpoles continue on to full frogdom? I am not sure - [Derek - Friday 9th July 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-9th-july-2021/) - We’ve had lots of rain recently which means lots of growth, in spite of temperatures being on the low side. In the wildflower bed are red and yellow poppies in profusion. The individual flowers don’t last long but others follow in succession. There’s blue borage, cornflowers, and wild carrot, which looks very like cow parsley - [Derek - Friday 2nd July 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-2nd-july-2021/) - What to do about the snails which are attacking the butternut squash and sunflowers in the square raised bed? I put copper coated mesh around the edge of the bed. It didn’t work; there were snail trails across it. I tried coffee grounds, that didn’t work either. In the meantime, I have been utilising plastic - [Derek - Friday 25th June 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-25th-june-2021/) - All the Americana plants are in place, a display of food plants that originated on the American continent. Most were brought to Europe by Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. A spin-off in the conquistadors’ main quest for gold, land, and dominion. The plants on display are (see - [Derek - Friday 18th June 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-18th-june-2021/) - The scourers did not work as a snail barrier (see last week’s blog). A few days after putting them on the sides of the raised bed, the butternut squash and sunflowers were attacked by snails. Some of the smaller sunflower seedlings were chomped away completely, while the butternut squash has suffered damage to its - [Derek - Friday 11th June 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-11th-june-2021/) - Snails. Wet weather increases their number, and we had the rainiest May, followed by a few days of sunshine, and then a deluge last Friday. I came in on Saturday to look at Americana, our display of food plants from the continent of America. And the snails had been at them. Snails are very selective. - [Derek - Friday 28th May 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-28th-may-2021/) - I come into the garden and witness three mesmerised volunteers. I quickly join them as we watch hundreds of tiny spiders crawling on the edge of a plastic table or dangling from threads. They are about 2mm across, and have obviously just hatched. The mother spider lays her eggs in autumn and wraps them in - [Derek - Friday 4th June 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-4th-june-2021/) - It has rained all morning and much of the afternoon. Although May was very wet, the rain stopped in the last week of the month, and the temperature climbed to the mid 20s at the beginning of this week. Such hot, dry weather threatened to dessicate seedlings in our wildflower bed, and dry out our - [Derek - Friday 21st May](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/friday-21st-may-derek/) - It doesn’t feel like May. Not a day to shed a clout. We’ve had lots of rain, we could be heading for a record for the month. And temperatures stay in the chilly teens, feeling colder today with the strong wind. Yesterday, we had a visit from Kay Rowe nursery, all swaddled up and with - [Derek - Friday 14th May 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-14th-may-2021/) - It’s been raining on and off. No complaints after dry April. It’s chilly, though, which has advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that plants in flower last longer. Hot days accelerate the life cycle giving shorter flowering times. It’s down to chemistry; the warmer it is, the faster are chemical reactions. Though with living processes - [Derek - Friday 7th May 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-7th-may-2021/) - It’s been cold and windy these first days of May. The wind blew away the blossom from the large cherry in a gale that one can imagine picking up our book shed, like Dorothy’s house in Kansas. But not quite a whirlwind, though it knocked over pots and chairs, and flattened the maize seedlings I - [Derek - Friday 30th April 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-30th-april-2021/) - There’s garlic and garlic and there’s garlic. All tasting and smelling of garlic, but from different plants, closely related, mostly alliums. There’s the garlic we are familiar with in the kitchen, Allium sativum. It’s a bulb and we break off cloves for cooking. Breaking off cloves is also the easiest way of growing it. Simply - [Derek - Friday 23rd April 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-23rd-april-2021/) - I was surprised to find stitchwort (Stellaria holostea) in the garden. It’s a wild flower common in country hedgerows and woodlands this time of year, but I don’t recall seeing it around here before. It has five white petals, almost looking like ten as each petal is split. And this struck me as the ‘stitch’ - [Derek - Friday 16th April](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-16th-april/) - The sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) leaves are just coming out and with them the flowers. The latter are green which might lead one to think they are wind pollinated, as insect pollinated flowers are usually colourful. But it’s nectar that matters most. That’s what insects come for, and the sycamore flowers have it. Colour isn’t everything. - [Derek - Friday 9th April](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-9th-april/) - It has been cold the last week, with frost on some mornings. Cold slows living processes. We, ourselves, are warm blooded but have to swaddle up on cold days and warm our houses in order to function properly. Birds are warm blooded too but really suffer in the cold. Their feathers insulate them but they - [Derek - Friday 2nd April](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-2nd-april/) - We had lots of rain in the first weeks of March, and then it stopped completely; the rest of the month was dry and hot, with temperatures up to 24ºC. So the hose was used for the first time this year and the garden given a soaking. Our greenhouse plants are especially needful as on - [Derek - Friday 26th March](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-26th-march/) - Spring will not be denied. It is everywhere in the garden. The equinox was last Saturday, when night and day are equal, in the crossover as the days stretch out to summertime. This weekend we play the usual game with the clocks, and bring forward dawn by an hour so there’s an extra hour of - [Derek - Friday 19th March](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-19th-march/) - We don’t use herbicides or pesticides in the community garden. Diseased plants, we prune if possible and suffer a few losses. Artificial chemicals kill off more than the pests that they target, and our aim is to encourage wildlife, not destroy it. A class of pesticides frequently in the news is neonicotinoids. Neonics, the family - [Derek - Friday 12th March 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-12th-march-2021/) - When I came into the garden yesterday, the wind was blowing a gale. The plastic sheeting covering the half-completed flats next door was thrashing like a loose sail. A number of chairs had blown over, and the triangular cover of our display stand had been ripped off. Four years ago, high winds tore down part - [Derek - Friday 5th March 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-5th-march-2021/) - Forest Gate Community Garden is planning