We had a weird winter: cold, warm, cold and snow in March! Today is the first day of spring, with meadows full of daffodils and crocuses. On Sunday, the ECCG had a party to celebrate the new meeting hut. Charlotte, our coordinator, sent these lovely photos.
As with other parties, it was open to all ages - the hut and its amenities were fully tried and tested on the day. Scroll down to see photos of the event and how we celebrated this wonderful building, a labour of love. Thank you to all the volunteers and those who donated money and materials for this project.
In our community garden they are breaking
down all sorts, but the fruiting bodies in our garden are mostly associated with
our abundance of old logs, especially on the Hugelkultur mound where
logs had been buried.
In addition to breaking materials, fungi form massive
networks in our soil, distributing nutrients, water and more. They are also a
social network as plants connect and pass information through the mycelium.This mass of fungal mycelium criss-crossing the land under our feet is now
known as the Wood Wide Web. You can learn more here.
We are a garden closely linked to permaculture, and as much of permaculture is about designing for sustainable living through learning from and copying nature, perhaps we can learn from and copy our fungal friends as we work together in our garden.
In this Soil Food Web School Blog, they reflect on the wisdom of fungal interactions and how four principles of stable mutualistic partnerships in nature might apply to helping humans create a more harmonious society.
Principle One: Both organisms in an enduring partnership receive net benefits in a reinforcing feedback loop.
Principle Two: Partners trade different resources or services.
Principle Three: Each partner organism can readily provide the resources they collect in abundance.
Principle Four: Partners respond and adapt to each other and their changing environments and contexts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
(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.
