Growing Tooting - the sixth weekend of our local grow-your-own food workshop series

Last weekend we enjoyed the sixth crop of fortnightly 'triple-header' Growing Tooting workshops - one each in Balham, Tooting and Wandsworth. (Plus there's the fourth series: an extra Wandsworth group running on the intervening weekends).
As ever, thanks to Martin for the energy and co-ordination!

What did we do this week?
As a comprehensive gardening topic we looked in detail at Permaculture - a growing approach that aims to integrate natural systems with social and individual needs for food, clean water, energy... (click here or here for two in-depth web resources).

To make that practical, in one group Donna presented her own garden as a case study.

She filmed a video of the back garden, plus photos of the front, for us to get an idea of the spaces and how the garden fits into her life.

Donna's team of advisers - an unusual opportunity!

'Observing' before diving in is as useful in gardening as it is in swimming. Thank you Donna!

How is the potato progressing?

Secondly about observing - in our classes we encourage participants to be 'grower scientist - investigators' alongside enjoying being outside and putting good food on the table.
Here's an example from someone who likes to measure and celebrate her plants' progress! Why not try it - you learn a lot.


We have our latest Growing Tooting Handout 6 available - click here to download. The handout includes interrelated features of good common-sense gardening (and of permaculture):

• Attracting wildlife to control pests
• Mulch
• Compost
• Mycorrhizal soil fungi
• No-dig gardening 

Tour de Tooting Coming Your Way

There is a real buzz of excitement in the air, a sense of something big about to happen in the streets of Tooting as the launch date nears and the Grand Parade of Wheels takes shape. From now until 3rd July we will be holding ‘Reinvent Your Wheels!’ workshops and cycle-themed events to celebrate the people-powered wheels in our lives. 

The first workshop is at Bruce Hall, All Saints Parish Church (corner of Brudenell and Franciscan Roads) this coming Saturday 4th June 11.30-4.30pm. There will be lots to learn, make and enjoy: making, storytelling and wheel decorating. Light refreshments provided. Come for the whole time or part. Everyone is welcome, it’s free to take part and it is open to all ages. 

Why don’t you come along?  Bring your wheels to decorate and see how you too can be part of this Grand Parade of wheels in Tooting. On the day itself, Sunday July 3rd, we will leave Franciscan School together at 2pm. Take a look at what’s happening and how you can get involved. 

Lucy Neal, one of the Event organisers, says: "Transition Town Tooting has been working with Transport for London and Wandsworth Council for half a year to work out a route for our Grand Parade of Wheels so that our community can celebrate together. We are SO excited that we are now a month away from the big day. But there is lots to do to make the Parade gorgeously colourful and inventive. We need everyone to get involved reinventing their wheels and joining this people-powered Parade."

Pick up a leaflet from your local cycle shop to find out more and see our poster below for further details.

Growing together, Learning together, Working together: three years of Outdoor Learning in Gatton Primary School's own words

Early in May we held a delightful celebration of three years' shared experience of the outdoor learning project between Gatton Primary School and Tooting Community Garden. 
You can look at that blog report by clicking here. 

The sun shone on us all and lit the mosaic made at the school with every pupil involved. 
Among the natural images the tiles spell out the three phrases that are the title of this post.





What is outdoor learning? 'OL' covers many activities (not only gardening) and settings. OL offers opportunities for surprising and diverse impact on participants -not fixed or one-size-fits-all.

Have a look at this earlier TTT post on outdoor learning with younger children from Gatton School.
Also, click on OUTDOOR LEARNING in the Quick LInks at the top of this web page for stories from 3 years of the project.

We want to share Gatton School pupils' own words about their experience of the project. Young people from Year Six (10 & 11 years old) made confident and touching short speeches at the celebration, and you can read the texts here. 

Come along to our Annual Celebratory Extravaganza, Fri. 10 June

Come to our Annual Celebratory Extravaganza!

Fri. 10 June, 6.30pm

Rechere's Health & Wellbeing Centre, 163-165 Tooting High Street

(followed by 9.00pm drinks at the Trafalgar Arms for those who want to continue celebrating!)

Please R.S.V.P. by getting a free ticket on Eventbrite

Everyone is welcome!