for when we can open for visitors. This month, volunteers will be tidying the garden, planting, and generally sprucing up for what we hope will be our April opening, as lockdown eases due to the roll out of the vaccine programme. We have all been too cut off these - [Derek - Friday 26th February 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-26th-february-2021/) - I took a photo of miniature daffodils last week but the picture showed flowers that didn’t look like miniatures, with nothing to judge their size by. So I had another go this week; I took a reel of cotton into the Garden and took a photo of the miniatures next to it. That didn’t work - [Derek - Friday 19th February 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-19th-february-2021/) - It’s chilly though the sun is shining. There’s ripples across the pond to the tune of the wind. The surface vegetation has withered though the underwater oxygenators, hornwort and elodea, are green but providing little oxygen. They need more heat than this February sun is giving out. The forecast says we may get it at - [Derek - Friday 12th February 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-12th-february-2021/) - It’s icy cold. Last night, the temperature dropped to -5ºC. There’s ice on the pond, and on all our water barrels. A very usual phenomenon when it’s so cold. So usual, we don’t normally think about it, too commonplace. Like why do things fall down instead of up, a silly seeming query which led Isaac - [Derek - Friday 4th February](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-4th-february/) - Lockdown is a good time for projects. And what better one could there be than working out how to lower our carbon footprint? You could pick one of these: home energy, travel, food, other purchases. Have a go at lowering your energy use for that sector. Go green! Last week I considered milk, and specifically - [Derek - Friday 29th January 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-29th-january-2021/) - Daffodils are on their way, budding here and there in the garden. We’ll have quite a few in bloom by mid February, but now there’s just a single flower by our middle stage, next to two hellebores also in bloom. We are creeping out of winter as we come to the end of this long - [Derek - Friday 22nd January 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-22nd-january-2021/) - In the rear of the garden, there’s ivy (Hedera helix) clinging to the fence, between us and the Gateway site. Ivy is adaptable and also grows on the ground, forming dense clumps. It is frequently used as ground cover, though it is rather dull if not interspersed with more colourful plants. We see it everywhere, - [Derek - Friday 15th January 2021](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-15th-january-2021/) - The Garden is closed, and when it will open again is not in our power to say. I’d guess a few months yet, when most people have been vaccinated and the lockdown is relaxed. There’s no way round closure, it is just a pity as we do enjoy having visitors. The days are cold and - [Derek - Friday 18th December 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-18th-december-2020/) - Covid has influenced so much this year. There was to have been mince pies and mulled wine for volunteers on Sunday, but the event was cancelled because of the new stricter rules. It exemplifies the way the year has gone. The garden has been going since 2016, and in normal years, we’ve organised music and - [Derek - Friday 11th December 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-11th-december-2020/) - Plants are dependent on day length. It determines the emergence and growth of flowers and leaves. To be expected when you think about it, as plants get their energy for growth, that is for making new cells, from sunlight. As well as energy, the sugar produced is combined with nitrates to make protein, vital components - [Derek - Friday 4th December 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-4th-december-2020/) - ‘Margaret, are you grieving Over Goldengrove unleaving? Leaves, like the things of man, you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?’ These are the first lines of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ 1880 poem, ‘Spring and Fall’. Margaret, a young girl, is sad because the leaves are falling from the trees. The title uses the US - [Derek - Friday 27th November 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-27th-november-2020/) - The first compost bin I made, over 30 years ago, hadn’t been thought out. It was square with wooden posts and plastic sheet for sides. When nothing much was happening, I added lots of water. The result was an awfully smelly mix, like liquid sewage. So, having failed, I read up on composting to get - [Derek - Friday 20th November 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-20th-november-2020/) - Scattered about the garden are sycamore helicopters. Picked up by the wind, they twirl away from the parent tree. Though many lie at the foot, rather uselessly, as if they were to grow, they would be so overshadowed, they’d fail to make maturity. In truth, none will in our garden as we’ll sweep them up, - [Derek - Friday 13th November 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-13th-november-2020/) - There’s clumps of honey fungus (Armillaria mellea) at the rear of the garden, around various wooden posts. The mushrooms are a warm honey-brown colour, bunches of them tightly packed. It’s the time for mushrooms, damp autumn with still a little warmth in the air. But not everyone loves armillaria. When I worked in the parks - [Derek - Friday 6th November 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-6th-november-2020/) - The rising numbers of coronavirus has necessitated a second lockdown for a month, starting yesterday. The community garden is not closing, though we will monitor the situation. The garden is, in effect, a small park, so visitors are allowed. There’s hand cleanser at the door, and we will take phone numbers, both of which we - [Derek - Friday 30th October 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-30th-october-2020/) - Herbaceous plants are dying back as temperatures fall and the daylight hours lessen. All part of the yearly cycle, their roots remaining alive to put forth new shoots in spring. A season we are planning for. We have been planting daffodil bulbs in various planters: along Woodgrange, McGrath Road, and in the new traffic free - [Derek - Friday 23rd October 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-23rd-october-2020/) - Many of the sycamore leaves falling from the large sycamore by the fence have tar spot. These are dark brown spots, very evident on the yellow leaf, looking as if they have been sprayed on. Tar spot is a fungal disease, and the spots are the fruiting body, meaning they contain the spores. The spores - [Derek - Friday 16th October 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-16th-october-2020/) - A cold start, the dawn sky like cut pomegranate, the road still, a light here and there, an invisible train behind the Victorian houses, rumbling out empty to the sea. I pull up my collar, whistle *Skip to My Lou* through black coffee lips, as if there are ghouls behind the plane trees and a - [Derek - Friday 8th October 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-8th-october-2020/) - These autumn days, there are only a few flowers left in the garden. One that keeps going is the marigold. Not the French or the African variety, but the common marigold (Calendula officinalis). A well known flower grown in gardens across the UK, with its orange daisy-like blooms. There’s a clump in the garden that - [Derek - Friday 2nd October 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-2nd-october-2020/) - The Cereal Project has finished. Most of the plants are dead; once we have removed the ears of corn, the rest is straw. They are in cardboard boxes which have taken a lot of punishment since the first sowing in March. The boxes are bulging, some close to collapse. We pull out the plants and - [Derek - Friday 27 September 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-27-september/) - The temperature has dropped eight degrees and the rains have come. It’s as if the equinox was the cut off, from summery weather. Meteorologically, this is Autumn. The Met office divides the year into four quartiles, whose boundaries are the two solstices and the two equinoxes. For Keats, Autumn was an ecstatic time of year: - [Derek - Friday 18th September 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-18th-september/) - Tea being vegetable matter, it seems obvious to put used tea bags on the compost heap. Unfortunately, nearly all tea bags have plastic film in them to hold the bag together in hot water. If you just bin the bags instead, they go into landfill. The tea inside will rot, and, with the shortage of - [Derek - Friday 4th September 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-4th-september-2020/) - On Bank Holiday Monday, the Community Garden held a plant sale, and raised £786. Mostly from plants, but around two hundred of this came from food and drink and sale of bric-a-brac. The plants were not only from the garden but from supporters who had been bringing plants along on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday - [Derek - Friday 28th August 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-28th-august-2020/) - Two weeks ago we had four consecutive days with temperatures over 30ºC. Now the temperature is below 20°. Summer is past; autumn has rushed in with two storms from across the Irish Sea, Ellen and Francis. If you’d just beamed yourself in somehow through a wormhole, a walk round our garden would tell you the - [Derek - Friday 21st August 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-21st-august-2020/) - There’s blackfly (Aphis fabae) on the willow hedge in the far corner of the garden, near the stage. If you look through the leaves, you can see black clusters round the stems. They are feeding on the sugary sap. Blackfly seem to come from nowhere, and suddenly there are thousands of them. In common with - [Derek - Friday 14th August 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-14th-august-2020/) - Along Woodgrange Road, from the station to the Learning Zone, there are a number of planters, and some have fared better than others depending on whether people have been maintaining them. There is now a tap in the water fountain outside the Fox and Hounds, so some of us have been taking a couple of - [Derek - Friday 7th August 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-7-august-2020/) - The Community Garden is now open three days a week: Friday 1 – 3 pm, Saturday 1 – 3 pm, and Sunday 10 am – noon. Do come, it’ll be good to see you. On Wednesday evening, the Garden had its first meeting since January. A real meeting, in the garden, not on Zoom or - [Derek - Friday 31st July 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-31st-july-2020/) - Four years ago, when our pond was new, it had a small solar powered pump. The role of the pump was to keep the pond oxygenated for animal life such as tadpoles, daphnia, water boatmen, dragonfly and damselfly larvae and so forth. The pump though only worked intermittently, and after a few months we gave - [Derek - Friday 24th July 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-24th-july-2020/) - We re-opened the Garden to the public last Sunday morning. Cautiously, just 10 am to 12 noon, one morning a week. Our protocol is set. There’s gel at the door to make sure visitors come in with clean hands, and a signing-in book. After the welcome, we ask our guests to maintain social distancing. Basic - [Derek - Friday 17th July 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-17th-july-2020/) - Listening to Kathleen Ferrier singing ‘Down by the Salley Gardens’ I muse on plant names. Until recently, I thought Salley Gardens referred to the Salvation Army, maybe where they did their band practice. But no. Salley comes from salix which is the genus of willow, which are in the gardens ‘where my love and I - [Derek - Friday 10th July 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-10th-july-2020/) - In these blogs, I have written about the Cereal Project but just in snippets. I thought I’d do an overall piece now that the cereals are maturing. A cereal is a grass which has seeds we use for food. Most grasses have seeds which are too small for food. A few in nature though have - [Derek - Friday 3rd July 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-3rd-july-2020/) - I snap these sun flies (Helophilus pendulus) on a leaf on the pond. Helophilus means marsh loving and pendulus means hanging, so our pond is their manor. The name sun flies is thought to be a misreading of ‘Helo’ as ‘Helio’ (marsh as sun), as they are no more sunlovers than many other flies. Because - [Derek - Friday 26th June 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-26th-june-2020/) - We are contemplating how we might open the garden to the public once more as the lockdown eases. Museums, art galleries and cinemas are opening on July 4th. Most will have a booking system to keep numbers down for social distancing. A booking system is a possibility for us too. We are less risky as - [Derek - Friday 19th June 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-19th-june-2020/) - The rain began in the early hours of Thursday. It continued for eight hours, and then on and off during the day. It wasn’t heavy but was steady, allowing water to soak deep into the soil. Much more than we can deliver with a hose. We water for around 40 minutes on three nights every - [Derek - Friday 12th June 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-12th-june-2020/) - Phacelia (Phacelia tanacatifolia) is a plant native to SW United States and Mexico. So what is it doing in our wildflower bed? Presumably it was among the seeds in the pack we bought, but that simply pushes the question back a level, like what was there before the Big Bang, or who made God? None - [Derek - Friday 5th June 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-5th-june-2020/) - It’s a chilly, overcast morning, 13ºC, feeling all the colder with a 17mph wind. My source is BBC Weather for E7. That’s a 13 degree drop from last week. Although chilly for me, better for the garden as it allows our watering to sink deeper into the soil, and flowers to mature more slowly, and - [Derek - Friday 28th May 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-28th-may-2020/) - Gateway agreed to put in a water tap as a quid pro quo for the space they have taken from us for as long as their building work continues. I was pessimistic on their timetable for installing it. My feeling was, now that they have what they want, why hurry. But they did it quickly, - [Derek - Friday 22nd May 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-22nd-may-2020/) - The old pergola has gone. But the roof has been flipped over, so with the retained wall and a new set of posts, we have a new pergola. We