Late Summer Barbecue

It's been a while since my last post so what better way to return than with the Late Summer Barbecue.

After a damp start the afternoon weather was kind to us and a great afternoon was had by all.

I think Madeleine says it best so without further ado....


"Right from the beginning with the setting up Roger, Harry, Jenny, Gill and Alan please forgive me if I have left anyone out not least David for the chairs and marquee. And the clearing up afterwards. Chris just told me he went in for three hours today and cleaned out the barbecues ready to give back to the allotment. 

Your work to get this organised, getting the place laid out so beautifully on the day, cooking the chicken legs and potatoes, the salads by Chris and Gill, the cakes - just spectacular. Mike's meat was superb the sausages so tasty and the cooking by Tiffany, Shaun, Bruce and Pat was so good that people were coming up to me saying how well everything was done. Thanks to Gill and Alan for helping so much with all the shopping. 

A special thanks to Helen and Avril for looking after the cake stall, John on the gate, Ann on the tombola and Gil and Alan with the raffle tickets and Barbara and Keith with the crafts/jewellery table and of course Jenny with the plant stall. Louise Hicks got us two really good raffle peizes and baked cakes for us. 

Marion made a colour plan of the whole site which showed how impressive our Green Gym is.
Thanks also to Michael Hewitt for the teaching session on bees - people were just bowled over with that. And I mustn't forget Neil's wine he brought with Sefton Green Gym labels and Chris's great music mix for my iPod. Thank you so much.

Another special thanks to Irene and John. Irene for donating her wonderful quilt and John for his patel painting. I mustn't forget Helen Vaughan and  Avril for the sampler and watercolour. Helen's mosaics just make the sensory area so special and of course John's giacometti like sculpture really adds something so artistic to the area. I can't wait to see Avril's mosaic for the side of the BBQ. We have so many really creative people now.

And thanks so much for selling so many tickets that we surpassed the 100 mark of people who came to see us. This doesn't count the children who came! 

Everyone's generosity made the total we got net after costs a fantastic £1000 which is what we were aiming for. I am over the moon and so glad to know you all. It makes my life so much richer!

Well that's it for now, onwards and upwards we have such great plans for the Green Gym in the future. We have enough money for the new beehives and  to do the standpipe, the gate and the hard standing inside the gate to make the area accessible for wheelchairs."

Some images from the day

Further images are available as usual on the Picasa site and I imagine Helen will add some from her very good blog

So from now on, it's down to reaping the benefits of all of the hard work of the volunteers without whom none of this would have been possible.

See you all on Thursday

@SeftonGreenGym

How Green is My Valley?

I can't comment on any valleys but the allotment is very green. 

Unbelievable to see how much work has gone on. The remaining compost bins are done, the last of the raised beds are constructed and in and one of the final acts (at least for now) of construction about to take place - the fruit cage.

But before that, a quick recap. The bees came on 17 May - and they seem to have settled in well. They are certainly very active. Hopefully the honey will help cure my hay fever!!

So now that the plants are well and truly growing, the emphasis is on making sure the crops are watered regularly to avoid drying out and also that produce is picked and eaten before it runs to seed. The strawberries have certainly gone down well.

As mentioned earlier, the final construction job this year is the fruit cage. We've had the plants for some time now and we need to get them in so the cage has to be built.

Not quite finished but it will be next week.


The wildflower area we sowed in April is growing well and although it won't be as impressive this year, it certainly will in years to come.

More updates to follow so keep tuned in and watch on Twitter.


As always, photographs can be found on Picasa Web Albums

One final thing - Sefton Green Gym has been added to Google+, definitely a work in progress.


See you next time.

Late? Nearly as late as summer!!

Yes, I know it's been a couple of weeks. I'm afraid other events have taken over and I haven't kept on top of things. Still, I'm here now so I'll update the last 3 gyms


26 April 2012


A busy day of planting, building and numbering. Parsnips, spring onions planted in the raised beds and poly tunnel along with seedlings being planted on was the main planting on a very wet day. 

Parsnips

Busy poly tunnel

Spring onion planting

Outside, it was more compost bin building. Not the best day for it with the rain (did I mention the rain already?)

We also removed a sunken bath pond to make space for the seating area. The water was carefully checked for any frogs and one was found and relocated. The remaining water was transferred to another pond.

Nearly forgot about the numbering - all the beds have been numbered now so that it's easy to identify what's in each bed - at least that's the theory!!

3 May 2012


Another week of building and planting thankfully without the rain.


This week the focus was on new raised beds. This involved building them from scratch, relocating existing beds and then planting in the new ones. 

From this

To these

Roy was also back doing some more carving - what a bloke.

I also took the opportunity to do some macro photography - can't wait till summer comes and I can get close up with the bugs.

Another successful day with lots of progress made. We have a great team of volunteers at Sefton Green Gym.

10 May 2012

Water and bees - do they mix? Well, if anyone wanted to do a thesis on that subject today would be a good day. After the seemingly non-stop rain we've had this week it was no surprise to find out that pretty much everywhere was waterlogged.

Inside the polytunnel

This is where I spent most of the morning making space for a compost bin

As for the bees, we are having a beehive managed by another allotment holder, John Moran, and so a bee cage was built. The purpose of a bee cage is to guide the bees in and out of the hive without risk of them flying into a bunch of unsuspecting humans who might not have noticed them!!

Yes, he did walk into the netting but sadly I missed it!!

The manuka bushes are in flower now, if not as tall as we expect them to be. These will provide the main food source for the bees and will provide some very nice honey I'm told.

And so that's it for another week. Forecast for the week is more rain but we need it on the allotment, I just hope it stays off on Thursday.  BBC Weather

More pictures available here as usual and follow the green gym on Twitter

See you next week and happy allotmenteering (I think I invented a word!!)

