Charles Dowding visits ECCG

 

On Monday 11 March, ECCG welcomed Charles Dowding, the No-Dig veg-growing expert and writer. Charlotte, volunteers, members of Transition Cambridge and our ally at the council, Public Realm Project Officer Declan, met Charles and shared tea and cake in our beautiful new hut. If you click on Charles's name, you can visit his website, which offers many useful videos. 

Charlotte showed him around and we all gained a few tips from him while sharing our love of growing with tea and cake. Declan wrote to thank Charlotte and the volunteers and quoted Margaret Mead's well known saying: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has." 

He added, recalling the early days of ECCG: "Seeing the wonderful group behind Empty Common Community Garden today was a heartwarming experience. Now with the wisdom of hindsight the empowerment of having a brilliant team (in key roles) to conceive and grow this project all those years ago, and also having important support from key figures (I could name a really important one – who stuck their neck out at the time), enabled a vision I, for one (and maybe you) could never have likely expected. If you said back then, a famous gardening TV personality would visit the unshapen boggy mess; that Andy and Rob negotiated in an unorthodox fashion – actually getting swamped in the mud at one point and having to be lifted out (!) – then I would have said you were probably barking…. But then again, we were all probably free-spirited enough, community minded and selfless to know the journey would be worth it."

We are getting ready for spring now and sowing seeds, but the soil being so wet is only just warming up and showing a few seedlings. Next week it will be time to start hoeing in earnest. Come and join us, the daffs are out and it is looking lovely. We are there every Sunday morning from 10.30 am unless it's pouring with rain!

Counting down the days to spring

    

It is early March, but it's still cold and rainy at times. Today is a lovely sunny day and there are bulbs and crocuses among the grass, days are longer and birds are more active. In February we did an RSPB bird count but our volunteers only spotted two wood pigeons. It would be very different now.

John and Charlotte found an old pot-bellied stove and in this photo it is being tested before fitting.

Now it is fitted; the hut is cozy on cold days and we can boil up our tea on it. We will put some pretty tiles behind it and an outer chimney to protect our whiteboard, but it is really very close to being completely done.

Next job is to fit a gas ring properly. We have applied for a grant, so fingers crossed.

We planted six mashua last spring, a herbaceous perennial climber related to the nasturtium. Below you can see about two thirds of the harvest.They are a great groundcover too. They taste peppery when raw, but are much milder when cooked.Charlotte likes them best when roasted.