have lost space, a two metre passage to the road taken over by Gateway as access for its adjacent site. Our front gate has changed too. - [Derek - Friday 15th May 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-15th-may-2020/) - As we have no visitors, we have gone easy on tidying the garden. This non-activity is friendly to wildlife as a very tidy garden denies habitats. In town gardens, one of the biggest enemies of frogs, once they have left the pond, are the mower and strimmer. Another bonus to our laxity are wild flowers. - [Derek - Friday 8th May 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-8th-may-2020/) - I am watching from the community garden as a bulldozer rips out the white buddleia on the next door site. I am mesmerized by the sound and fury. It is so quick, in no time much of the large shrub is flying in the jaws of the beast. Ten seconds, in a piercing engine growl, - [Derek - Friday 1st May 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-1s-may-2020/) - At last, rain. April, till the last few days, had been absolutely dry, March hardly better. Our water barrels were running low, but a whole day of rain on Tuesday, and rain most days since, have filled them. The pond is a couple of inches higher; the garden sighs with relief. The temperature has dropped, - [Derek - Friday 24th April 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-24th-april-2020/) - There are dandelions in the garden. Which brings up the perennial query, what is a weed? The common answers are: a plant you don’t want, or a plant in the wrong place. A personal answer, either way. So I’ll give my answer; I like dandelions, so they are not weeds. They are wild flowers. I - [Derek - Friday 17th April 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-17th-april/) - The Japanese cherry is still eye-catching in its froth of flowers, but already petals are falling and the leaves are growing. It’s as if the leaves are offended by all that showing off and so are doing their best to hide the display. The cereals (two wheats, oats, barley and rye) are 6 to 8 - [Derek - Friday 10th April 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-10th-april-2020/) - As the days are warm, I have moved some trial rice into the greenhouse. I have been growing this at home, and it is pallid, some barely alive. I think it is lack of light, but I can’t be sure. The problem with the greenhouse, which is unheated, is that it gets chilly at night. - [Derek - Friday 3rd April 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-3rd-april-2020/) - I come in, planning to take some photos and water the plants. I leave my bag on a bench, and take out the camera, intending to take a few snaps of the cereal project. I get as far as the birch by the water butt, when I see the fox. I freeze, knowing if I - [Derek - Friday 27th March 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-27th-march-2020/) - I will blog once a week, so long as it is allowed in the current crisis. My visits to the garden are my outdoor exercise for the day. I do some planting, watering and general garden maintenance. While I am there, only Kevin is present, and we take care to keep our distance from one - [Derek - Friday 20th March 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-20th-march-2020/) - A garden in the time of coronavirus. It is impossible to keep up. On Thursday 19 March, I wrote: “With all local venues shutting down, we decided to swim against the tide, at least temporarily, and open up on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, as well as our usual Friday and Saturday morning. Maybe no substitute - [Derek - Wednesday 5th February 2020](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-wednesday-5th-february-2020/) - It’s a bright winter’s day, 7°C, a little chilly, but the sunlight brightens the spirit. It has been a mild winter and our first daffodils are in bloom in an apple tree tub at the rear of the garden. Other daffs are close to flowering, and we’ll have quite a few blooms by the weekend. - [Derek - Friday 13 December 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-friday-13-december-2019/) - The pond is full to the brim, and surely spills over in the rain. Wheelbarrows are heaped on our twin compost heaps. They will not compost, nor add warmth this time of year, but they give us a little more space, and tell anyone: *No more on the heaps, please. They are full.* It’s chilly - [Derek - Thursday 31st October 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-31st-october-2019/) - A chilly morning, which often follows a clear night, but the day warms by the time I get to the garden. Leaves are still hanging on in the trees, but they are yellow and crinkly with those on the cherry trees having patches of red. The buds for next year’s foliage are already there in - [Derek - Thursday 24th October 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-24th-october-2019/) - It has rained hard since noon, and is still raining when I arrive. We have had so much rain this month that it must be a record breaker for October. The pond is full and so are our barrels. In spite of the rain, the roof is being put on the back stage. When completed, - [Derek - Thursday 17th October 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-17th-october-2019/) - A chilly day to begin with, and raining when we came into the garden, to be greeted by Dean, a senior site officer for Hill, the contractor for the next door site. He has, he tells us, good news and bad. The good news is there is often material available on their site. They use - [Derek - Thursday 10th October 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-10th-october-2019/) - A very autumn day, overcast, about 15ºC, when I first arrive. We have few visitors until four o’clock, and then we get mothers and toddlers, and some primary schoolboys who play with our Duplo. Five girls come from Forest Gate Community School. They settle down at a table and have a very civilised picnic. We - [Derek - Thursday 3rd September 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-3rd-september-2019/) - It’s a dull autumn day. Almost all the buddleia has been cut back, and the wild flower bed has been cleared completely. I shall miss the latter. It was the most colourful area of the garden in midsummer with pink campion, blue cornflowers, yellow California poppies, bright red poppies and white wild carrot flowers. When - [Derek - Thursday 26th September 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-26th-september-2019/) - Two judges for London in Bloom came to assess our garden on July 5th, a beautiful summer’s day. There was quite a crowd as Bumps & Babies were there, as well as a number of well-wishers. All that week, we’d been sprucing up the garden, finishing with a fresh layer of woodchip. Sophie and Steve - [Derek - Thursday 19th September 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thurs-19th-sept-2019/) - This weekend is the Autumn Equinox when we have 12 hours day and 12 hours night. After the equinox, night wins out until the shortest day in late December. The already longer nights give us chilly mornings, although it is very pleasant when I arrive at 2pm. Waiting for me is a wheelbarrow of grass - [Derek - Thursday 12th September 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-12th-september/) - It's a warm day, hot even when the sun is in the clouds. We are overlooked by two huge cranes on the building site next to us. One was built yesterday and the other this morning. I know this as I went