Grace & Flavour is now rapidly approaching the the end of its second growing season. Whenever I look around the garden on Saturdays or read the many e-mails I receive every week, I wonder at the enthusiasm, commitment, and hard work displayed by all involved in the project. It's truly inspirational and something we should all be immensely proud of. Every person I have showed around the garden (we seem to have a group and individuals most months) is truly amazed by what we have achieved in so short a time and our plans for the future.

• Tomato blight all over the garden even in the polytunnel. Next year we will have stricter control over access to the polytunnel to prevent this.
• Garlic harvested a little late and in wet weather resulting in a very poor harvest.
• Late climbing beans due to rabbit attack.

• First - lettuce
• Second - carrots
• Third - Carrots, Potatoes, Peas.

• Firsts - beetroot, peppers and pumpkins.
• Seconds - leeks, onions <225 grams, carrots, runner beans and any other vegetable
• Thirds - vegetable collection, onions >225 grams and ugliest vegetable

Another moth problem is the Codling Moth. This is the one that bores into the fruit. Remember the old joke? What is worse than finding a caterpillar in your apple? Finding half a caterpillar! The trouble with this one is it can fly in from elsewhere and there doesn't appear to be a non chemical solution.

Pete Davis

_________________________________________________________________________ 

April 2011

Well the year has started in a very big way with the fantastic car park we now have - very well done to those who organised this huge achievement and all members who made it possible. Many times, during its construction, I looked around at the large number of members involved and thought of what the pyramids under construction must have looked like. Great piles of materials being sorted, moved and laid by spade and wheel barrow over several weeks. This drew off most members from the Community Garden however the weather would have prevented us from doing anything very much anyway. Now members have returned to gardening and as the weather has improved we are catching up with our planting.

Our planting plan lists over 40 varieties, a significant number are vegetables for successional cropping over the coming winter. A list is posted in the Garden 'kitchen' and I am hoping to also get it added to our web site.

Almost all of the fruit trees received have been planted. Those that haven't are destined for the landscape area in the allotments. The apples and pear trees have been pruned to Espalier them. This does look drastic as we have removed a significant amount of their growth but it is necessary to achieve the right shape and consequently good crops. We will be pruning the stone fruit (plums etc) to Fans as soon as we have the support posts and wire installed. Yes you're right we shouldn't prune stone fruit until summer because of the risk of disease (silver leaf, a fungus attack) but it's OK as long as we seal all the cuts to prevent the fungus getting in.

We are behind with erecting the fruit tree support posts and wire. We are making progress but this must be a priority for the garden.

The polytunnel has been disinfected and sulphur candles burnt to provide the clean conditions necessary for propagation. This includes disinfecting all seed trays and pots before use, only using fresh potting medium (soil based seed compost) and using fresh water not rain water. All of this is necessary to reduce the risks of disease to the seedlings at their very susceptible stage of growth. We have also sectioned off about a third of the polytunnel with bubble wrap. This allows us to heat only a small area for bringing on seedlings and plants, rather than heating the whole polytunnel which would be an unnecessary expense. Currently I am keeping all plants in my heated greenhouse but as soon as I run out of space we will transfer them to the polytunnel and if necessary heat it.

Our Asparagus bed has already been planted with most of the hundred or so plants we planned. These are already shooting however we must not cut them this year but instead allow the plants to fully establish themselves over 2 years. Next year we may cut a very, very, very few stems to check the flavour - it's a rotten job but someone has to do it! After that the bed should be productive for 6 or 8 years providing we give it lots and lots of manure and keep it weed free. The Asparagus bed is behind the polytunnel but it stops 3 or 4m from the wall. We intend to fill this bed up to the wall next year (another 50 or so plants) but we first have to reduce the size of the Yew trees that are currently taking light and moisture. We have heavily pruned these Yew trees already and will complete the job in the Autumn.

The onions, garlic, peas and broad beans we planted outside in November are all growing very well.

We have also planted outside:

Recently we planted, under heated glass

There will be several hundred seedlings to prick-out in the next few weeks. 

Next we plan to plants Melons, Runner Beans and French Beans

Plant Support and Protection

We have started erecting the runner bean poles ready for planting and have installed pea sticks to support the 2 rows of growing peas we have.