If you’re on our mailing list, like or follow our Facebook or Twitter accounts, have been to any of our events, or are just interested to find out what we do in Tooting – come along.

ACE is an opportunity for us to come together to celebrate achievements locally and to thank everyone who has supported us over the last year.

It’s a place to meet other local people who share our goals:

Making Change in How We Live, Where We Live, In Light of Climate Change.

And a chance to find out about our projects and get involved.

What to expect

• TTT sustenance – a.k.a tea, cake, samosas, Turkish bread & hummus
• Test your knowledge of Tooting with our quiz
• A celebration of what was achieved last year
• Discover more about TTT’s projects
• Share an idea you might have to improve our neighbourhood
• A look ahead and an invite to get involved
• Conversations with friends new and old

See you there...
Don't forget to get a free ticket on Eventbrite
so we know how many cakes to bake!

Growing Tooting: the fifth weekend of our enjoyable local grow-your-own classes

Gardeners in Balham, Tooting and Wandsworth are seeing results in the soil, in trying out new skills and having some fun together.
As our fortnightly free Growing Tooting classes continue, have a look below at what we've been doing, and do get in touch to share ideas or with any queries.

Very proud gardeners! 

Basil seedlings transplanted into the ground at Melanie's allotment.





 

 
More proud gardeners, indoors this time:

Veronica, Diana and Morena sowing seeds, transplanting lettuce seedlings (Sainsbury's, 60p), dividing Moroccan mint to take home in pots.



 
Back outdoors, gardeners of all ages at Ravenstone School are getting their school raised beds going






Growing Tooting Handout 5 This is now available for participants and for TTT friends who read this blog and who would like to catch up on the details. 
Themes are Pests, Companion Planting, Square Foot Gardening. 
Please click here to download and keep a copy of Handout 5.

Square Foot Gardening is useful for the home gardener because it helps you focus on making best use of space, putting plants together that make sense, and creating an interesting mini-landscape.

What's in the square foot bed below?
Tallest plants top RH corner (= north side).
Gail's donated tomato and borage (top RHS squares).
Maxine's lemon balm and 2 strawberries (top LHS).
Seeds elsewhere - bell peppers (top), English marigold (centre), radish, dwarf nasturtiums, basil (bottom L to R)

Square foot bed planted with veg, herbs and flowers for pollination.

Here's a small bed full of different herbs, spotted at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses

Come to the Hubs & Spokes Cafe - Thu. 19 May, 6.30pm @ Rechere's

Want to find out more about Tour de Tooting?

Come along to our second Hubs and Spokes café on Thu. 19 May, from 6.30pm to 8.30pm at Rechere’s Wellbeing Centre, 163-165 Tooting High Street in anticipation of  the Tour de Tooting, Sun. 03 July.

What will be doing in this Hubs and Spokes Cafe?

The gathering on Thu. 19 May from 6.30pm to 8.30pm will fill in the gaps of what remains to be invented. Do we need more rides? More people? More materials? What part might you like to play?

Pedal by pedal, we will look at compatibility between the Tour's four components:

• Creating and making:  Decorate your wheels, bring your machines if you like!
• Roads and Rides:  Catching up on our route and sites – we need people to marshall / steward / site manage. Would you like to ?
• Connecting and Communication:  Telling people in Tooting what's happening
• Resourcing:  Join our team! Time, sweet time – do you have any you might like to give? Whether it be for something specific or getting involved in the co-ordination. We need Principal Pedalistas! Social Media advocates, Volunteer Stewards, Leaflet distributors and poster putter-upperers, Site Managers for on the day and help with Volunteer Co-ordination! Roll up! Roll up!

We're wheely looking forward to seeing you, please do spread the word and bring folks who you think might be interested.

In the meantime, have fun trying to Draw A Bike From Memory!
http://www.booooooom.com/2016/05/09/bicycles-built-based-on-peoples-attempts-to-draw-them-from-memory/

What happened at the last Hubs and Spokes Cafe? 

Those who came along to the first Hubs and Spokes café enjoyed Cake! Tea! and a short movie on the bici-machinista-cycle-powered marvels of Guatemala and the collective energy of creating this emerging event! 