out to get a paper at 7.30 am and there was only one - [Derek - Thursday 6th September 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-6th-september-2/) - A pleasant day, mostly sunny, about 20ºC. Hopefully, we have left behind those days of fierce heat. No good for flora or fauna. It rained a little yesterday, enough for us to skip evening watering last night, but today many plants were suffering. So we watered on. I took down the leaflets for our Late - [Derek - Thursday 29th August 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-29th-august-2019/) - It's been a hot, dry week with temperatures reaching 33ºC. Today, it drops to 24ºC which is more bearable but it remains dry. We spend much of the afternoon filling our barrels from water we ferry over from Kevin's flat in Sprowston Road. And then we water the garden. We have lots of plants in - [Derek - Thursday 22nd August 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-22nd-august-2019/) - Most of our flowers have finished their season but there are still plenty of bees. I suspect they are going for levels of nectar they would have disdained a month ago, working harder for less reward. There's a bumble bee on a clump of purple toadflax. It's hairy with a sort of brown scarf round - [Derek - Thursday 15th August 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-15th-august/) - August is a month that begins in summer and ends in autumn. Today, mid month, feels like an early autumn day. It is warm and windy, and many of the flowers have finished blooming, so you need to look a little harder to see what there is. We have three small pear trees by the - [Derek - Thursday 8th August 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-8th-august-2019/) - A painted lady and cabbage white butterfly fly through the pergola. There are lots of butterflies around, and bees too, in the remaining flowering plants: hollyhocks, globe thistles, gazanias, and lychnis. But it is also the time of year for blackberries and there are quite a few by the side of the pond, but difficult - [Derek - Thursday 1st August 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-1st-august-2019/) - It's warm in the garden when I arrive and cloudy. At around 3pm, the sun comes out and it's hot. This is the walled garden effect, which is why large country houses wall in their vegetable gardens. It protects fruit and veg from the worst of the weather, and gives them more heat in summer. - [Derek - Thursday 25th July 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-25th-july-2019/) - The hottest day of the year, peaking at 37ºC in the garden. It's a record for July in the UK (38.1ºC in Cambridge) but that's no cause for celebration. These hot days are a prelude of what is to come, payback for our reliance on fossil fuels, on our meat consumption and the population increase. - [Derek - Thursday 18th July 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-18th-july-2019/) - It rained this morning, not a lot, a few millimetres, but enough to liven the plants for the day. And limit our watering to the greenhouse plants and those under the pergola walkway. The month has been very dry; we have come in during the evenings to water, especially those plants in pots which dry - [Derek - Thursday 11th July 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-11th-july-2019/) - It's hot and dry, with water stocks low. So reminiscent of last year's drought. We have had so little rain in the past few weeks that I am too aware of what is to come in the coming decades with climate change. Just before leaving home, I read in the paper about a report from - [Derek - Thursday 4th July 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-4th-july-2019/) - Britain in Bloom are coming to judge us tomorrow. So we are having a tidy up. A lorry load of woodchip arrived yesterday, and today we wheelbarrow it around the garden, and spread it over the paths and between the raised beds. But all this tidying up sets me thinking. We have put down more - [Derek - Thursday 27th June 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-27th-june-2019/) - The doors are in! Bring out the bunting. A couple of months ago we put the call out for doors, and over 20 came from supporters. Thank you, all. Three weeks ago we took down the crumbling wooden fence at the back. New posts went in last week from donated wood. This week, the doors - [Derek - Thursday 20th June 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-20th-june-2019/) - It's warm, 20ºC, with a fair bit of sunshine. Tomorrow is the longest day of the year, and today close,at 16 hours 39 minutes of daylight. The sun rose at 04.42 and will set at 21.21. All of which means the year is half over, and from Saturday, the days grow shorter. But the world - [Derek - Thursday 13th June 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-13th-june-2019/) - The afternoon is chilly, around 14ºC, and breezy, making it feel even colder. It had just stopped raining when I arrived. The sky is still grey and glowering. I know we will have few visitors. Last Thursday, we were worrying about the lack of water in our barrels, after three dry weeks. But from then - [Derek - Thursday 6th June 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-6th-june-2019/) - A pleasant, mostly sunny afternoon. We are sheltered from the wind. There was a misting of rain this morning, and a few millimetres on Tuesday, but it will take a lot more to make up for the past two dry months. Such slight falls don't penetrate the soil, so saplings like the walnut and the - [Derek - Thursday 30th May 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-30th-june-2019/) - It’s warm in the garden with intermittent sunshine. The overriding topic is water. There’s been little rain in May, and April was a dry month too. Over the spring months the pond has dropped four inches. All the barrels at the back of the centre staging are empty. The metre cube is about a third - [Derek - Thursday 23rd May 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-23rd-may-2019/) - It's warm and sunny today, and everybody comes to the Garden. Or it seems that way. We have 30 nursery children from Woodgrange with 10 adults, and 10 children with adults from Durning Hall too. That's apart from after school children, and mothers with babies and toddlers, and a few dad's too. Irises are in - [Derek - Thursday 16th May 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-16th-may-2019/) - It's warm and sunny today, with a mostly blue sky. Volunteers and visitors are in a good mood in the spring sunshine. The garden is busy, there are parents with toddlers, some with pushchairs, and volunteers who have been to the Methodist Church on Woodgrange. The community centre is due for demolition and we have - [Derek - Thursday 9th May 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-9th-may-2019/) - A rainy day, on and off. More on than off. Few visitors. Between showers, I look around the garden. There are lots of birds going to our feeders. I see a blue tit coming out of the bird box by the sycamore and almost at once another going in. They are probably incubating eggs. In - [Derek Thursday 2nd May 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-2nd-may-2019/) - It's chilly with a sharp wind, the sky grubby white as if rubbed with charcoal. Earlier in the day there was sunshine but it's gone for the day. Not a day when we'll get many visitors. There's a patch of vetch near the greenhouse. And quite a bit more of it in the wild flower - [Derek - Thursday 25th