Broad Bean support will be needed soon.

We are still protecting plants against rabbits but the rabbit fencing is being installed and should be completed by the end of April. Deer fencing will be installed at the same time.

We will always need bird protection and are currently using old CD's and Bob's patent-modified 2 litre soft drink bottles as scarers.

That's quite enough to be going on with!

Peter Davis

_________________________________________________________________________

December 2010

It has been an extremely productive first year. We produced much more than expected, came close to gifting our planned 10% and generated much more money from our crops than planned. This means that the project is well on its way to being self supporting.

Some highlights are
103K of carrots to date
401 cucumbers
161 peppers
195K of runner beans
Approximately £2300 generated from crop sales.
 
News since the last Notes.

Fertiliser
We have 250Kg of Blood, Fish and Bone fertiliser for the garden. It is a good general fertiliser for fruit and veg but also flowers. I remember my father buying it in its component parts and mixing it himself. I was particularly fascinated by the screw top jar of dried blood. Ah well boys will be boys. Interestingly, it was originally referred to by farmers as 'artificial' but they were comparing it with traditional farmyard manure from their own steaming heaps. It is now universally regarded as an organic fertiliser. It sounds a bit gruesome and is what it says and is composed of output from the food processing industry that would otherwise be dumped. I hasten to assure you that it is provided in powder rather than in its 'original' form! We have been scattering it on the ground, generally at 2oz/sq yd (sorry I still work in old units for this sort of thing) by hand before rotavating or raking in.

Fleece.
We bought a roll of garden fleece to protect our crops when the weather got colder. We protected lettuce in the organic area and extended the cropping of the courgettes by about 2 weeks. We also used it to protect the autumn onions and garlic until they were established. It will also be useful to warm the ground in late winter for example when we plant potatoes, and for use in the organic area to protect against flea beetle.
 
Fruit trees.
We are buying 40+ fruit trees, apple, pear, plumb, gauge, cherry, nuts, quince, currants, to line about half of Hollier Avenue and start planting in the landscape area by the car park. Individual members have provided the funds for these trees after an appeal at our AGM.

Garlic
Su persuaded a garlic seed supplier to sell us bulbs at 50p each rather than the usual £8 for 3. This will give us more than 1500 bulbs next year from which we will keep about 100 of the best for the following year's seed. We should never need to buy seed garlic again!

Onions
We have planted 1000 onion sets and plan to plant more in the spring. We also have 3, 10m rows of onions grown from seed.
 
Potatoes
Our experimental planting of late potatoes was attacked by blight and had to be removed. I still want to try this so we will make another experimental planting next year.

Other planting
We have planted Broad Beans and are half way through planting early peas. We will continue planting peas when the weather warms up a little and the snow has gone.

Future planting
Asparagus - we are planning 3, 10m rows but it will be 2 years before we can pick and not much in the 3rd year but should then crop very well for 4 - 6 weeks every year after that for many years.

Rhubarb - hopefully any members who are digging up their rhubarb beds will be able to give us their old roots for rejuvenating. Failing this we will buy or I will investigate growing from seed. If the latter it will be 2 or 3 years before we can take a small crop. I'm hoping to establish 1, 10m row.

Raspberries - the plan is for 3, 10m rows of Autumn Raspberries. We have almost 1 row and are hoping members will be able to supply suckers from their own beds. Failing that we will buy. Autumn variety is best as they should provide a crop in the first year and give a little summer at the beginning of autumn.

Melon - don't get too excited we won't be planting a huge number, but I am keen to see what can be achieved with say 16 plants under glass. This could yield 50 melons (3 or 4 per plant). If we get another hot summer we should get a fair crop. Melons like it hot. I have seen melons doing extremely well with their outer leaves burning from the heat of the sun when they touch the glass.

Sweet corn - we will plant very much more than we did this year. You can't have too much sweet corn.

Gooseberries - we plan to plant  1, 10m row.

Blackberries - I have a contact for a thornless blackberry that we can encourage to produce more plants. We won't get anything in 2010 but should get something in the years to come. This will be a crop the children can gather in so we may plant it close to the planned Family Area.

In addition to our planting in 2010 during 2011 we plan to plant for more succession cropping and very much greater cropping during winter and early spring.