Lots has happened since:

• We’ve been developing Route, Traffic and Event Management plans
• Leaflet and Poster design are underway
• A logo, thanks to everyone, with help from Sue Rentoul!
• We’ve engaged with Wandsworth Cycle Campaign and Wheels for Wellbeing, a fantastic charity that removes barriers to cycling
• Organising workshops with children at Franciscan School, our Départ point     
• Continuing plans for a wheel-themed film night in Tooting Market
• Co-ordinating a bike-themed Tooting Restart Party on June 21st Tuesday

We look forward to seeing you. Come join in the fun! #tourdetooting

Growing Tooting: the fourth weekend of our flourishing grow-your-own classes

The fourth weekend in our fortnightly series of workshops on growing your own local food was fun and successful. We're half way through the run of 8 workshops at each of the sites.
The Balham-Tooting-Wandsworth structure is stimulating as there are differences and common ground in the settings and interests - plus there's healthy cross-pollination between locations and local partners. 

Have a look at the Fourth Growing Tooting Handout by clicking here - all welcome to download and use to help your own garden choices. Collect the set! (And any feedback welcomed, of course).

Do you know your Rooster from your Vivaldi?
One theme in the Handout is building awareness of varieties of vegetables and fruit. What's the benefit of there being so many?

So, here is a 'Brown Turkey' variety fig being planted at the Balham class site, St Mark's URC




 
 
TTT recently won a prize draw from The Conservation Foundation (see last item below). Our reward was a diverse bundle of 3 varieties of potatoes: 'Sherine', 'Rooster' and 'Vivaldi'. Each has different characteristics and cropping times...the result of plant breeding over the past 400 years. Thank you! - we have some to give away.
Plus there's 'Centurion' onions and 'Red Sun' shallots which we've planted.

Celebrating Community Outdoor Learning with Wandsworth's Mayor

This afternoon a formal celebration of three years of Community Outdoor Learning with Gatton School took place at the Tooting Community Garden, attended as guest of honour by the Mayor of Wandsworth, Councillor Nicola Nardelli, plus site owner Naseem Aboobaker of Mushkil Aasaan and Rifat Batool, Head at Gatton School. 
The celebration was joined by many of the children, staff and volunteers who have contributed to the development of the garden and the Outdoor Learning programme.

The Mosaic and Vertical Garden

The Mayor officially opened the vertical garden made by Year 6 children in recent weeks as well as unveiling the mosaic curated by artist Kirsteen Ritchie and made with the help of many of the children at school.  
Naseem expressed her thankfulness for the community connections made in the garden and a group of the children read out their own tributes and reflections on the garden projects.  
Rifat spoke about the educational value of the outdoor projects over the past three years.

A community collaboration

Mayor Nicola Nardelli & Naseem Aboobaker

The Mayor with Gatton School Year 6 children

We're very grateful to all who took part on a lovely day to celebrate this project.
More to follow ...

Growing Tooting: our third weekend of free local food-growing classes went very well

The third weekend in our practical, sociable and free Growing Tooting workshops went well in Balham, Tooting and Wandsworth. 
A fourth 'waiting list' group starts on the 24th April in Wandsworth. 
Please scroll down this blog to see our earlier posts.

At this stage of our classes, participants have seeds sown or seedlings coming through in their own planting pots and trays at home: here's some spinach on the right. We discussed together just how to get to this stage successfully!

We also looked at dividing clumps of perennial plants such as mint as in this photo. 
Each smaller clump can be planted out to multiply your crops. 
Hands-on superhuman strength sometimes needed if the old clump is dry...


We have a Third Growing Tooting Handout - all welcome to click here for a copy.

One group of participants has a new allotment, so the timing is great to share what they are doing and trying out.
A key message in the classes is to learn from each other, that's certainly more fun.

You'll remember we are encouraging participants to be partly garden-detectives and partly growing-scientists...there's no need to shy away from some helpful technical tips when learning about growing good local food. One 'technical' but practical topic in the third handout is 'crop rotation' - swapping around what you grow where, year by year.

In our Tooting Community Garden plot, we do 'rotate' what is planted in the beds every year exactly as in the handout. We keep a sketch map of what we are growing, so we can remember what's planted, and to help plan for next year.


