Happy Xmas from the ECCG

 

We had snow in Cambridge and this is the meeting hut looking like a fairytale image in a wintry landscape. 

If you are considering donating to a good cause, please help our garden by sponsoring our meeting hut.

Happy Christmas and a Serene New Year!

Our annual review and our fundraising goals for 2023

 

November is upon us. It is rainy and colder but it's not as cold as in previous years. Despite the dry summer we had really good crops due to the diligence of volunteers who came and watered. It has been an exciting year with the new hut being built and we are fundraising for the final touches. The hut has been already used by a local organisation and with our already existing compost toilet we can welcome local groups who need a place to meet.

Thank you for our roving volunteers at AstraZeneca who came back again and contributed to a number of projects with manpower and resources.

Please click on images to enlarge them and read about the wonderful things that happened this year. 

A big thank-you to Transition Cambridge for their support and all those who donated time and resources. To those who moved on, we remember you with gratitude and hope you come back to see us.

October at ECCG and exciting hut updates - please donate!

The ECCG this month

 

Autumn is in full swing but the garden is still so green and pleasant. There has been great progress with the meeting hut, a true labour of love with plenty of recycling of materials... We have a lovely indoor/outdoor feature involving bottles, they look like precious jewels and sparkle in the sun.

We are fundraising for more improvements, please visit our page here.

 

Inside the meeting hut, John and Charlotte have been busy making it cosy. There is now a kitchenette and a kettle! We do have an outdoor kettle powered by twigs and it will still come out but think of raining days in the hut, workshops and all-day events (we do have a compost toilet already).

The roof has solar panels but they are proving to be a challenge to instal. Thank you so much to all the volunteers, people and companies who donated to make this project possible. We could not have done it with you - a big thank to Charlotte and her team of builders for making this happen. We are all excited about the future.

If you read this and are not a member, leave a comment with your email and we will subscribe you to our gmail group. Or you can contact Charlotte. 

We also gratefully accept donations in money and kind. Contact Charlotte if you'd like to help.

Charlotte: csynge@googlemail.com - tel. 07752 143683.

News from ECCG

We had a very dry summer in the UK and everywhere in Cambridge the grass was looking like straw. The watering rota was crucial for the survival of our fruit and veggies. Right now Szechuan peppers are ready, so are the apples, basil, tomatoes and beetroot. 

Ben found this lovely creature earlier in the summer. Charlotte loves toads with their golden eyes. 

She sent us a few lines of poetry: "Ask a toad what is beauty ...; he will answer that it is a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head, a large flat mouth, a yellow belly and a brown back.".

Earlier this summer we had AstraZeneca volunteers helping with the meeting hut; here are a few photos...

On a sad note, we said goodbye to Elisabeth and Didier, who have been part of the garden for many years and returned to France. Photos are posted with permission.

We finish with a song: Empty Common Garden Bee

(The Bladog Bee)

A bee there was just flying around

in the Empty Common garden.

It heard the sound of our music fine,

and said," I beg your pardon!

Who asked you here

to disturb the calm of this lovely garden idyll?

Not us, we say

Just go away!

Take your flutes and horns and fiddle!"

Well it stung the flute, and it stung the fiddle

We could see that it wasn't keen

as it chased us round the vegetables

in this lovely garden green.

Saturday 6 August - Butterfly event

 

AstraZeneca comes back to ECCG

Another cohort of green-fingered volunteers from AstraZeneca visited the garden in July. We documented what they did for us in these lovely photos.

Thank you so much for contributing to our community garden with your hard work.

The Garden still needs volunteers, if you would like to join, please get in touch.

Another party at Empty Common - Sunday 17 July

It's summer and the watering rota is in full swing because it is not raining and if it does, it is not enough for plants to thrive.

This Sunday, the Empty Common Community Garden is hosting the Transition Cambridge's summer picnic, 12:00-14:00. It is open to anyone and it's a chance to meet and catch up with local transitioners. 

Please bring your own food and drink (best if we don't share because of covid). The picnic will go ahead whatever the weather as the new meeting hut is now viable!!!

Donations towards ECCG are, of course, welcome!

Below are the photos of our own party, which was attended by members of Transition too.

 

Saturday picnic party - 2 July 2022

Apologies if the blog has been quiet. We have been working hard, watering and planting in the outside beds as the outdoor growing season started. The hut is also progressing. Why not come and see for yourself this Saturday? 

Come and join us and help to promote ECCG. Bring food and drink to share. We hope to see you there! 

A wonderful party with new sign-ups

On Saturday the Garden was full of people and music as we ran a fundraiser to finish building the meeting hut. It has been a long time coming but the hut is looking great and just needs some finishing touches before it becomes a place to hold workshops and have cups of tea!

I took a selfie in front of the hut, which was decorated with recycled bunting; we had music, food and great conversations.

There was even some folk dancing and it was a glorious sunny day, so everyone enjoyed the party and it continued well after the advertised time.

We had visits from friends from other allotments and Camlets members.

Meanwhile the polytunnel is filling up with seedlings and plants.

The inside of the hut is very welcoming, we just need a few bits of furniture and some paint on the walls.

A great day for all of us, we have not had such a great party for a year or more due to Covid restrictions. A few new volunteers also turned up. We need more, so consider joining us! We also accept donations in money and kind.

Spring party at the ECCG: Saturday 21 May 2022

A past musical party in the Garden

ECCG is having a Spring Party with musical entertainment on Saturday, 21st May, from Noon to 4pm.

Bring a picnic and something to sit on. 

If you are a musician and wish to join in with the folk session in the second half, you are welcome to bring your instrument along. Spare parts will be available if you want to read the music – bring your own music stand!

Everyone is welcome. Donations for the Garden are gratefully accepted.

Spring is in the air: we need your help!

A lovely view of the garden

Spring has sprung at Empty Common Community Garden. Charlotte emailed us that the solitary bee home did well this year for both healthy solitary bees and their parasites. We got 95 healthy mason bee cocoons, 16 unidentified bees in clay nests and plenty of parasitic wasps. 

Simone took a group of visitors from the University to visit Empty Common - a preview to a talk about the garden on Tuesday 15 March. 

We need more gardeners! There are lots of seeds to sow and prepare beds for. Seedlings are coming up in the polytunnel and will need transplanting outside when the soil has warmed up and there is less risk of frosts. Please get in touch with Charlotte to join - csynge@googlemail.com - or visit on a Sunday from around 10.30 to meet the current volunteers.

Visitors admire the shed with its lovely paintings

The hut is coming along fine, today's visitors were very impressed. Thank you to Utpal for taking all the photos in this blog post. We also discovered a book box, this is an initiative by Inci, a visiting scholar who has a small plot adjacent to the community garden.

Below is our most dedicated volunteer looking after a bed protected with a net so birds and other wildlife cannot munch the crop. We met her today and she had a chat with the visitors, urging them to join!

More lovely photos show how great the garden looks, even now when it's early for most crops.

The blue shed 

Utpal (first on left), our photographer