Year review... our 2018-2019 growing seasons

Charlotte prepared this review: here are the four seasons of the Empty Common Community Garden. If you click on the season photo, you get a larger one popping up so you can read the captions. Have a Merry Xmas. 

A big thank you to all volunteers, the Council, those who donated gardening items and provided funds... if you can help us raise money for our meeting hut - or know of grants that can help us - please get in touch [csynge@googlemail.com - tel. 07752 143683].

Thank you to Sandie at the Botanic Garden for creating a network of growers this year - we had quite a nice meeting yesterday (If you are a member of the garden, please let Charlotte know if you want to attend the next one in March!). Last but not least, thank you to Transition for being our trusty partner - and providing manpower!

P.S. You can watch the film from our right panel...

October is all about volunteers!

Great progress was made in our Community Garden's hut project on 17 October thanks to this valiant group from AstraZeneca.

The volunteers cleared the space and dug out the foundation area to allow hardcore to be positioned ready for the start of the build. They even found time to assist with bramble clearance and general weeding.

Many thanks from all of us at Empty Common Community Garden and we look forward to seeing you enjoy the garden over the coming months as you move into Eastbrook.

We received these wonderful photos showing great energy and commitment. Thank you very much again for your contribution!

Getting to grip with the old building site

Digging the foundations for the hut

More digging!

Tackling weeds

Taming the wilderness...

Welcome to September... let the harvest commence

A busy Sunday of harvesting. Some of the beans were so high we needed Tiago to put Rachel on his shoulders to get to them. Tomatoes are looking great this year, no blight as yet - a problem in past years.

We also harvested stones and some strange-looking veggies. The pink fir potatoes below are more like underwater growths, while the surprise cucumbers look old and scraggy, but they might keep well with that thick, hard and crackled skin.

Our RHS award & our very own film for you to enjoy...

Our RHS award - Thriving!

We have been busy at the garden, watering, weeding, sowing, harvesting and dealing with our hut project. Our hard work was recognised by the Royal Society of Horticulture (RHS) and we finally received our certificate, which got laminated and is hanging inside our black metal shed. 

Another exciting bit of news is that the movie my Michelle Golder, talking about the garden is now publicly available here: https://vimeo.com/291065226. We had a filming party over a year ago and this is the fruit. Enjoy! The film also tells you more about our coordinator, Charlotte and why she is so passionate about permaculture and the environment - it runs in her genes....

Charlotte and filmmaker Michelle Golder (screenshot from the film)

We do love a party and we were happy to share our garden with our partner Transition Cambridge in late July. The party had a life of its own and it continued among ourselves well past the appointed time, until 10.30pm! There was food, there were people (50!), there was singing by the fire. Here are pictures of the party during day hours.... We also participated to the Vegetable Festival, in our own way... see at the brilliant veggie creatures below...

The creatures... doesn't the snake look like a Monster Inc's villain?

More party pics...

Summer is here!

A satellite image of where we are... off Trumpington Road

While temperatures soar abroad, it is overall quite moderate and sunny here in Cambridge. We do have a watering rota but the outside beds don't need as much attention this year, it was incredibly dry last summer, so dry the grass turned yellow and looked like straw. And talking of water... here's a picture of our water closet!

Our compost toilet

Toilet's door with
protective eye

We have been busy with planting out seedlings as the polytunnel was getting crowded. We have enjoyed crispy pak choi and lettuce from the polytunnel and some tasty chard growing by the pond.

The watering volunteers are focusing on keeping young plants hydrated, some are a bit tricky because they are under bottles or cloches. The trampoline bed has runner beans and tomatoes this year. There's rocket, coriander and mixed leaves in the raised beds - great for summer salads. Charlotte advised us that a good soak aimed at ground level is better than sprinkling water over the plants and bed, especially in the heat of the day. 

We have exciting news, there is a new growing group, coordinated by the University's Botanic Garden. As the logo says, it's the Cambridge Community Growing Group. We attended the second meeting in May and made some exciting plans alongside the other community gardens. We hope this alliance will bring us all benefits and more volunteers....

AGM and THE FILM!

Brief tour of ECCG by Newcomers and Visiting Scholars at the University of Cambridge, following a talk

I used to joke we are a green-fingered anarchic collective when giving talks about the garden - our communications happen via a google group - whether it's jobs to do, watering rota, decisions to make... However our new meeting hut project requires more formality so we are having a 'physical' AGM this month. Members will be notified via the google group. If you want to join us, check out the first post and email Charlotte.

The Empty Common Community Garden's film by Michelle Golder will be finally screened at The Waterman Pub, in the back room (the potting shed), in Cambridge, on 2 June at 4.30, and will be followed by a Q&A on gardening for the planet. Tickets and donations through Eventbrite -https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/screening-and-talk-can-gardening-help-save-the-planet-tickets-61046746462

Thank you, Tina Mellon, for the lovely photo.

Spring has sprung!

Many willing hands have been preening the garden in readiness for spring. The water trough is clean, the polytunnel got a wash and there has been some tidying up everywhere.... Jerusalem artichokes were harvested, seeds are starting to be sown and all the compost bins are empty - their contents enriching the soil.

Our solitary bee home produced 52 cocoons that look healthy so they are now safe in a black pot - which has a hole in the side so when they hatch they will see the light and leave through it. The bee tunnels are all scrubbed clean and ready for next year's visitors.

We were given two varieties of seed potatoes and Charlotte ordered 20 pink fir ones. More herbs and flowers are on the list. Remember our horsetail problems? We were reminded of this video of its dancing spores...  

 

Thanks to this 'feared' weed, we have our brilliant space! We are welcoming monetary and donations in kind, please contact us if you can help!