Short and sweet - or is that the asparagus gene?

Despite my best efforts, I didn't get this blog completed on time....perhaps I should make it my full time occupation and it will be done!!


On a very wet day, there's not a lot to write about. The first of the new compost bins was completed and the first asparagus was planted.

Apart from that, it was mainly potting seedlings on in the polytunnel.


So, on to next week.....


Remember, you can view all photographs here and follow on Twitter

RHS Wildflower Sowing

An extra blog this week. Today, a few of us gathered at the allotment to sow the wildflower seeds as part oif the RHS Britain in Bloom.

Seeds at the ready

The area we are planting the seeds in has been dug over, raked and weeded over the last few weeks and all that effort was in readiness for today.

A small number of plants have also been planted along with the seeds, such as corn cockle.

Hopefully, the wildflowers will be produce a stunning display and provide plenty of food for our pollinators.

Back at the normal time next week
@SeftonGreenGym

Weed it and reap

Yet another lovely sunny day at Queensway Allotments today, although I don't think it will last much after the weekend. Still, it should wait until we've completed our RHS wildlfower seed sowing on Sunday.


So what have we been up to today? Lots of planting on of seedlings into the raised beds, mainly peas and salad crops. We have got something a bit special in today though, globe artichokes. Made sure they're far apart to avoid being prickled to death by them though!! A big well done to Val and Mads for their efforts digging over the bed and then planting out. I got tired just watching them.

Plenty of weeding needed to be done of the beds containing crops that we've already planted out and also in the area set aside for wildflower planting. Lots of time spent kneeling, hoeing and pulling. I have the sore back to prove it!


The seed cataloguing is continuing and it's a real surprise just how many get collected over the years, so much so that quite a number get thrown away because they are past their use before date. Hopefully the cataloguing will end this and any that don't get used will be given to those who can use them. Is seed waste as bad as food waste I wonder?


The fence, which I reported as being finished some weeks ago is, well, finally finished. There was a little corner occupied by compost bins which we've reclaimed as an area that can be used for seating allowing a little time for relaxation and naval gazing, an important part of any allotment!!

This area will have raised beds with sensory planting as well as climbers. We're also considering whether to put trellis on top to allow the climbers to create a shaded area.


Before I go, there's generally something that happens which makes me wonder if we have people with special powers amongst us. This week it was a bit of Jedi mind games....

So, ever onwards and upwards. You can view more photographs in the usual place and keep up to date with goings on via Twitter.


Until next time.....
@SeftonGreenGym

Compost corner

Today was to be a day of compost bins. Not the kind you buy ready made but hand built - and hand moved!! The plan was to construct two large compost bins and relocate the contents of two existing compost bins to the new ones and also to spread the good compost around the site. However, this was scuppered by a nesting robin. One of the old bins will have to remain until the eggs have hatched and the fledglings have flown.

The compost we can't move

And the reason why we can't move it

The other pile was moved, partially to the area for the new compost bins (new compost that hasn't yet rotted down) and the older rotted down material mainly used in the smaller polytunnel.

Last year, strong winds blew down a large tree. The remains were removed but a large stump was left behind. We decided to employ the services of a local tree carver Roy Bouffler. Roy has done many tree carvings in and around the area in return for a donation to the local Jospice. Examples of his work can be seen in Victoria Park amongst others.

The stump before Roy started

Roy in action hand carving his design

The main work now is planting seeds and planting out crops, such as salad, potatoes etc. Although one final piece of work on the rain collection system has been completed. So as we prepare for a wet Easter weekend, the rain collection is in place.

More next week, but remember to follow us on Twitter and have a look at the other photographs from today on Picasa

See you next week

@SeftonGreenGym

Hello me old china

I was right, a list appeared!! Ah well, never mind.


The guttering for the shed was delivered (by hand I might add) and a mountain of topsoil for the reclaimed land next to the small polytunnel. This is where we'll be building the fruit cage to kepp our welcome (but not on the fruit) feathered fiends, i mean friends at bay. (I love them really - RSPB member). In addition, the wood for the compost bins was also delivered so plenty to keep us busy over the coming weeks.

2 tons!!

Finished off the digging for the wildflowers. It's funny how the large square areas seem to take longer than the long strips. I turned up this old piece of crockery and as yet, have not been able to find anyone in the group who remembers the company (despite some of them being in Waterloo for longer than the allotments!) If anyone remembers the company I'd be glad to hear about them. Just add a comment.

The guttering was added to the new shed to collect the rain water, if it ever comes back, so that we can water without using precious resources from the mains. We have four 200 litre water butts that will be linked to ensure we have a plentiful supply.

It's not a small shed, David is nearly as tall as Hadrig

Work is ongoing cataloguing the seeds that we have and is about halfway through - that's a lot of seeds. More trays have been planted and some of those planted in the past weeks are beginning to grow.

Potatoes have been planted in the raised beds and Jenny and Marion's herb garden has been planted - the aroma from this will be fantastic as the temperatures rise and it should be buzzing with insects.

We've also started to prepare the second polytunnel for tomatoes. The soil in here is a bit weak at the moment so will need some organic matter adding, but I'm sure that we'll have a bountiful crop this year. 

Finally, we've planted some shrubs specifically for pollinators. We really do need all the help we can get from them and in return, we are doing what we can to provide food for them.

 We've planted a lavender hedge

And this is manuka

So what will next week bring? More of the same. It's planting time and still structural work to complete. Time to prepare for those warm up exercises and get the tools ready.

As usual, more pictures here and keep in touch via Twitter.

It would be lovely to hear what you think of the work we are doing and of the blog so please leave a comment, it will be greatly appreciated.

See you next week and happy gardening

@SeftonGreenGym