Tooting Community Garden: The 6 rotational beds this May/June

Tooting Community Garden 

Have a read of our plans for the 6 rotational beds this May/June. Join in and have a go at propagating some basil, or making some homemade fertiliser for your own plants or to bring to the garden when we re-open. 

PLANT OF THE MONTH: The Roveja Bean 

A very ancient variety of peas originating in the Middle east, today cultivated in only in a few Appenine regions in Italy. Thanks also to its relatively problem-free cultivation this variety has been rediscovered in recent years and grows well in the UK. 

The plants are semi-dwarf - you can let them sprawl, but we'd suggest supporting them with pea sticks or low netting for the best crop. They are absolutely beautiful, with bi-coloured pink-purple flowers fading to pale pink/white as they age. They're allowed to mature and dried, then used for delicious winter soups and stews.

We sourced this seed from the Real Seeds company in Wales and look forward to harvesting the beans and also saving the seeds for next year! We sowed them indoors and planted them out in April. 

GROWING OPPORTUNITIES THIS MAY/JUNE 

• Companions to bring to our plants 
• Swiss Chard for our runner beans 
• Nasturtiums for our runner beans 
• Coriander for our potatoes 
• Sunflowers for our squash 
• Palm kale for our oak leaf lettuce 
• Nigella for our garlic and onions 
• Rocket for our garlic and onions 
• Summer savoy for our garlic and onions 
• Basil for our tomato plants 

New spaces created this June 

• Parsnips seeds once the broad beans are harvested 
• Cucamelons seedlings once the Japanese onions are harvested 
• Squash plants once the green manure has been dug in and 3 weeks have past 
• Carrots and turnip seeds once the garlic is harvested 
• Tomato seedlings once the garlic and onions are harvested 

GUIDES TO HELP US ALONG THE WAY 

Green manure 

Benefits and how and when to dig over https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/green-manures 

How to propagate basil 

Basil from a cutting

Basil from a cutting: https://zerowastechef.com/2017/08/15/how-to-grow-basil-from-cuttings/ 

Basil from a seed: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own/herbs/basil 

Basil by dividing a mature plant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAvzV-hNxdI 


Homemade fertilisers for our tomato and squash plants 
Comfrey, nettles, weeds and manure https://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/how-make-organic-liquid-fertiliser 

Nettle tea: https://www.soils-permaculture-lebanon.com/our-blog-articles-diy/nettle-tea-brew-your-own-liquid-natural-fertilizer 

WATERING
At the garden we have only as much water as the sky gives us. To limit our water use we are watering only: 
Seeds that haven’t yet germinated; and 
Seedlings less than 3 weeks old 

We are using leaf mulch and cover crops on our over plants to reduce evaporation and increase water retention.

🔁Seed and Plant Swap 2020🔁

Tooting Community Garden's 
🔁Seed and Plant Swap 2020🔁
Sunday 1 March 2020
Supporting Tooting's Diverse Seeds
Take a look at the photos to see what we did on the day

We created a growing structure and it has a wind sock!

We folded newspaper to make compostable pots

We used our homemade potting compost!

People selected an edible seed to grow from the Seed Swap table

We sifted our homemade compost. The fine soil can be used for potting and the larger compost for mulch.

Between the 50 participants there were a lot of seeds and plants!

Thanks to Work and Play Scrap Store for the yarn and fabrics used to weave our dream catcher growing structure

The structure will be a great support for our cucamelon plants later in the year

We liked this seed swapper's choice of packaging. 

Seed and Plant Swap at TCG

Heads up & a date for the diary, for an early spring celebration in the Tooting Community Garden. On March 1st, we will be running a Seed and Plant Swap. Bring any spare plants or seeds you would like to swap or donate to others. It is fine to turn up with absolutely nothing and see what interesting plants or seeds you can pick up! 

It's also a great opportunity to think about growing something for Tooting Foodival in September.

We will include house plants, vegetable and fruit plants and seeds, rooted cuttings, divisions and bulbs.  It's all going to be very informal, family friendly and of course will be a FREE EVENT. 
 
Sunday,1 March 2020 1pm - 2.30pm 
Tooting Community Garden 5 North Drive, SW16 1RN (opposite the common) 

Growing Connections as Spring Arrives

The clocks are about to go forward and it’s officially spring time!  We celebrated the start of a new growing season by donating and swapping over one hundred packets of seeds with local people on Saturday.  The event aimed to encourage and support people, young and old, in growing food and flowers in whatever space they have.

 

It was a great opportunity to bring people together. We met some wonderful characters.  Two women excitedly took handfuls of seeds to share with friends and family, and a man, we coaxed in with offers of kale, shared a beautiful tale about how the scent of broad beans takes him back to his childhood in Cyprus.

Following on straight after Foodcycle,there were plenty of activities to entertain everyone. Heather, from Tooting Library, told stories like Jack and the Beanstalk; Sharon taught us how to make origami seed pots from newspapers; Belinda helped us make flowers out of plastic bags for the story walk on 5^th May; and Stephanie wowed us all with paper making from straw collected from the wheat harvest at the garden last year.

