A film of our story, from the very start!

Our beautiful community garden, from bare wasteland to oasis of plenty!

A Celebration of Empty Common Community Garden from Charlotte Synge on Vimeo.

Special announcement - Coronavirus Policy

CoV-19 policy for Empty Common Community Garden

We ask that you consider the safety and well-being of others who may be at risk when deciding whether or not to come to the garden. Our policy is that:

• People shouldn't feel in any way obliged to come to the garden.
• We should collect gloves and keep them with us rather than share them as we usually do.
• We should keep gloves on while at the garden so tools aren't touched by naked hands.
• If people want to come but keep a distance, everyone should respect this.
• We should keep at least 2-3m apart whenever possible.
• People should bring their own hand sanitiser if they wish to use it.
• If anyone is unwell with coughing or sneezing symptoms, they should not come.
• If anyone has recently been in a country where the virus is prevalent, they should not come.
• If anyone has been in contact with someone who has the virus, or the symptoms of it, they should not come.

A special pictorial post!

Looking through our archive, we discovered these great photos from Transition's Elena Moses. You can see the garden's transformation from 2103 (this blog started a few months down the line). 

Back in 2013

Early days

Our first flag 

The arrival of the polytunnel

Recycling was always our ethos

Growing rare varieties

Old Burwell wheat

Veggies in flower

Veggies in flower - again!

Tomatoes ripening on the vine

Charlotte and a volunteer

The black shed, painted by Rebecca

Sweet peas, beloved by us all

Charlotte with our special kettle

Party!

Weeding by the cabbages

Pest alert!

The bug hotel

The solitary bee house

Berries

Our spare produce basket

Compost heap instructions

The old shed

Autumn harvest

Tennis balls to cap pointy sticks

The compost toilet

The toilet inside... 

A shady sitting area

Our pond

Where is Empty Common?

Empty Common shared a table with Transition Cambridge yesterday at Seedy Sunday. We gave away slips with the blog address, but I got an email from someone who could not understand where the garden was.... I  will share here the link to the very first post, back in 2014: https://emptycommongarden.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-growing-space-come-and-join-us.html

This is what happens if you google it from Cambridge. We hope to see you there... feel free to visit us on a Sunday, 10.30am to 12pm.

Happy New Year! We have a virtual map, forum and wiki!

 
If you would like to make community gardening your 2020 resolution, why not join our forum? Simon set it up to discuss issues, ask questions, etc... You can find it here: https://eccg-forum.phis.me/

We also have a wiki space at https://eccg-wiki.phis.me/ and an interactive map at http://iso.mor.phis.me/eccg (you can access it from the wiki too).

Hope to see you physically or virtually in 2020.

Year review... our 2018-2019 growing seasons

Charlotte prepared this review: here are the four seasons of the Empty Common Community Garden. If you click on the season photo, you get a larger one popping up so you can read the captions. Have a Merry Xmas. 

A big thank you to all volunteers, the Council, those who donated gardening items and provided funds... if you can help us raise money for our meeting hut - or know of grants that can help us - please get in touch [csynge@googlemail.com - tel. 07752 143683].

Thank you to Sandie at the Botanic Garden for creating a network of growers this year - we had quite a nice meeting yesterday (If you are a member of the garden, please let Charlotte know if you want to attend the next one in March!). Last but not least, thank you to Transition for being our trusty partner - and providing manpower!

P.S. You can watch the film from our right panel...

October is all about volunteers!

Great progress was made in our Community Garden's hut project on 17 October thanks to this valiant group from AstraZeneca.

The volunteers cleared the space and dug out the foundation area to allow hardcore to be positioned ready for the start of the build. They even found time to assist with bramble clearance and general weeding.

Many thanks from all of us at Empty Common Community Garden and we look forward to seeing you enjoy the garden over the coming months as you move into Eastbrook.

We received these wonderful photos showing great energy and commitment. Thank you very much again for your contribution!

Getting to grip with the old building site

Digging the foundations for the hut

More digging!

Tackling weeds

Taming the wilderness...