Come and visit us sometime at the Community Garden: all welcome to pop in and chat about growing or help out. We're open every Sunday from 11:00-1:00 at 5 North Drive, SW16 1RN. 
Latest info on Facebook: Tooting Community Garden.
Good Gardening!  - Charles

You're invited to the Hubs & Spokes Cafe, Tue 19 April, 7pm

Join us in planning a wheeled parade and ride through Tooting!

Over the last few months, Transition Town Tooting have been experimenting with the idea of a wheeled parade and some bike rides through Tooting - a chance to celebrate the possibilities of safe, open roads for everyone where clean air and community conversations meet.

In early July, we will be running Tour de Tooting!

On Tuesday, 19th April at 7pm, we'll be holding an open meeting at the pop up Hubs & Spokes Cafe to bring everyone "up to speed" with plans so far. If you'd like to find out more about how to get involved and generally get to grips with all the exciting possibilities of this new Tooting Wheeled Venture, come along!

Hubs & Spokes Cafe

Tuesday, 19th April at 7pm

Mushkil Aasaan, 222 Upper Tooting Road

We'll be making more announcements about the Tour de Tooting very soon, so if you can't make the meeting, keep an eye on the blog. There will be pop ups happening in the weeks leading up to the main event, so keep an eye on the blog or search #tourdetooting!

Growing Tooting: the second weekend, with three workshops plus an allotment visit

All went well in the second weekend of our free workshops devoted to growing our own good local food - one class each in Balham, Tooting and Wandsworth. (Details of the Growing Tooting programme here).

What did we do last weekend? 

We compared everyone's window-sill grown pea plants, 2 weeks after sowing.

Different conditions (amount of light and watering; depth of planting) produced different growth.

Overall there were crops to be eaten (or planted out) even without having a garden!




Plus: We looked at the components that make up healthy soil

We discussed what 'food' plants need to feed their leaves, roots and flowers

We looked at the herbs we like, what conditions they need...and shared recipes

We now have Handout Number Two - everyone is welcome to click here for a copy

A group also visited two participants' breezy allotment - their very first opportunity to garden outdoors.
As a team, we tried to be observant detectives as well as scientist-gardeners: exploring what is already growing there (celery, blackcurrants, strawberries); proposing what to do first (make a plan, prepare beds, maybe cover future beds with weed-suppressing mulch or sheeting and dig later on); and shared visions of the harvest.

Thanks to all for your enthusiasm and sharing ideas and questions, however new to gardening you are.

This Sunday April 10th all local gardeners are invited to drop in at the Tooting Community Garden to say hello, have a cup of tea made with the volcano kettle, and share some seeds if you have spare.
We'll be open from 11:00 to 1:00, at 5 North Drive SW16 1RN, tucked behind the big house.

Growing Tooting - our practical and sociable grow-your-own local food classes have begun

On March 18th & 20th we started Growing Tooting by launching our new free series of 8 classes on learning to grow your own local city food by participating and sharing with others in your neighbourhood. 
That's 8 classes in each of 3 locations in Balham, Tooting and Wandsworth. Many thanks to Martin for the tireless co-ordination!

Yes it's ambitious to be offering 24 classes between now and the end of June. We're thrilled that all the classes are now full. 
In fact, there's a big waiting list and we may offer a fourth series tucked into this busy calendar...we'll be in touch with those on the list.

Hands-on right from the start

In that first class we started with the basics:
What knowledge do participants have? 
What kind of space are you using for gardening? 
What do you want to grow?

What are annuals & what are perennials, and so what?

Martin prepared a handout for Session One, and everyone is welcome to a copy - please click here

Even though the classes are full, we'd like to share what we're doing...and we encourage anyone to get in touch with us and find a local place to garden.
We want to help make local growing spaces much more visible, and get a useful network going for our area's urban gardeners.

