Autumn in the Empty Common Community Garden

 

Welcome to autumn. The watering rota is no longer required now we get regular downpours, but we do get lovely sunny days now and then. On a beautiful sunny day, our volunteer and resident artist Rebecca placed this beautiful wooden sign by one of the access routes (you can glimpse the flag and the polytunnel behind it).

Covid has meant social distancing while gardening, so we have not had parties and get-togethers this year... There will be a talk about the garden in November to university's newcomers; we still want volunteers but of course we need to follow good practices to ensure safety and compliance (read more here). Do contact Charlotte if you want to join us - details are here.

The Sunflower poets met in the garden during the summer. Here's a lovely poem they wrote. Enjoy. Our garden is indeed an inspiring place.

Poetry in the Community Garden, Empty Common.

 

We came together in Apple Time

Shared golden light and golden words

Passed from heart to soul

Amidst the trees protecting us,

Waving their branches.

Burnt orange nasturtiums

Purple kale

Fluttering cabbage white butterfly wings

Floating all around

Yellow guardian sunflowers watch on.

Golden sun, blue skies

Green earth,

Emerald grass strokes

Between our toes.

Herbs delicately perfume the air

The oak tree invites child’s play

Soft breeze rustling through the leaves

Rowan red berries

Bending on the bough

Fruits ripen, gifts offered for our delight

Earth waits patiently to be toiled

By loving hands

Tinkling and clanking of bicycles

The Gaia flag blows

Grey and white birds

Make their way home

Softly we came

Softly we spoke

Softly we leave

Having shared our poems

In this sacred space.

Garden update, including our own page on Co-operate!

Last week, we pulled out the remaining sweetcorn plants and dug over some of the beds, removing stones. We planted one emptied bed with clover seeds for winter and plan on continuing this as other crops are harvested. 

The current veggie crop includes kale, swiss chard, potatoes and beans. Squashes are ripening under masses of huge leaves. The apple trees are laden with fruit. 

 

Thank you, Nicola, for providing the update and the lovely photos.

Empty Common is live on Co-operate!

Co-operate is a website by the Coop that aims to help people make good things happen in communities. Thanks to Charlotte, our group has its own page here. We are hoping to reach more people and receive donations of equipment and resources. We have also applied to grants to ensure the future of the garden.

 

Welcome, August!

The weather has been warm, so the watering rota is in full action. We practise social distancing and turn up in shifts - everyone brings their own gloves and sanitation aids. Here are some photos by Nicola.

 

On Wednesday, the Evergreen Elfons (woodcraft folk) visited the garden, here are some lovely photos of them enjoying the space.

Butterfly count in the Garden

Our volunteer Nicola participated in the Big Butterfly Count (17 July - 9 August) for the Empty Common Community Garden and sent us some lovely photos. We also got a report from Audrey. Thank you for doing this on behalf of the Garden.

Nicola's visit on 19 July

We did count butterflies this morning. we counted all the butterflies we saw in a 15 minute period and completed 3 counts in the time that I was there. I have uploaded the results to the website. Unfortunately it was mostly cloudy with short sunny periods and there were not many butterflies out but we did see a total of 10 butterflies.

1 peacock

1 meadow brown

1 red admiral

3 gate keepers

1 ringlet

2 small whites

1 large white

Audrey's visit on 19 July

2 butterflies,  large white and a gatekeeper.

Nicola's second visit on 22 July

Large white 19

small white 3

ringlet 2

brimstone 1

gate keeper 4

small blue 1

comma 1

A restorative pause in the Garden

Rebecca creating soothing vibes with her drum by the river

Our resident artist, Rebecca, has recorded a session of healing and soothing music while sitting in the Empty Common Community Garden. You can enjoy a recording here: https://soundcloud.com/lindum-greene/rav-vast2-adventures-empty The birds start this mini concert and the drum continues...

Growing resilience in our garden

What do we need in order to grow resilience? A healthy natural world, local self-sufficiency and a robust community that is diverse, happy and healthy so it can adjust to different circumstances. By Charlotte Synge.

Many things have become apparent from this pandemic but one of the most obvious, and heart-warming, is that most people are co-operators, not competitors, and they have felt empowered and fulfilled as they work together for the common good. This is one of the reasons why community groups, such as our garden, are an important part of our society, especially when things get rough. Our garden gives people a point of connection and a shared commitment to work together and help each other out. This creates a community ecosystem of people with varied skills and attributes that makes everyone more able and valuable as they work together. It is this community power that gives us the strength and stability required to adjust to new situations and to support each other. It is this community power that gives us a sense of worth, creates relationships and enables resilience.

