Isn't nature grand.....

Dates for your diaries. Upcoming FREE workshop sessions

We are currently organising FREE workshop sessions as detailed below:

• 11-3pm, Thursday 31st October - Cook and eat session
• 11-3pm, Friday 1st November- Craft session

 More details to follow shortly

Harvesting seeds from a variety of plants

A busy afternoon harvesting seeds from a variety of flowers. Among the seeds collected incuded; nasturtium, corn poppy, cornflower, calendula (pot marigold), corn marigold, mallow, corn chamomile and vipers bugloss.

Meanwhile back in the undergrowth again......

Womens Community Project Barrow - Volunteer Day 12 noon - 3 pm Wednesday 25th September

The Womens Community Project is working to develop a vibrant, sustainable women only centre which will make positive differences to the lives of women in the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. For more information about the project please their blog page at: http://womenscommunityprojectbarrow.blogspot.co.uk/

Jobs you could begin in the garden over the next few weeks

Fruit and vegetables

• Pick ripe apples and store the best in fruit crates
• Dig up strawberry runners and pot them up
• Net autumn raspberries and blackberries to protect them from birds
• Lift and dry maincrop potatoes and store in paper sacks in a cool, dark place
• Pot up a few herbs to bring into a porch or grow on the window sill
• Sow broad beans and hardy peas for early crops next year
• Vegetables to sow now include winter radishes, lettuce and salad leaves, spinach and spring onions

Flowers and bulbs

• Buy tulips now while they're fresh in garden centres, but hold off planting till next month
• Plant daffodils, hyacinths and crocus in pots
• Lift and pot up tender perennials to protect over winter
• Clear away faded summer bedding and annuals, composting the plants
• Fork over bare patches ready for planting spring bulbs
• Sow sweet peas in pots and protect the plants in a frame over winter
• Sow hardy annuals in borders for earlier flowers next summer
• Pinch out sweet pea seedling tips for bushier plants and more flowers next year
• Collect and sow seeds from perennials and hardy annuals

Maintenance

• Remove old crops that have finished and clear away weeds to leave your plot clean and tidy for the winter.
• Improve soil by adding organic matter and/or horticultural grit
• Clean out greenhouses and poly tunnels to reduce the risk of pests and diseases next year

Lawn care

• Use a fork to aerator/spike your lawn and improve drainage
• Raise the cutting height when mowing the lawn
• Apply an autumn lawn food

Information and advice

Garden Organic: http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/todo_now/archive/sep/
RHS - Grow your own: http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own
Thompson and Morgan: http://www.thompson-morgan.com/what-to-do-in-the-garden-in-september

Beetroot soup recipe from Love 2 Learn Allotmenting

Beetroot soup is very quick to make, albeit a bit messy given the strong colour of beetroot juice.

The first step of preparation is to peel the beetroot. Beetroot can be peeled like potatoes, just cut off the tops and tails and then peel the remaining skin away. If you have an electric chopper, then use this. Otherwise, the beetroot should be coarsely grated. Preparing the beetroot this way significantly speeds up cooking time.

Prepare the rest of the ingredients by finely chopping the onion and garlic, and preparing the stock ready for use.

Ingredients

600g of beetroot

(3-4 tennis ball sized beets)

600ml of stock

(water with one stock cube)

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

(or 6 fresh, peeled and chopped)

4 cloves of garlic

1 onion

Olive oil for frying

Serves 4 – accompany with bread.

How to make beetroot soup

Once all the preparation is complete, start by gently frying the onion in some olive oil over a medium heat. This is best done in a medium sized saucepan with a lid, turning occasionally. After a few minutes, the onion should brown and become transparent, and also be sweet to the taste.

Next add all the stock, garlic and chopped beetroot. If the beetroot is not completely covered, top up with a little water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 8-10 minutes. At the end of the cooking time the beetroot should be soft but still have some crunch.

Lastly, add the chopped tomatoes. Bring the mixture back to the boil. As soon as the boiling point is reached the soup will be ready. The soup is best blended before serving.

Source: Love 2 Learn Allotmenting

So far, so good....surviving the recent stormy weather

Meanwhile on one of our banking areas......

How to make a hedgehog home from Breathing Places

"It’s really easy to make a house for hedgehogs. Take a sturdy crate and turn it upside down. Cover it with stones, earth and wood, and make sure there’s an entrance. If it’s dry and protected, hedgehogs can use it to stay over winter" -  Source Breathing Places

For more information on how you can help hedgehogs please visit:

Breathing Places: http://www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/hedgehog_home/

RSPB: http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/homes_for_mammals/hedgehogs.aspx

Hedgehog Street: http://www.hedgehogstreet.org/pages/hedgehog-homes.html

Maintaining and preparing planters for replanting

Maintaining some of our raised planters, collecting seeds and preparing the soil for replanting.

Job done. Now........what to plant next?

Speckled wood butterfly basking in the sun

Community growers producing good crops

RHS - growing vegetable during winter

Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) advice for growing vegetables in winter.

