A wonderful party with new sign-ups

On Saturday the Garden was full of people and music as we ran a fundraiser to finish building the meeting hut. It has been a long time coming but the hut is looking great and just needs some finishing touches before it becomes a place to hold workshops and have cups of tea!

I took a selfie in front of the hut, which was decorated with recycled bunting; we had music, food and great conversations.

There was even some folk dancing and it was a glorious sunny day, so everyone enjoyed the party and it continued well after the advertised time.

We had visits from friends from other allotments and Camlets members.

Meanwhile the polytunnel is filling up with seedlings and plants.

The inside of the hut is very welcoming, we just need a few bits of furniture and some paint on the walls.

A great day for all of us, we have not had such a great party for a year or more due to Covid restrictions. A few new volunteers also turned up. We need more, so consider joining us! We also accept donations in money and kind.

Spring party at the ECCG: Saturday 21 May 2022

A past musical party in the Garden

ECCG is having a Spring Party with musical entertainment on Saturday, 21st May, from Noon to 4pm.

Bring a picnic and something to sit on. 

If you are a musician and wish to join in with the folk session in the second half, you are welcome to bring your instrument along. Spare parts will be available if you want to read the music – bring your own music stand!

Everyone is welcome. Donations for the Garden are gratefully accepted.

Spring is in the air: we need your help!

A lovely view of the garden

Spring has sprung at Empty Common Community Garden. Charlotte emailed us that the solitary bee home did well this year for both healthy solitary bees and their parasites. We got 95 healthy mason bee cocoons, 16 unidentified bees in clay nests and plenty of parasitic wasps. 

Simone took a group of visitors from the University to visit Empty Common - a preview to a talk about the garden on Tuesday 15 March. 

We need more gardeners! There are lots of seeds to sow and prepare beds for. Seedlings are coming up in the polytunnel and will need transplanting outside when the soil has warmed up and there is less risk of frosts. Please get in touch with Charlotte to join - csynge@googlemail.com - or visit on a Sunday from around 10.30 to meet the current volunteers.

Visitors admire the shed with its lovely paintings

The hut is coming along fine, today's visitors were very impressed. Thank you to Utpal for taking all the photos in this blog post. We also discovered a book box, this is an initiative by Inci, a visiting scholar who has a small plot adjacent to the community garden.

Below is our most dedicated volunteer looking after a bed protected with a net so birds and other wildlife cannot munch the crop. We met her today and she had a chat with the visitors, urging them to join!

More lovely photos show how great the garden looks, even now when it's early for most crops.

The blue shed 

Utpal (first on left), our photographer

A new year - gathering in the garden and bird count

An outdoor gathering by the fire pit

The year 2022 has started with some uncertainty regarding Covid and with very changeable weather, from mild to frosty. On Sunday 23 January, Transition Cambridge organised a winter gathering around the firepit at the Garden. 

The Christmas gathering had to be postpoined because of Covid regulations, so the idea of having an outdoor gathering with baked potatoes and mulled wine was heart warming. Luckily the weather was kind and covid regulations allowed open-air gatherings, so the gathering went ahead. The pictures say it all. Click on a photo to enlarge it and view the rest in a slideshow... With sincere thanks to Transition Cambridge for sharing them.

A bird count also occurred towards the end of January, but because it was very busy, there were few birds. The count was repeated but birds still proved elusive, which is uncommon as the Garden is very popular with wildlife. Ben counted 1 robin, 1 pigeon and 2 blackbirds. This was a bit disappointing but let's bear in mind that as the weather improves, more people are keen to get out and about, and there are more cyclists using the track at the back. Perhaps the birds are making the most of the hours of the morning and evenings when not many people are about. 

More photos of the gathering are below. A belated Happy New Year from us!

Festive greetings and our Yearly Review

It is getting close to Christmas - we had frosts but the weather has also been mild, albeit rainy and windy on certain days. Here is our pictorial Annual Review. Some very good news in terms in funding and projects achieved and the meeting hut is taking shape! Seasonal wishes from all of us and let's hope 2022 is kinder to us all.

Click on the first image to activate a carousel with bigger images you can see and read easily in sequence.

Hut update and a visitor from New York

The roof has been started

The hut, surrounded by trees, is in a lovely spot

We had a visitor from New York who is involved in community gardening visiting us twice! Lenny Librizzi visited Empty Common back in 2018 - read the blog post of that visit here. He visited again this year and wrote this wonderful update - click here to see it. Both blog posts have some wonderful photos, thank you Lenny for your kind words and for spreading the news about our blog. 

Charlotte sent us some information about pollination to try next year. The Guardian has an interesting article on pollination of tomatoes and other members of the solanum family using an electric toothbrush. This article made her realise that they pollinate better when buzzed at. Charlotte explains: "We have our polytunnel closed off from the buzzy insects quite a lot of the time and from the breeze. Perhaps we should try it next year with our tomatoes, peppers, chillies and even aubergines. Another factor for good crops of the solanum family that I have just read about is to go for the smaller fruit varieties. I have noticed this with our tomatoes, but not thought about it for peppers and aubergines."

Something to think about and let's hope the roof is on the hut before winter strikes. It has been mild, with few frosts so far.

November at ECCG - would you like to join us?

Remember our long-standing project of building a meeting hut? We tried in many ways and we have now raised money through different channels so we can have a building we can maintain and use with the help of our community of volunteers. As community groups soon find out, there are many grants out there, but some come with conditions that are not always possible to satisfy and commitments that are onerous to a small group of volunteers. 

Above are some photos of current progress, but of course there is so much to do. More photos are to come as our building, using a combination of new and salvaged materials, is taking shape.

ECCG was recently presented by Simone at a university society's meeting at Othersyde. Tzu Chi Cambridge is associated with the Tzu Chi Foundation, an international NGO and accredited observer of the United Nations' Environment Programme. The Cambridge branch, open to anyone who is interested in grass-root environmental projects, helps at a non-profit farm near Coldham Lane, has sessions in community gardens and tackles litter-picking in a number of Cambridge areas.

We are always looking for volunteers, if you want to join us, please read this post.