Well-being in the time of Covid-19

Another encouraging thing about this pandemic has been people’s discovery of what’s really important to their well-being - food, people and nature. Our garden provides a space where people can garden, which research shows is good for both physical and mental well-being, but it is also a place where people have been able to meet and share a project, even when socially distanced during lockdown. With its wildlife areas and ethos of caring for nature and people it also provides a wonderful space where people come to relax and be in touch with nature. What’s more, it does this right in the city where so many have no garden of their own; so it is no wonder that more people have come to our garden to take solace, find community and look after their physical and mental health during this pandemic.

It has been a difficult time for everyone and as more information becomes available about the pandemic, we are reminded of just how much is outside our control. A global market has been created that has ousted out our traditional local system, we no longer buy mainly local goods, we don’t give enough support to our small local businesses and we spend our money outside our locality. This pandemic has highlighted exactly how dangerous this globalisation is when a crisis hits. Anything we can do to help strengthen our local system and make ourselves more self-sufficient has to help us be more prepared for future crises. Our community garden naturally does this. It produces lots of local food, enabling us to ease our dependence on imports, reduce food miles and share excess with those in need. This feels good but our most important crop is in fact resilience - which feels great.

Testimonials

People have expressed many thanks for and opinions on Empty Common Community Garden during these times. Here are a few.

“From my point of view, I like the fact that, although this time is so weird, nature and the garden keep a similar schedule to last year and last century and provides a constant and a marker of time passed when so much else is on hold.” Nicola

“I love the community garden because it improves my physical and mental health. Getting outside in the fresh air, working with the Earth, with others around me is healing. I don't have a garden myself - I live in a flat. Besides this I am learning important skills in how to grow vegetables. I will use these skills in the future. They are so important to have as we may need to grow in small local gardens more and more in the future, as climate change challenges larger farms that cannot adapt as quickly.” Giulietta

“I often go down there as an escape from the world, and I always feel a weight lifting as I walk down the path towards the garden. It’s an oasis of peace, and a generous community of all sorts of lovely and interesting people.” Sophie

“During this extremely difficult time in my life Empty Common has very much kept me in touch for over five years with my local community, enabled me to work at my own pace, provided the help and support I've very much needed over these years and even earned me a reputation, in my better years, as 'a prime digger'. The recent development of a home delivery, by one of the gardening gang, of Empty Common's out-of-this world rhubarb has also been much appreciated.” Peter

June gardening jobs

Denitsa sent us this pic of our polytunnel in April

The unseasonally warm weather has cooled down. The volunteers are visiting on separate days to follow social distancing rules. Here is a selection of jobs for June.

• Meadow - every three weeks, cut with a bill hook to remove tallest flowers and grass stalks at about 15cm.
• Red veined sorrel in the small forest garden - remove all flower stems and heads to stop self-seeding. It becomes invasive otherwise. 
• Marigolds - dead head and trim to keep bushy.
• Globe artichokes - harvest, generally remove king globe at top of central stems first. 
• Strawberries - prune out runners except for the healthiest ones on each of the healthiest plants.
• Blackcurrants, gooseberries and red/white currants - water, mulch and cover with netting.
• Potatoes - earth up with mulch e.g. woodchips, mature compost, dried grass clippings, etc. Feed fortnightly (with comfrey tea diluted to a very weak tea colour).
• Brussels sprouts - transplant
• Courgettes - plant out under bottle cloches to stop slugs eating them. Remove cloche after a week or two or when plants get too big.
• French Beans - plant out seedlings sown in pots indoors and cover with a bottle cloche. Deer and slugs like them. 
• Parsnip - thin seedlings to 15cm apart.
• Peas/mangetout - harvest early types started off under cloches.
• Runner beans - sow seed outside. Plant out seedlings sown in pots indoors and put under bottle cloches until too large for them. 
• Squash/pumpkins - plant out making sure they are covered with bottle cloches or similar that are well dug into the soil as slugs love them.#
• Swede - thin seedlings in stages to 25cm apart
• Tomatoes - plant out staking securely and tying up carefully and not too tight to allow for growth. 
• Cucumber (ridge) - plant out  making sure they are covered with bottle cloches or similar that are well dug into the soil as slugs love them.
• Leek - transplant spring sown seedlings to final position, look up how to do this.
• Sweet Pepper - plant out in polytunnel only, they won’t ripen outside.
• Carrot (early) - harvest/thin out by removing the largest carrots carefully to leave good spacing for the smaller ones.
• Basil - plant out in polytunnel and outside in sunny site.
• Peas/mangetout - harvest early types sown outdoors.
• Lettuce - begin to harvest.
• Radish - sow single seeds 2-3cm apart in 1-2cm deep trough and cover. Leave 10-15cm between rows. The larger varieties, follow what is on the pack but sow singly rather than sprinkling. Sow one row and repeat regularly.
• Kale (curly) - transplant to final position and stake securely.
• Turnips - begin to harvest.