"Most vegetable gardens can accommodate winter crops. Some vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, take up a lot of space for a long time but are still well-worth the investment. Choose an open site with free-draining soil, cultivated thoroughly prior to sowing or planting and enriched with organic material. Where ground is in short supply, containers will support a few plants. If a greenhouse or poly tunnel is available, it can be used to over-winter some crops and start others off early.

What to grow for winter:

Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, kale, leeks and parsnips are hardy vegetables and will stand through the winter. Leafy crops such as chard, parsley and rocket should also over-winter with a little protection. Other crops such as carrots, onions, turnips and winter squash can also be grown to enjoy in winter if stored correctly"

For more information, please visit their website here.

Top 10 vegetables to grow over winter

Thompson and Morgan have produced information and advice on the top 10 vegetables you can grow over the winter months.

"Don’t let your vegetable plot stand empty and neglected over winter. There are plenty of winter vegetables to grow throughout the coldest months. Winter vegetable growing allows you to extend the season and many vegetables that can be grown in winter will produce earlier crops than spring plantings"

For more information please visit their website here.

Quote for the week.....

“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.” - Aldous Huxley

Garden Organic - what to do in the garden now

Garden Organic has recently updated their "what to do now" gardening advice section.

Please visit their website here to find out what you should be doing in your own garden in September.

Growing well together

More than just green open space..........bringing people together

Funding to enable the diverse range of activities has been provided from a grant we were awarded by People’s Health Trust using money raised by Healthable Community Interest Company through The Health Lottery.

A splash of colour on the banking area

Cook and eat session recipes

Recipes provided by trainer Jennifer Lauruol of Carpe Diem Garden Design Lancaster during our recent cook and eat workshop sessions.

FREE training workshops prove to be an interesting and fun experience

We would like to thank all those who took part in the most recent programme of FREE training workshops as facilitated by Jennifer Lauruol of Carpe Diem Garden Design Lancaster. You all helped to make them an enjoyable, interesting and........ fun experience. We will be organising a similar programme of FREE workshops in the near future. Please watch this space.....we will be publishing details as soon as they are confirmed

Funding to enable the training workshops has been provided from a grant we were awarded by People’s Health Trust using money raised by Healthable Community Interest Company through The Health Lottery.

Advice from Vertical Veg - which crops to grow in winter

Winter salads:

The easiest, fastest growing (relatively speaking!) and most productive crops you can grow in winter are salad leaves. There’s a wide choice, including:

Land cress: has a strong, assertive flavour, a little like water cress. Sow by late August / early September for winter leaves – it’s perennial so will produce leaves all year round.

Winter purslane or claytonia: a succulent winter leaf, packed with vitamin C. Attractive round leaves, that also produce pretty and very unusual white flowers in the spring. Sow late August / early September.

Pea and broad bean shoots: one of the fastest growing and easiest crops to grow in winter. Sow up to the  end of October / Early Nov for Dec / Jan harvest.

Lambs lettuce: mild flavoured leaf – a good contrast to some of the stronger ones. Sow late August / early September.

Winter lettuces – some varieties are hardy enough to survive winter – arrowhead lettuce is one good variety to try. Sow in August or early September.

Rocket – good winter crop – and less prone to bolting than in the summer. Sow in  late August or September.

Asian leaves including: mustard red giant, green in the snow, and mizuna. Sow in late August or early September).

Sorrel: strong, lemony leaf, lovely in salads in small quantities. Sow in August for winter leaves. This is another perennial that will produce leaves year round once established).

Other winter leaves:

Cavelo nero – tall and stately, this can look great in containers, and the leaves are actually more tender and tasty after a frost. The big leaves are  best cooked, but smaller leaves can also be used in salads.

Kale – home grown kale can be tender and tasty, well worth experimenting with – I’m currently trying a heritage variety called asparagus kale.

Bright lights chard – a bright and cheerful winter crop – and one that often recovers to grow very well in the early spring.

Spinach – is less prone to bolting if grown at this time of year. Sow in August.

Coriander – coriander does surprisingly well in cold weather, I’ve had my best crops from early September sowings. It doesn’t bolt at this time of year – and although it goes nearly dormant in the coldest months,it usually comes back strong in the early spring.

Source: Vertical Veg at: http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/winter-growing-its-time-to-plan-and-sow/

FREE cook and eat workshop sessions

Our FREE "cook and eat" workshop sessions as facilitated by Jennifer Lauruol of Carpe Diem Garden Design Lancaster.

Funding to enable the training workshops has been provided from a grant we were awarded by People’s Health Trust using money raised by Healthable Community Interest Company through The Health Lottery.

Additional pictures from this most enjoyable workshop can be viewed on our Flickr photo gallery here.

Hoverflies enjoying our potentilla

Quote for the week......

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou

Signal Films digital photography workshop session at Green Heart Den

Collecting nasturtium seeds