Imbolc - the Start of Spring

On February 1st we celebrated Imbolc at the garden! (This post is fashionably late.)

Imbolc is the midpoint between winter solstice and spring equinox, considered the very start of spring.

According to Yvon, it's the moment of "the change that can't yet be seen" - when we can start to sense spring coming even if it's not yet obvious. A good time to reflect on change by travelling along a little finger labyrinth...

We made St Bridget's crosses, a traditional way to mark the day.

It was an excuse for a great fire and a chance to listen to the birds starting to tweet.

And Jo unveiled a painting she made of some of us hanging out at the garden. Thank you Jo!

Spring is coming.

Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year) and the Horsetail

This Lunar New Year was celebrated in the garden and we look forward to the Year of the Fire Horse where the energetic ways of the horse combine with the passionate intensity of fire.

Here's our blog from 2015 which was, for us, the "Year of the Horsetail", but we thought it was also the Year of the Horse. Wrong, that was 2014. 

Empty Common Community Garden & Meeting Hut: 2015 is the 'year of the Horse'

Horsetail is no longer a problem, still around and not overtaking everything. Perfect! 

Without the horsetail, we would never have got this land for a community garden. 

Without the horsetail I would never have looked online and found how joyous their spores are.

The walk and jump of horsetail spores (Equisetum) [Better sound] - YouTube

Without the horsetail Chinese New Year would not be celebrated in our beautiful Empty Common Community Garden.

- Charlotte

Midwinter in the Garden

 The Saplings group continue to have a wonderful time at ECCG through the midwinter. They write:

We had a really lovely session last Saturday, being at the ECCG felt exactly right for us. Most importantly, the children absolutely loved being there and enjoyed the simple activities, even though they have joined us before. The photo below showed how much the kids loved even the simple Poohsticks game next to ECCG :)!

 We love having you at the garden, Saplings! Thanks for loving on all the plants!

In other news, ECCG featured (again!) on Cambridge Radio "Flavour" last week. We are celebrities.

The radio show caught our team at work on some careful pruning and coppicing. Listen to the latest feature here, and the segment on ECCG starts at 28:10.

Our previous outing on the show is here.

Here's Flavour's Matt interviewing our Charlotte. 

Fractals are Fun

Fantastic Jack Frost play on my windows this morning. Magically, he’d been growing ice crystal gardens as I slept.

Nature, so complex, is also repetitive with much being mathematically based on fractals, a pattern which repeats itself at different scales. Fractals are an efficient way of filling space. Allowing light to enter as a tree does, blood reach extremities as our vascular system does, or for growing larger like a fern frond unfurling or a young snail growing up. Fractals are fun.

PS. We used to have a book titled "Physics is Fun" which we kept on the bookshelf only for its ludicrous, smile inducing, title alone. Perhaps if we'd opened it we might have discovered something fun on fractals.

- Charlotte

Little Ones Connect with the Garden

We're thrilled that the new Sapling Group has kicked off! This local group of children, parents, care-givers and early years professionals will be regularly enjoying ECCG in the coming months. They put it best themselves:

"'Thank you so much for your generous support to make the Sapling Group kicked off so successfully on the 27th October. 

I’m moved by the overwhelmingly positive feedback from parents, and even more so by the remarkable shift in the children’s behaviour the moment we arrived at the Empty Common Community Garden. Although the session was brief, the atmosphere had a profound effect — the children responded with such calm and presence that it surprised all of our staff.

At pickup time, parents were visibly touched by what they saw. Many were reluctant to leave, simply watching their children sit quietly by the fire, immersed in the peaceful surroundings. One of the many positive feedback from the parents were: "It’s our first time with you and my son loved it. I didn’t know about those community allotments. What a magical place".

Thriving Summer at the Garden 2025

 

It’s been a very busy and productive summer at ECCG (even though the blog has been neglected…)

We grew so much beautiful veg and flowers! The garden is full of thriving plants. Over the hot months we had a watering rota that saw someone go down and get the watering can out every day...

 

There was a series of big birthday parties that brought music, picnics, fires and games to the garden…

 

As well as a thrilling screening of the Euros football final England v Spain in our beautiful hut - listen along here...

Lots of new people came and got their hands in the soil every Sunday.

 

Autumn is here now and it’s getting colder very fast - and the garden is awe-inspiring in a different way. The trees are starting to lose their leaves and enter what Charlotte calls the "petticoat phase", a delicate lacey time of subtle beauty. Many of Jo's flowers are still blooming with vibrant colours. The harvest this week is tomatoes, lettuce and pumpkins. The core team is discussing which seeds to order for the winter planting... and a winter solstice bonfire is around the corner.

Spring Gardening Workshop

Today we had a super productive Sparky Sundays - the ECCG sign on Brooklands Avenue is now well-decorated with garden tools.

We also held a special Introduction to Gardening Workshop for newcomers to the garden.

We potted up loads of seedlings: kale, beetroot, sweet peas, sweetcorn, purple brussel sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, lettuce and basil.

And we sowed some parsnips and salad leaves in one of the root veg beds.

Everyone went home with some freshly harvested pak choi and wild garlic!

It was a cold and windy day, but spring is coming.