The garden work has finally got going and the contractors have now completed the fence. Clearance has started, and a team from Groundwork have been pulling up stumps and bramble roots and making way for new garden elements that will soon be built.

The huge piles of logs and debris will form the core of our 'hugel mounds' - large growing mounds using waste material that eventually will host a wide range of plants. It's another way of gardening on a hard surface, but will be a steep learning curve for us all.

Raised beds will be built and by June we should have most of our garden infrastructure in place.

Local volunteers have helped out at weekends, scraping back the soil to reveal beautiful granite setts below, a much bigger area than we first thought.

From monday 30th April we'll be carrying out a range of construction works to install the bones of our garden.

We'll be fencing the site to create a secure growing area that when finished will be open every day for park visitors. We'll also be clearing some space to build growing mounds, building raised beds, a shelter and a pergola. A polytunnel will go in in the summer and we hope to be gardening and growing veg by may. In June we will be working with Art in the Park to create signage and interpretation for the project, much of which will be activity/workshop based involving you!

Landscaping and related items are funded by Community Spaces, a National Lottery fund we were very lucky to receive. For more details on what we are building, please have a look at our page  'The plan' where a detailed plan of the first part of the projects development is shown.

For a while, the garden will be closed during the times we are not there. This is because landscaping works will be going on and the site needs to be safe and secure. We will make sure notices are on the fence and update them as the project progresses.

Please be patient - we'll still run a work day between 1 - 3 pm on sundays and will carry on building other elements of the project,  there will be plenty for us to do and we need your support.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2012/apr/05/commun
ity-garden-permaculture-hugelkultur?newsfeed=true

More sterling work from a corporate volunteer team. This time they've built the base of the fencing that will enclose our new bee zone. We hope to develop a natural beekeeping project at the garden - see links here - 

www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/

www.biobees.com/

www.londonsbuzzing.co.uk/

 

Thanks to everybody who helped, it's great for the project and gets a lot done in a day!

I wanted t thank everybody for their fantastic work this week- but since there was so much to do with the almost 100 hedge whips and the apple and oak tree to be planted and the last corner to be cleared for the fencing contractors- I completely forgot to take photos! So here some belated photos from last week instead.    Daniela

A good crowd turned up to help, lured by the warm weather and scent of plum blossom. Our one tree is in full bloom now and buzzing with bees. The main tasks of the day were clearing soil from the log beds into the blue recycling containers - we want to make room for the contractors who we hope will be on site in April / may building the 'bones' of the garden. More veg were planted ( a good root day according to the biodynamic calender ) so onions and oca went in. A third bench was made and a wonderful stick throne. Thanks to everyone who helped, many hands really do make light work of the onerous task of clearing the site. 

Great work done last Sunday- and the giant pile is gone!

 

As you know our planning permission has the condition that our site needs to be cleared before the end of February so for our workday this Sunday (the 12th from 1-3pm) we should really tackle that! I hope that a lot of you can make it to finish off this huge job so the site is ready for our enormous Groundwork grant to be spent, hooray!!