Great weather for thinning and planting out, and eating currant muffins

Sunday was a very wet day, yet nine volunteers braved the elements to add bedding plants around our big oak tree. Having decided they couldn't get much wetter, they carried on with other jobs, bedraggled but happy. As Charlotte wrote in her weekly email: "This is great weather for thinning and planting out, baking and eating muffins, slugs and snails and ducks."

Currant muffins

Mary baked these delicious muffins using blackcurrants from the community garden and some redcurrants she was given by a friend. She says: "The redcurrants are quite tart compared to the black ones, but they were a wonderful treat on a rainy afternoon with tea after we dried off from our 'soaking Sunday' gardening session!" 

If you'd like to try to bake your own muffins, here's Mary's recipe:

Currant muffins (Makes 6)

1 cup self-rising flour (or add 2 tsp baking powder to 1 cup regular flour)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients above together and add until just mixed:

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 to 3/4 cup of fresh currants

Bake at 180C for 15 to 18 minutes

The garden in July

This is how the Empty Common Garden looks right now. This picture was taken from the shed's roof. The school holidays are looming so we hope the garden will be enjoyed by families more.

Aside watering and weeding, jobs for July include keeping an eye on pests and keeping plants looking good by deadheading. It is a time to enjoy salad crops and keep fingers crossed that tomatoes will yield their bounty and escape the dreaded blight.

If you would like to join us, read the first post and get in touch...

Retrieve, reinvent, reuse‏ - the three Rs of recycling

Adrian, the River Cam's warden with his 'catch of the day'

The Empty Common Community Garden is doing well. This week's blog post is about creative recycling and an unusual partnership that has developed. Adrian, the River Cam's warden is saving tennis balls and five-litre plastic bottles that he finds in the river for our community garden. 

This is a great way to reuse litter. Rubbish is retrieved from the river and reused, given a new lease of life (i.e. the reinvention bit). The picture above shows Adrian with some waste fished out from the river. You can find out more about him and all the river Cam's conservation activities by visiting https://twitter.com/CamConservancy or just follow @CamConservancy.

Plastic bottles as cloches in the garden

Tennis balls are used on top of spikes to prevent tears in
the polytunnel. We featured a similar picture before, but see
how much taller our tomato plants are!

We are having a heatwave...

The weather has hotted up nicely so a watering rota has been running in the past weeks. Thank you to all those who have volunteered so far.

It is so hot even bugs get sleepy. Here is one nested in a hard piece of soil. We think it's in mid metamorphosis. 

It was found by our volunteer Lisa, who was really pleased! She is an archaeologist and was very happy to dig up live treasure rather than ancient artefacts! 

If you'd like to join us and find your own treasure, please refer to the first post, which has a map and contact details.

Empty Common Garden in June

Yesterday I joined the volunteers for some weeding with my daughter in tow and took my camera with me to take pictures of what the Empty Common Garden looks like on the first weekend of Summer. We didn't have a great start to the Summer season as Saturday was quite rainy, but the garden enjoyed it as it has been a bit dry of late.

As you can see everything has grown quite well, with not too much snail damage. Unfortunately the weeds are growing too but volunteers have been coming during the week to keep them under control and the garden looked lovely. You might not see it in the pictures, but it was a sunny Sunday, with just a few clouds for the sun to play hide and seek.

All is well in the polytunnel, with tomato plants shooting up and in flower. All supporting stakes have been topped with an old tennis ball to prevent their sharp ends tearing the polytunnel's plastic cover.

It's quite warm inside it, as warm as in a greenhouse. The alpine strawberries outside are a bit late but they are coming along.

Aside the veggies, we have some pretty flowers in the raised beds, including sunflowers. Last year they achieved an impressive height and it would be nice to see these giants raise their big yellow heads above the rest again.

If you want to join us, read the first post, the one with the map and the contact email.

Our first 'homegrown' salad social!

The Sunday before last, all volunteers gathered to eat the first communal salad of the year. In the salad bowl they mixed homegrown lettuce, nasturtium leaves, land cress, radish and parsley. 

It was a lovely, sunny day, unlike yesterday and our very wet Saturday, which can be disappointing for us people craving summer sunshine, but it is good for the garden!

Many of us are thinking about making elderflower cordial, which is a widely available plant here in Cambridge, growing in many gardens and public spaces.

Elderflower heads, picture from Wikipedia

If you spot some blooms near where you live and want to have a go, I recommend this easy Elderflower cordial recipe, courtesy of BBC Good Food. Feel free to leave links to your own favourite recipe or share a family one...

Happy composting in June: hints & tips

Composting in action & BBQ whatever the weather!

In a big open space, you run out of composting bins pretty soon, so here is how we are doing our composting this year. First we use straw, scrunched-up newspaper, bubble-wrap bits and plastic bottles pushed into the gaps in the pallet, which makes up the sides of our container. 

These help to insulate the heap and keep it warm, but they are loosely packed in order to let the air in. We then start making our biomass 'lasagne' with alternate layers of straw, pulled-up weeds, cut comfrey and nettles all watered in with really smelly drowning fluid and sludge from the drowned horsetail and bindweed bins. 

The whole heap is covered with two old sleeping mats to keep it warm and to keep the rain out. This is a great use of materials that are usually discarded - it gives them an extra lease of life.

To finish off, we cover the front of our heap with some twinwall roofing to insulate it and add another pallet to hold it in. 

Now we are waiting for it to cook. The weather is getting much warmer...