One visitor summed it up, saying: “The paper making workshop was amazing. I’ve never seen paper made of straw! I enjoyed chatting with the gardeners and for the price of a piece of my overgrown mint plant, I left with poppy seeds, wild sweet peas, radish, sunflowers and hollyhock seeds – all grown in Tooting and so all the more special as I know that they could do well again this year. Thank you.”

People as young as five and as old as seventy five took away sunflower seeds collected from the community garden, to grow at home.  Tooting Community Garden is running a challenge this year to see who can grow the tallest sunflower in Tooting.  All you have to do is take a photo of the sunflower you have grown this summer and post it to our Facebook page.  We’ll announce the winner at Foodival (13-14 September). JT

Spring Growing Celebration & Seed Swap

Keen gardeners and even those with not-so-green fingers are invited to come along to a Spring growing celebration and seed swap, this Saturday 22nd March in Tooting. The event will aim to show how easy it can be to grow your own produce, even if you don’t have a garden or allotment.

Click 4 Flyer

Event organizer Jenny Teasdale said: "Anyone can grow food and flowers, whether you have a garden, a balcony or just a windowsill.  We want local people to come along on Saturday to learn about growing, to share their expertise and seeds, and to meet new friends and neighbours.”

There will also be free activities on the day including story telling, papermaking, flower making and seed sowing.

You don’t have to be an expert gardener to attend or even have anything to swap. Tooting Community Garden are donating seeds and seedlings, many of which if started now, will produce vegetables in time for Tooting Foodival, the annual festival, now in its 7th year, celebrating locally grown food, cooked by local restaurants and served up free to the community, which will take place 13-14th September.

The Spring growing celebration will take place in the Mushkil Aasaan community space at 222 Upper Tooting Road from 2-4pm.  We hope to see you there.

Tooting Transitioners Visit Lewes

The sunshine on Saturday was a welcome break after long weeks of endless rain and stormy weather. It turned out to be a special day as a core group of Tooting Transitioners ventured out on their first outing to the historic market town of Lewes in East Sussex in hope of a "Fun Day Out".

Juliet from Transition Town Lewes met us at the station and showed us around, our first stop being to buy some Lewes Pounds, which have an established presence in many of Lewes’s shops and businesses. After a breeze through a vibrant farmers' market, we headed to Seedy Saturday, a busy well attended event with a plethora of stands selling and swapping seeds, exchanging ideas on everything from growing fruit and vegetables to wild basketry and pottery.

Whilst the sun was still out, the group decided to take in the local sites. Lewes is a cute market town with a castle on top of a hill and lots of narrow alleyways and twittens.  Few high street chains clutter up the high street here, but instead numerous individual shops, cafes and restaurants attract the eye. Lewes really is an idyllic place to spend exploring on a Saturday afternoon.

After a hearty lunch at the Lewes Arms washed down with a pint or two of Harveys, we got the opportunity to enjoy a good chat and exchange ideas with Lewes transitioners, and compare the joys of living in our respective boroughs.

After a further meander around town and down to the Ooze flood plain we were ready to finish our afternoon with another pint in the Snowdrop, the site of a tragic avalanche of snow (hence the name) which killed a number of Lewes cottage dwellers in that area.

By now the TTTers and TTLers were on very friendly terms and before we kissed and departed we promised to keep in touch with each other in the hope that one day they too could be tempted to venture out to sample the delights of Tooting.  Malsara

First Tuesday Food & Seed Swap

Tuesday's food and seed swap event attracted a good crowd and provoked a wide range of food growing discussion. Giles Read reviewed TTT's past Foodivals, talked about plans for Foodival 2010, showed a film and gave away a collection of tools refurbished by inmates at Wandsworth Prison.

The Tools Shed project takes broken tools collected at Neal's Nurseries, a garden centre opposite the prison, and elsewhere, which are then given a new lease of life and returned for use in schools and community gardens.  The project helps prisoners' rehabilitation and also teaches them new skills. 

We also heard about urban growing from Toni Scott of Food Up Front before thronging around the seed swap table to pick up some interesting new seeds to try out.  This correspondent has already planted Borletto and French beans courtesy of Springfields Hospital SHARE garden project.  Thanks to everyone who brought seeds and plants, to Bob Winter at Tools Shed for the tools, which were quickly snapped up, and to Peter at Neal's Nurseries for his discount offer.

The next "First Tuesday" on May 4th will be a Well-being Event with Jenny Griffiths as guest speaker.

SEED SWAP! - A Call For All Things Seedy!!

Just a quick reminder about next Tuesday's Food Event and Seed Swap.

After looking at last year's Foodival there'll be a short film on the "Story of Food" and how you can grow for this Autumn's festival.

To get everyone kick started there will be some FREE tools to give away and also a Seed Swap at the end of the night.

I'm bringing half a pack of carrots and half a packet of tomatoes as I've not got enough pots to use all the seeds - anyone got any radish seeds I could swap??

Any seeds you have, either full packs or just lone seeds would be ace for the swap - I just hope we don't wind up with a hundred packs of brussels sprouts.... ;)

Have an amazing Easter and see you there!