West Horsley in Bloom
Grace & Flavour won silver medal in the 'best vegetable garden' category and, even better, is now the proud holder of the Pauline Iliff Community cup. We have two very smart award certificates and a cup to show, as well as £50 in vouchers for Squires.

Horticultural Society Show
We won the Rubin Cup which is awarded to the competitor with the highest total points in the Summer and Autumn shows, in the Fruit & Veg and flowers division, who has competed in both shows in the current year and who has never won a Society cup before.

First prize
Carrots
Peppers
Potatoes (white)
Pumpkins, Squashes and Gourds
 
Second prize
Any other veg (sweet corn)
Collection of veg
Heaviest marrow
Leeks
Longest beans
 
Third prize
Beetroot

Panto time!

The WHIPS (West Horsley Amateur Dramatic Society) are giving the charity night of their Panto (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves) to Grace and Flavour on Thursday 13th January at 8pm.

Please support this event as profits from the Charity Night including the raffle will be donated to Grace and Flavour. Contact Su Johnston on su.johnston [at] btopenworld.com and 280 741 for tickets which are £9 each.

ta

Pete

________________________________________________________________________________

August 2010

General news
The International Kidney potatoes (Jersey Royals when grown in Jersey ) have been a small crop of distorted tubers. There is no disease; the distortion has been caused by the very dry and impacted ground forcing the tubers to grow in whatever direction the ground will let them. They were the first seed to be planted, we had to get something into the ground quickly to satisfy the NT. We planted in very wet conditions and trampled the ground in the process.

The Edgecoat Purple potatoes have been a disaster. The crop has been mediocre but the big problem is that more than half have been covered with 'scab' with few of the remainder un-touched by this problem. Also they seem only suitable for mashing but when mashed the result is good. So they are OK for all recipes using mash and for thickening soups and stews. Common scab and powdery scab are bacterial and fungal diseases of potato skins, which cause rough, scabby patches. It is removed when the tuber is pealed. It is most serious on potatoes, but also affects beetroot, radishes, swedes and turnips. Common scab is worse when soil conditions are dry when tubers form. We have had very dry conditions and haven't been able to water due to our limited water supply. For the future we will select scab resistant varieties and water the crop as the tubers are forming.

The Charlotte and Aran Pilot potatoes have been excellent producing a good crop of well formed tubers. There is still some left in the ground some of which will be suitable for baked potatoes. We are planning to grow this variety again next year.

Plans for planting during the rest of this year/early next year.
Onion, Garlic, Broad Bean, Peas, Greenhouse Lettuce, Lambs lettuce,

We have discovered 2 varieties of potato we can plant now for cropping at Christmas. We will be making a trial plant of these and if successful they will be added to our list for planting in bulk next year.

Soft fruit and fruit trees. I would also like to plant cob nuts and perhaps a walnut tree or 3 and some rhubarb.

Plans so far for next years planting.
-Focus on planting for successional cropping.
-No salad leaves except perhaps for rocket and lambs lettuce. They are not being used and wilt quickly after picking. Focus on successional lettuce.
-Less chard.
-More carrots
-A different variety of potato to replace the Edgecoat Purple. I favour Pink Fir Apple. It's an old variety which is extremely knobbly (but you just wash then cook) and has a good texture and flavour.
-Possibly main crop potato if we think we will have the spare land.
-More sweet peppers against the garden walls. Our biggest peppers so far have come from this location rather than the polytunnel. I think the wall has acted as a storage radiator when the sun goes down.
-Chilli peppers.
-Less variety on squashes they are not being used, but very many more Halloween Pumpkins for family members.
-More sweet corn.
-More broad beans.
-Melons.
-Infrastructure Planting
-Hazel to be coppiced for pea and bean sticks
-Crab apple as a universal pollinator for apples and hopefully for apple jelly.
-Bamboo to be cropped as canes.

Work for this winter
Prepare ground for next year, especially the headlands, adding blood, fish and bone meal.
Disinfect and fumigate the polytunnel, pots and seed trays ready for spring sewing.
Make some cold frames for hardening off seedlings and hopefully melons later on.
Fencing and hedging.
Do something about the rabbits!
Planting see above.