April 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-25th-april-2019/) - It's 15ºC and overcast. Pleasant when the sun is out and a little chilly when it's in the clouds. Fairly quiet today. One group of nursery children from Maryland Children's Centre haven't come, although we had about eight children from Durning Hall, who haven't been here before. The adults with them said they had enjoyed - [Derek - Thursday 18th April 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-18th-april/) - A sunny day in the garden, about 20 degrees. It's quiet today, few people realise we are open Thursday afternoons. We'll likely pick up when the schools go back after Easter. The large flowering cherry is at peak blossom, pink petals are starting to fall. It is such a fragile blossom, a little breeze and - [Derek - Thursday 11th April 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-11th-april-2019/) - The sun is shining, but it's just 12ºC. It feels, though, so much warmer. That must be the effect of the wooden fence round garden, sheltering us. This is the first Thursday opening of the year, the beginning of our summer timetable. There's flowers and blossom everywhere. There are overhangs of white spiraea florets in - [Derek - Saturday 2nd February 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-saturday-2nd-february/) - It is a cold morning, 2 degrees C, though the sun is out, but there is not a lot of heat in its glow. The pond is frozen over and almost full to the brim. The surface vegetation is mostly shrivelled. I see a few snails, hibernating. And no other animal life in the pond. - [Derek - Tuesday 1 January 2019](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-tuesday-1-january-2019/) - I visit the garden on the first day of the new year, not expecting much. It's chilly, the wind nibbling at my fingers as I write these notes. The garden is dormant, though there are a few flowers here and there that have not read the rules: a small Viburnum tinus, an evergreen shrub, with - [Derek - Thursday 25 October](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-25-october/) - This is the last Thursday of the year for the garden. After this session, we go to the winter timetable, when the garden will open only on Fridays and Saturdays. In the spring, we'll open on Thursday once more. It's like an end of term day and the weather adds to this. At first, it's - [Derek - Thursday 18th October](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-18th-october/) - I am surprised how busy we are this afternoon as it's on the chilly side, 16ºC. pleasant in the sun but parky when the sun is in the clouds, which it is about half the time. We have a visit by eight medical students from QMC. They are very young, like six formers, which is - [Derek - Thursday 11 October](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-11-october/) - It is windy this afternoon, with heavy dark clouds. Rain is forecast, but we escape it and the clouds clear, granting us a little sunshine, giving long autumn shadows. It's about 20ºC but feels colder because of the wind. The pond is fuller after the weekend rain. There are lots of water fleas. They are - [Derek - Thursday 4 October](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-4-october/) - It's around 17ºC in the garden, a little chilly when the sun goes in the clouds, but pleasant when it is out. Mothers come with nursery children about 3.30, along with toddlers, and a little later infants from Godwin. We make sure the child gates are on at the front and side gates as the - [Derek - Thursday 27th September](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-27th-september/) - A bright sunny afternoon, 23ºC, following a chilly morning. The autumnal equinox was on Sunday (23 September). Now the days grow shorter until late December. The sun rose at five to seven this morning; so late, no wonder the morning was cold. But a great afternoon and, in the sunshine, the garden fills with mothers - [Derek - Thursday 20th September](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-20th-september/) - It is mild in the garden, about 20ºC, the skies threatening rain without delivering. Over night, the wind has blown down the large gazebo between the nursery and the pond. The billowing canvas has the power of a sail and its thrashing snapped one of the poles, bent another, and broke a joint fitting. We - [Derek - Thursday 13th September](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-13th-september/) - Walking down the road at 7.30 am this morning, I could see my breath; the temperature around 5ºC. And now, at 2pm, it's over 20ºC. That's autumn for you. A long clear night gave us a chilly morning, with sunrise close to 7 am, a long way from mid summer sunrises at 4 am. I - [Derek - Thursday 6th September](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-6th-september/) - It is pleasant in the sun this afternoon but a little chilly when it clouds over. The wild flower bed has been cleared. Seeing it bare, I think it would make a good area for a sundial with the small stakes around it marking out the hours. It would still be a wild flower bed, - [Derek - Thursday 30th August](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-30th-august/) - August is a transition month. The first day is definitely summer, the last is unarguably autumn. So here we are, no denying it: autumn. The days are shorter, we are heading for the equinox. In the garden are blackberries, lots of seed heads, and pears on the tree. It's sunny and warm, not the fierce - [Derek - Thursday 23 August](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-23-august/) - A sunny, warm day in the garden. This morning, we had rain which has invigorated the garden. It is a pleasure to come in after its gasping state through much of the summer. The wild flower bed is a mass of thistles with brushes of thistledown but here and there are a few white bladder - [Derek - Thursday 16th August](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-16th-august/) - It is raining as I get the key for the garden from Durning Hall. We've had it all morning, but as I am walking to the side gate of the garden, the rain stops. A pleasant coincidence. I open the door, and am hit by greenness. The garden has grabbed the rain and light, and - [Derek - Thursday 9th August](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-9th-august/) - It has rained all day. Our awnings are dripping into buckets which we add to the water butts. We watch the rain in fascination like children who are seeing snow for the first time. It has been ages since we've had a prolonged downpour. I stick a garden fork in the earth to see how - [Derek - Thursday 2nd August](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-2nd-august/) - It's 31ºC in the garden, a clear blue sky with not a single cloud. For an hour, four of us collect water to fill the barrels. We have enough for a few days and will water tonight at 7.30, when the day is cooling. There have been three rainy days in the last week, but - [Derek - Thursday 26th August](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-25th-august/) - At 34°C, it is the hottest day of the year. We collect water from Kevin, but don't work too hard as we have sufficient for a few days, and it is too hot for extended exertion. We have had no rain since 29 May. I keep a journal and on that day, I wrote: 'Lots - [Derek - Thursday 19th July](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-19th-july/) - Another hot day, 28°C, and the drought continues. We