Encouraging new community growing spaces is the other objective of Growing Tooting. Our purpose has been to help 6 new sites start growing. Some of these are the locations of the growing classes described above, and the others are new initiatives where there's great potential for getting growing together.
The six growing spaces are diverse in scale, purpose, style and in community setting. They are situated at a church, an enterprise, a primary school, a refugee charity and at two council estates:

1. St Mark's United Reformed Church, Balham 
2. Route to Juice, Tooting
3. Ravenstone School, Balham
4. CARAS (Community Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers), Tooting
5. Wendelsworth Garden Fruit Project, Wandsworth
6. Avening Terrace Garden, Wandsworth 

We'll report much more from each site, and we'll share the learning from the combined gardening class and garden-creation activities of Growing Tooting: it's all about building local participation to grow and enjoy good local food. Many thanks again to the Wandsworth Big Society Fund for giving the project financial support. Much appreciated!
- Charles

Cleaning Up A Tooting Grot Spot

Earlier this month TTT organised a clean up of the Church Lane car park, which had embarrassingly been listed as one of the UK's Top Grot Spots.  With the help of Wandsworth Council this notorious dump was "cleaned for the Queen" and TTT held conversations about, well, anything really with a surprising number of passers by, in the hastily set up pop-up Living Room. Amazing what Lucy and Simon can fit in that van! 

TTT Team in the Pop-Up Living Room in Church Lane Car Park

And with Council Leader Ravi Govindia

More on this site from the Council here.  Do you know any other neglected areas of Tooting or around that could do with cleaning up?  Let us know.  It would be great to convert some unloved urban spaces into something the community can enjoy.

Conversations About Waste

Today, Saturday March 5th 12.30-3pm, join us in our colourful Pop Up Sitting Room in the Church Lane Car Park in Tooting, near the junction with Mitcham Road! TTT is hosting community conversations about reducing waste and how we make 'good change' in Tooting. Supported by Wandsworth Council, as part of the Keep Britain Tidy nation-wide celebrations to 'Clean for the Queen we'll be doing our bit to tidy up, save resources and cherish the place we live in. The nearby Al Farah cafe will be providing some provisions! Drop by! We would love to see you.

Growing Tooting: learn about growing in our free series of gardening workshops starting March 18th

Do you want to learn about local food growing and

build up your practical gardening skills, where you live?

Our FREE series of gardening and growing workshops 

starts on the weekend of March 18th 
and runs to the end of June

This free fortnightly programme runs in three different locations in Tooting, Balham and Wandsworth - and at different times of the week (see the schedule below).

In each series of eight fortnightly workshops between March and June we’ll be covering the basics of growing food at home, including wildlife-friendly gardening - even if you don't have your own garden.

Everyone’s welcome, and no previous gardening experience is necessary.



  
Workshop series venues and start dates:
There are three locations; the full series of 8 workshops will run in each.
If you would like a copy of the flyer with all the venues listed, please click here to download.

Balham: We'll run on Friday mornings at 11:00am, fortnightly from Friday 18 March. Venue: St Mark's United Reformed Church, 53 Rowfant Road, SW17 7AP
Tooting: We'll run on Friday afternoons at 2:00pm, fortnightly from Friday 18 March. Venue: Rechere's Education, Health and Wellbeing Centre at Route to Juice, 163-165 Tooting High Street, SW17 0SY
Wandsworth: We'll run at 2:00pm on Sunday afternoons from 20 March. Venue: Penfold Centre, Neville Gill Close, SW18 4JT

Please attend whichever series suits you in terms of timing & location.
We encourage you do join in the whole series for the maximum social and learning benefit - it's not intended to be separate drop-in events.

Schedule and duration:
We have a calendar of all the 8 sessions at each location - click here to read or download a copy.
Sessions will last 90 minutes.

Workshop series style:
Interactive, practical and participative. We'll also look at books and web links, and visit other gardens. We'll build on participants' knowledge and interests.


To ask any questions, and to book: contact Martin:

• on 07980 095152
• by e-mail at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com 
• by twitter (@tttooting) 
• on Facebook Transition Town Tooting 

Workshop series content:

• We'll cover seasonal planning, preparation, sowing, growing and harvesting - always with an eye on what works well right here
• We'll explore: What varieties are good to grow locally? How to manage compost, soil fertility and watering? What about wildlife gardening, and sustainability? How can we make or build what we need for our own setting? Which tools are most useful?
• We'll show you that in the city you can grow successfully on balconies, in windowboxes, in containers on paved yards, on walls - and in back gardens
• We'll introduce you to local community gardens
• We won't forget about recipes, cooking and enjoying eating what we grow
• We'll finish the series with a celebration!