Request to members
We will need to heat at least part of the polytunnel this winter so if anyone has a working paraffin heater they are prepared to donate please let me, Su Johnston or Bob Spackman know.

Pete
<>< 

July 2010

What? Who are all these people in the garden? They look like tramps! They are stealing our vegetables! How dar…….. Ohhhh it's the scarecrows. Every time I walk into the garden, and most times I am on my own, this happens to me. Will I ever get used to them? I hope that the creatures they are put there to scare have a similar reaction but sadly I don't think so. There have been signs of pigeons attacking the Dwarf French Beans and rabbits are seen running about the garden. 2 were chased out of the polytunnel last week! The baby rabbits seem fearless. Maybe the scarecrows keep the Deer away! However, it was a fun project and one that I hope we repeat every year.

 

So what has been happening in the Garden? As usual a massive amount thanks to all the work of the members.

The Polytunnel
This was beautifully erected by the team lead by Bob Spackman.
It has been filled with 64 tomato, 31 cucumber and 46 sweet pepper plants.

Planting
In addition to the polytunnel planting we have planted
Courgettes, Butternut Squash, Sweet corn, Turnip, Swede, Carrots, Beetroot, Dwarf French beans, Loads of salad leaves and radishes.

In the bed beside the polytunnel we have spelt out Grace +Flavour in various salad plants. Sadly the spring onions haven't worked too well, they are not bulky enough, so will have be replaced.

Predators
So far I can't see that we have lost anything significantly to predators. All we have done is net, apply discs to brassicas, hang old CD's to reflect around the garden, install Bob's patent plastic bottle bird scarer, plant several scarecrows and only once scatter a little slug bait around the climbing beans and brassicas. We have some very slight infestation of black fly on the Broad Beans but nothing that needs attention. Lets hope this continues.

Disease
Apart from my early experience with damping-off disease in the Cucumbers and a little scab on some potatoes there has been nothing to date. This is probably due to the dry sunny weather.

Toilet
We have a toilet on site, thanks to Chris and Jeremy Coventry, based on the straw bale principle but it is for widdling only. It doesn't smell because of the action of the wee on straw. Don't ask me to explain any further 'cause I don't know. Google it or ask Chris if you want more details. It's discreet, hidden behind a firm wall of pallets covered in polythene sacs with a mainly agricultural motive. There is a rope to put across the entrance whilst you are in there so you won't be disturbed. The straw bales will be added to the compost bins at a suitable time, any volunteers?

Crop sales
On Saturday 3rd July we had our first official crop sales. (The previous Saturday we had sold a few potatoes some radishes and salad leaves mainly 'cause we had to pick to see if they were ready.) We used our crop share system for the first time. This, as we discussed at the open day meeting last year, is based on discounts on the current supermarket price with each member's discount based on how much time they spend working in the garden. Full details of this scheme are available elsewhere. There are some small issues to iron out but it worked well at our first attempt.

We sold
132 Radishes, 1.3k Salad leaves, 1k Baby Courgettes, 100g French beans, 100g Mange tout, 23 Cucumbers, 13k New potatoes.
These crops should be available fairly constantly from now on with Broad Beans becoming available in 1 or 2 weeks time, runner and climbing French beans and tomatoes soon after.

We will also be organising crop sales on Tuesdays and Thursdays as soon as we can.

Crop giving
As we promised at the open day meeting last year we have started giving our 10% tithe to people in need in the community and gave 8k of new potatoes to St Martins Court. This is just the start of our giving and will extend to other local groups just as soon as we can establish links.

Urgent requests to members
We need more people to join the watering rota. We need Members who will commit to water on one or more evenings per week. Please contact Su Johnston.

We need 2 teams of 2 or 3 Members to crop and sell veg to Members at a defined time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please contact Su Johnston.

Challenges
The polytunnel is occasionally too hot; there are signs of plants burning. We now leave the doors open but it still gets too hot in there to work for periods longer than 30 minutes. Last week 2 rabbits had to be chased out but we can't find any damage so we think they just wandered in.

Weeds are beginning to grow around the plant pots in the polytunnel, it's wet and warm there so I don't blame them. However, we don't want them and they are very difficult to hoe because the pots are in the way. We should have put down a weed barrier under the pots. We will do this next year. Meanwhile we will just have to weed by hand.