have gone seven weeks without rain. People are bringing water to the garden, for which we are grateful, but the bulk comes from Kevin who lives across the road. His flat is up on the second floor; he puts a hosepipe out of his window down - [Derek - Thursday 12th July](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-12th-july/) - It's cooler today, about 25ºC, and cloudy. There's still no sign of rain. We are watering most evenings to keep as much life going as we can. Many plants have finished flowering, accelerated by heat. Flowering depends on chemical reactions, and these are speeded up as the temperature rises. There are lots of seed heads - [Derek - Thursday 5th July](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-5th-july/) - It's six weeks without rain. The longest drought I can recall, made worse by the heatwave. The pond is a foot lower than it was in May. And there is nothing we can do about it. Any water we get has to go on the plants. A low pond is not as bad as it - [Derek - Thursday 28th June](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-28th-june/) - Every evening this week a few of us have come in to water the plants. Our barrels were filled by members who live nearby. Even so, we are barely keeping up; it's so hot and dry, and we have no running water. Water is essential for plant survival. The various chemical reactions that maintain plant - [Derek - Thursday 21st June](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-21st-june/) - Another warm summer's day, which is not as good as it sounds, even with the sunshine, as we have had no rain at all this month. The garden is gasping, especially problematic as we have no running water. For the past couple of weeks we have been discussing what to do in case of drought. - [Derek - Thursday 14th June](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-14th-june/) - It's 23°C, sunny and breezy in the community garden. We've had a week without rain and the plants in pots and raised beds are suffering. We water and we water, but there's a limit to what you can deliver with a watering can. The large cubic metre tank at the back of the container is - [Derek - Thursday 7th June](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-7th-june/) - It is warm in the garden, around 22ºC with intermittent sunshine. The buddleia is 2.5 metres (8 feet) tall and the playhouse is almost hidden. On the inner edge of the buddleia forest, in a raised bed, is an acanthus with a column of white and purple flowers and large, fern like leaves. Another plant - [Derek - Thursday 31st May](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-31st-may/) - Warm in the garden today, around 24˚C. The garden is very green with all the rain we have had in the past week. And full of flowers. They are hard to keep up with, it is all happening so quickly. On the pond, there are quite a few azure damselflies, some in mating pairs. I - [Derek - Thursday 24th May](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-24th-may/) - The temperature today is about 23˚C, pleasant in the sun, a little cooler towards the time we close as the sky clouds over. We have a visit from a dozen nursery children from Kaye Rowe, along with a teacher, assistants and parents. Most stay about 40 minutes, although a few stay on and don’t go - [Derek - Thursday 17th May](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-17th-may/) - We have a sunny day in the garden, with a temperature around 20˚C. We have about 30 visitors. Mums with babies and toddlers to begin with, and, at around 4pm, children from primary schools with parents. The irises are out on pond, also called flags, they are bright yellow. I noticed last year, this was - [Derek - Thursday 10th May](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-10th-may/) - The temperature is 17˚C today, pleasant in the sun, a little chilly in the shade. There was a little rain in the early hours but the garden is dry with quite a few plants flagging due to the hot days, up to 29˚C, earlier in the week. We are doing a lot of watering but - [Derek - Thursday 3rd May](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-3rd-may/) - I come into the garden at 2pm, it’s a little chilly, perhaps 14˚C, in a sky half blue, but by 5pm when I leave sky is almost completely blue and the temperature is around 18˚C, the warmth creeping up on us through the afternoon. The Japanese cherry in the children’s area has almost lost its - [Derek - Thursday 26th April](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-26th-april/) - The temperature has tumbled this week to 14˚C, chilly when the sun goes in, quite pleasant when the sun is out. Last week it was 27˚C, and over the week we have used a lot of water. The only reservoir left is in the large cube behind the container. Inevitably lack of water will be - [Derek - Thursday 19th April](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-19th-april/) - It’s 27˚C in the garden, which contrasts with last Thursday when the temperature was 11˚C, the average for April. Over the afternoon we had 29 visitors, fine weather midweek brings them in, especially mothers with young children. Lots of watering to do today. Although the various tanks are full, they won’t be if this hot - [Derek - Thursday 12th April](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/derek-thursday-12th-april/) - It’s a chilly, overcast day, no more than 12˚ C. It’s no surprise that I see no flying insects; I am sure the cold weather grounds them. The pond has a solitary pond skater on the surface, but has lots of tadpoles in the clear water which is full to the brim due to all - [Derek - Thursday 5th April](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/dereks-observations-thursday-april-5th-2018/) - It’s a warm sunny day on the first Thursday afternoon the garden has been open in 2018. The garden is tidy after the winter clear up and the new shed, donated by the library, is amid the waisthigh buddleia. There are two great tits on a feeder in the children’s area. In the pond, there’s - [Welcome to the first blog post](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/welcome-to-the-first-blog-post/) - Welcome to the first blog post of Forest Gate Community Garden. Each week one of our volunteers will contribute to our blog, reporting on progress, events and news related to the Community Garden and the wider community. We hope you enjoy the blog and if you would like to contribute, volunteer, support or ## Pages - [Home](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/) - A community led green space in the heart of Forest Gate. A beautiful oasis and constantly evolving natural environment that hosts activities, events, workshops and school groups throughout the year. It is cared for, maintained and supported by a group of dedicated volunteers with biodiversity and sustainability at its core. - [Whats On](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/whats-on/) - [Donate](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/donate/) - [About Us](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/about-us/) - In 2013 a group approached the Council to set it up as a community garden, finally getting a lease in 2015. Over 70 volunteers worked to clear rubbish and buddleia, build raised beds, a pond, and finally put in plants. The garden opened to the public in 2016. - [Planter Trail](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/planter-trail/) - [Garden Trail](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/garden-trail-2026/) - [Religious