What to bring:
All you have to bring is enthusiasm and readiness to learn! We'll provide all the tools you'll need.

Why join in?
As well as learning and sharing a lot about growing, you'll meet new people, spend time outdoors and get some exercise - and grow healthy food. What's not to like?

The wider Growing Tooting project:
The purpose of this whole Growing Tooting project is to encourage local people to grow good local food by sharing and teaching the basic skills of growing and gardening.
Plus, the project is helping to create a number of new community gardens across the borough. We'll share more about that later on.
Our vision is that these growing spaces with be able to network to share experience, equipment and enjoyment....and help make Wandsworth a growing-friendly place to live. TTT is very grateful to the Wandsworth Big Society Fund for support.

If you have any questions, and to book your place on one of the series of workshops: contact Martin on 07980 095152 (or use one of the other methods above). 

 

 We look forward to seeing you Growing in Tooting
& Balham & Wandsworth!

Bringing local cultures and faiths together with outdoor learning in Tooting Community Garden

We're proud to be helping with a new outdoor learning project in the Community Garden with Gatton Primary School and the Mosaic Jewish Primary School

Our Community Garden-based project with Gatton School has run for nearly three years. Gatton is a Muslim primary near Tooting Broadway - click here for lots of our earlier reports.

 

The Head at Gatton Scool, Rifat Batool, has always been keen to extend the project to capitalise on 'Garden' learning opportunities for building community links plus vivid SMSC education. 

 

SMSC is Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural development, which is linked strongly to schools' citizenship curriculum content.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rifat Batool has met an enthusiastic ally in Kate Baum, Head of the Mosaic Jewish Primary School. 

 

 

 

 

This is a first exciting step in bringing together two Wandsworth borough faith communities in a new way, and facilitating a new chapter of shared outdoor learning. Both schools are Ofsted 'Outstanding', and this creative experiment is an example to all.

 

After planning in the autumn, last week on a sunny day in Tooting a Year 1 group from Gatton were joined by children from the Mosaic Jewish School. The photos tell the story:

 

Examining pictures of the diverse school activities in the Garden since March 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorting garlic bulbs and separating the individual cloves. 

Which way up to plant them?

 

 

 

Measuring the plot and cutting string to mark the row.

 

 

 

 

Planting the garlic cloves.

Later in the summer we'll save some to cook dishes at both schools for the Tooting Foodival in September.

 Close encounters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mosaic Jewish School is starting a school garden at their new location in Roehampton. TTT and Gatton School's facilitation experience - including growing and nature, awareness and teamworking games, building the rainwater harvesting classroom, the insect hotel and the bottle greenhouse - gave the visitors energy and plenty of ideas to add to their own garden and learning plans.

Children from both schools will continue be involved in joint plans. We can't wait to see what develops, and we'll share news on this blog.

 

Please get in touch with us at TTT if you would like to know more, or contribute to this project.

 

 

Tooting Foodival Wins Mayor's Sunshine Award

Tooting Foodival 2015 today received an inaugural Grow Wandsworth Award from Mayor of Wandsworth, Nicola Nardelli, who launched the awards to encourage people and organisations who grow healthy, fresh, local food in Community Food Projects.

With Mayor Nicola at Wandsworth Town Hall

At a reception in the Mayor's Parlour at the Town Hall, including very beautiful cakes, Foodival won the "Sunshine Award" for "celebrating the ways people have brought a bit of sunshine into the lives of others through community growing"! We do our best!

Back in September the Mayor experienced the myriad food related activities Samaj Hall, including some prize winning vegetables and bananas (below)!

Mayor Nicola Nardelli with David & Mal at Foodival 2015

We are delighted to receive this award and it was really interesting to meet people from the other award-winning community groups including friends from SHARE Community and Wendelsworth Community Garden as well as new contacts who we hope to collaborate with in the future.

For anyone interested in getting involved in Foodival 2016, the first planning meeting will be at the King's Head in Upper Tooting Road, Tooting Bec, on this Thursday evening (Feb 4th) at 7pm.  All welcome to help us work out how we will create this year's home grown sustainable food festival in Tooting.  If you have any ideas, skills, or just fancy being part of a fantastic (and now award-winning!) community project please do come along.