One of the things I have learnt is that we should have planted more of certain crops. I think we have enough new potatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers, radishes and salad leaves but it's probable that we should have planted more runner, broad and French beans and sweet corn, It's not that we got this wrong it is more that we were late in starting, for reasons outside our control, and we had to get something, anything, in the ground. We went for as much of as many varieties of veg that we could in the time. Next year it will be much better.

Also we haven't planted enough brassicas. This is because we have to protect them by netting before planting otherwise everything wants to eat them. Netting crops like this is a costly and time consuming business. We will plant more but I don't think it will be enough. However, it will be better next year.

And finally
Dana-Lee and David Pile entered us in the West Horsley Horticultural Society annual competition.

We won
2nd prize for Any Other Vegetable Class for 2 cucumbers
3rd prize for Lettuce for 2 Lollo Rosa Lettuce
Highly commended for Young and Tender Vegetables

Pete

<>< 

 

 

May 2010

Well a huge amount has happened in the garden since my last notes, sorry for the long gap. Where do I start? Well…….

Soil preparation.

Most of it is now completed and we are trying to plant it up as soon as possible. Areas still to be 'cleaned' are:

The old greenhouses, - we have started and we will gradually clear them as resources allow. Glass is still 'the' problem. Even your Head Gardner cut himself last weekend 'cause he wasn't wearing gloves!
The Japanese Knotweed - its being 'seen to'. It has had one dose of weed killer and is due another later this year.
The family area - this is the bit south of the potting shed and west to Hollier Avenue . The plan is to put a geotextile over it to stop glass etc coming to the surface then turf it over. We hope to add raised beds for children to use, picnic tables and chairs, and possibly a pond or bog garden. However all that is for the future.

When you next visit the garden as you go through the south entrance look to the left and right. The huge piles of; rubble, plastic, glass and metal are what have been dug out of the garden. We also dug out wood but that has been burnt now. It wasn't lying on the top waiting to be picked up it had to be dug out and some of it was over 3 feet down!

All members involved in cleaning need a BIG vote of thanks. It's a tedious job and I try to share it around. If you are doing more than your share, tell me.

Planting

We have planted……deep breath

• 700 Leeks
• 1000 First and Second Early Potatoes
• 30 meters of Broad Beans
• 20 metres of Mange Tout - more to be planted
• 20 metres of Runner Beans - more to be planted
• 5 metres of Climbing French Beans - more to be planted
• 60 purple sprouting broccoli plants
• 20 metres Beetroot
• Quite a lot of salad leaves and radishes - we are planting for succession.
• About 10 Raspberry canes
• About 50 Strawberry plants
• About 60 Sweet Corn seeds - will be planting more
• About 30 Courgette seeds - yes I know these are too many but we will get some losses.
• About 30 Butternut squash seeds - yes I know this is too many as well
• Several Sage, Rosemary, Thyme and Mint plants
• Waiting for the polytunnel we have
• About 60 tomato
• About 30 cucumber
• About 60 sweet pepper.

…..and a Partridge in a Pear Tree!

It sounds a lot doesn't it? And it is a huge amount but……we have about 70 active members so for example that's 10 leeks each, enough for 2 batches of leek and potato soup. For potatoes that is about 14lbs (about 6.5Kg) per member. However, there will be very many other crops to share. We can only plant what we can, review it at the AGM and plan for 2011 based on what we have learnt and what the membership want.

We are beginning to plant the organic area now it is protected from rabbits. Anybody who want's to be involved with organic growing talk to John Whitlock.

Infrastructure

Hollier Avenue and the East Path are completely clear and we have established some cross paths (East/West) where we think they were originally sited. More cross paths to be created.

We have rabbit proof fences around 2 big areas - one of them the organic plot - and have erected 2 fruit cages to protect the purple sprouting. We will need to fence off more to grow crops like roots, chard and spinach.

We have netted several other crops to protect them against birds.

Members have donated their old dustbins and these are now located throughout the garden and filled with water. More are needed. I will need at least 2 or 3 big ones in the polytunnel.

Polytunnel

It's been ordered, should arrive this week and be erected this coming weekend (22May). Bob Spackman is leading the team to erect it - he has previous experience! The ground is prepared ready for it.