and Political gatherings](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/religious-and-political-gatherings/) - [Health and Safety](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/health-and-safety/) - [Environmental Policy](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/environmental-policy/) - [Complaints Policy](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/complaints-policy/) - [Safeguarding Policy](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/safeguarding-policy/) - [Privacy Policy](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/privacy-policy/) - [Financial policy](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/financial-policy/) - [Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Policy](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/equalities/) - [Volunteer Policy](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/volunteer-policy/) - [Join In](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/get-involved/) - [Benjamin Zephaniah](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/remembering-benjamin-zephaniah/) - [Green Shoots](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/green-shoots/) - [Annual Reports](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/annual-reports/) - Read the 2022 - 2023 Annual Report for the Forest Gate Community Garden - [The Garden](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/the-garden-2/) - [Garden Hire](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/garden-hire/) - [Contact Us](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/contact-us/) ## Categories - [Uncategorized](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/uncategorized/) - [Uncategorised](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/uncategorised/) - [Forest Gate](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/forest-gate/) - [Forest Gate Community Garden](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/forest-gate-community-garden/) - [winter](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/winter/) - [pond](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/pond/) - [Spring](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/spring/) - [peda;l power](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/pedal-power/) - 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[solar](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/solar/) - [History](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/history/) - [Plants](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/plants/) - [gardening](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/gardening/) - [frogs](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/frogs/) - [birds](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/birds/) - [events](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/events/) - [science](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/science/) - [plastics,](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/plastics/) - [sunday social](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/sunday-social/) - [water](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/category/water/) ## Tags - [froglets](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/froglets/) - [global warming](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/global-warming/) - [globe thistles](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/globe-thistles/) - [hollyhocks](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/hollyhocks/) - [community garden](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/community-garden/) - [forest Gate](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/forest-gate/) - [2023](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/2023/) - [winter](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/winter/) - [2024](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/2024/) - [Roses](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/roses/) - [November](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/november/) - [October](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/october/) - [Frog Mosaic](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/frog-mosaic/) - [January](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/january/) - [December](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/december/) - [Honeysuckle](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/honeysuckle/) - [Sycamore](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/sycamore/) - [september](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/september/) - [dancers](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/dancers/) - [February](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/february/) - [Frogs](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/frogs/) - [iris spears](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/iris-spears/) - [Feb](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/feb/) - [March](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/march/) - [spiereae](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/spiereae/) - [tadpoles](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/tadpoles/) - [newts](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/newts/) - [mussel](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/mussel/) - [spring](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/spring/) - [april](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/april/) - [Trees](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/trees/) - [May](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/may/) - [gardens trail](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/gardens-trail/) - [summer](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/summer/) - [june](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/june/) - [lavender](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/lavender/) - [muchado](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/muchado/) - [fothergill](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/fothergill/) - [knotweed](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/knotweed/) - [August](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/august/) - [Zephaniah](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/zephaniah/) - [ukulele](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/ukulele/) - [equinox](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/equinox/) - [Sept](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/sept/) - [witches tree](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/witches-tree/) - [michaelmas](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/michaelmas/) - [ladybirds](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/ladybirds/) - [insects](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/insects/) - [Hygge](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/hygge/) - [storm bert](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/storm-bert/) - [climate change](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/climate-change/) - [coppicing](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/coppicing/) - [pollarding](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/pollarding/) - [Time](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/time/) - [solstice](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/solstice/) - [trains](https://www.fgcommunitygarden.org/tag/trains/) - 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