The polytunnel is extremely important for us. Apart from all the plant growing capability, it will give us somewhere to shelter from the rain. There will be a notice board to list jobs that need doing and the time sheet book will be left there. This will allow us to have members come and go when they are able to rather than wait until an organised time as we have been doing to date. More information on this to come.

Problems

I have lost about 12 cucumber plants from, I think, damping-off disease. This causes the stem, immediately above the soil, to wither and the whole plant to wilt. I've never had it before and it's even more unusual because it is happening to reasonably mature plants (about 4 inches high) and I've only ever seen it happen to very very new seedlings. I have destroyed infected plants and treated the remainder with - organic gardeners don't read this next bit - Cheshunt Compound (copper sulphate diluted in water). I suspect that the root cause is the over crowding in my greenhouse because we haven't got the polytunnel yet. We won't have this problem next year.

The potatoes got 'bitten' by the frost last week (10May). Fortunately we had earthed them up so only the tips were affected. This will affect the crop but only marginally.

Rabbits are having a nibble at the leek plants but they shouldn't damage too many. For the rest of the garden we are having to net everything, except the potatoes, to keep them off. We are reducing the population and at some point we will have rabbit proof fencing all round the outside of the garden, after which we will have to eliminate the population inside.

Moles were staying outside but are beginning to appear in the garden. They are useful in that molehills are a good source of potting soil but are a nuisance at this time of year. They often follow a line of planting, as this is where we water and the worms gather, and their molehills destroy the seedlings. We will have to take steppes!

Basic work to do

Water regularly until we get ground cover by plant foliage. Even then some plants will still need regular watering.

Protect crop against anything that wants to eat it; rabbits, birds, caterpillars - deer will be next!

Keep planting. We are behind because we started late, don't have good access and didn't have the polytunnel.

Set-up the polytunnel and transplant the plants we have into larger pots.

Move woodchips (from hedge thinning along Ripley Lane ) to path running from north of the garden to Ripley Lane .

Also move woodchips to form path into south entrance of the garden to the beginning of the east path.

Keep 'cleaning' the land.

Weed regularly

When the polytunnel is up and running there will be regular daily and weekly jobs to do.

Pete

<>< 

 

April 2010

Well, our first major activity in the Community Garden on 26th and 27th March saw some sadness and some success.

Our success? Well 51 people, age range teens to seventies, spent 292.5 hours over the two days and we planted 175 International Kidney seed potatoes (25 sq m) by 5:30 pm on 27th. (They are really Jersey Royals but we can't call them that unless they have been grown on Jersey ). That doesn't sound a lot does it? Well let me tell you what we had to do to achieve this modest planting.

We cleared scrub and low tree branches sufficient to keep 2 enormous bonfires going continuously for both days. We then forensically cleared the Garden of the remaining fly tipping and have ended up with large separated piles of rubble, plastic, metal and glass. The rubble will be used for the entrance and car park and the rest will go to re-cycling. I didn't want to single out any group for special praise, but a word about this fly tipping clearance is needed. I think it was the worst job of the entire 2 days but a very large group cheerfully continued to clear section by section. Bent double and searching the top for every item especially the broken glass. A special well done to everyone in this gang.

Completely buried we found:  2 baths (1 with a hydraulically lifting seat and the other on a stand so it could be tilted almost vertically). Having dug out these baths the big task was filling in the resulting holes; about 10 radiators;  1 toilet;  3 carpets; sundry metal baskets that may have come from a freezer; and about 150m of iron pipe. 

We used quite an array of tools including 2 rotavators, 5 wheel barrows, 1 brush cutter and countless; spades, forks, trowels, ! (what is the fork version of a trowel called?), loppers, secateurs, saws, rakes, mattocks, pickaxes, hammers, buckets and a potato planter. Oh yes and we consumed about 20 cakes!

We got tired, hot, cold, wet and muddy and had a GREAT TIME.

After all this Dana Leigh and David Pile returned on Sunday 28th and planted 100 strawberry plants!

Currently growing in the greenhouse are the following plants:  50 cucumber;  60 sweet pepper;  90 tomato;  400 purple sprouting broccoli - late summer/autumn cropping; and 650 leeks. 

Pete

 

Pete