MEMBER NEWSLETTER // Forest Gate Community Garden Monthly Newsletter // Issue 1 // Nov 2014

If you're a Forest Gate Community Garden Member you should have received your first Monthly Newsletter via email last week. If you're not a Member then simply sign up via our website for just £2 lifetime Membership and you'll get regular updates too. Here's a sneaky preview for those who missed it either way...

Welcome to the Forest Gate Community Garden Newsletter Issue 1: November 2014 Issue 1 // November 2014 Web: www.forestgate-community-garden.org.uk Blog: http://136earlhamgrove.blogspot.com Email: info@forestgate-community-garden.org.uk   Dear Members Welcome to the new look Forest Gate Community Garden newsletter, which we shall be delivering to you each month starting November 2014. This is in response to our growing Membership database and a need to keep all our Members in the loop about what is going on in a more structured and regular way – all part of your £2 lifetime Membership package. Thanks for your support and patience so far. We hoped to be in the garden by now but as is  the way with many projects, things can take a bit longer than at first envisaged. However, we are making progress of some kind each week, whether that's by growing our Membership database and support network, progressing the lease, securing tools and materials, launching our fabulous new website and blog, or fine tuning initial garden plans and designs. Thanks to everyone who is or has been involved with the garden so far. Without you it would certainly still be just a seed of an idea rather than a realistic venture that is taking shape every day. And on that note here's an update of what we've been up to for November 2014. We look forward to seeing you at future events, meetings and site visits – and hopefully digging away in the garden soon. For interim updates please visit our website www.forestgate-community-garden.org.uk and sign up for regular blog posts at http://136earlhamgrove.blogspot.com. Thanks for your continuing support. Forest Gate Community Garden Steering Group   What's happening on site? The question on everyone's lips. What's happening on site and when can we get into the garden to help? We are still working with the Council on the lease. These things seem to take a long time, but everyone needs to get the agreement water-tight.  Fortnightly meetings have been set up by Councillors to monitor progress and make sure we get access to the site as soon as possible. The Steering Group are doing everything they can to speed things up. The Gardening Course has also been held up by delays with processing information, but we are hopeful of starting in January. We will email everyone when we have confirmed dates.     Member Meeting – 27 September 2014   Thanks to everyone who came to our Member Meeting on 27 September 2014 at Kay Rowe Nursery and Children's Centre – and to all those who helped or offered their support. As well as hearing about progress with the garden, eating delicious cakes, taking part in the tombola and leading a site visit, we launched our fabulous new website and blog, which we hope will become a real hub for the garden but also the wider community. Please do take a look at www.forestgate-community-garden.org.uk. The website was built, designed and put together by Steering Group Members Hugh Barnard and Sonya Patel Ellis and was done entirely on a voluntary basis, as all the many and varied garden tasks are. As such it is a work in progress so please do be patient with any missing content. At the same we welcome your comments and opinions about what should be on the website, so please do get in touch. We're also actively looking for blog contributors. If you'd like to contribute please contact Sonya at 136earlhamgrove@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at our next Member meeting. Help us recruit more Members We now have 150 paid up members. Do you know someone who would like to join too? Encourage them to join so that they can also stay in the loop about member activities and planning and also get a say in the creation of the garden. We need your input and theirs so the garden will be the ideal haven for everyone in the community.   To join, come to Woodgrange Market Place at the end of Sebert Road on the first Saturday of each month between 10am and 12pm to sign up. We’ll be inside CoffeE7 if it’s cold! You can also join via our website at www.forestgate-community-garden.org.uk or by email to info@forestgate-community-garden.org.uk. You can also download a Membership Form here > A pile of old rubbish? Not to us! We have been given access to an amazing quantity of building materials left over from the 2012 Olympics. Thanks to Cllr Ellie Robinson for making this contact for us. Steering Group members Lisa Eller and Hugh Barnard spent a happy afternoon rooting through a treasure trove including remnants of a plastic bottle greenhouse, trellis and timber, a ton bag of river stones and washed pebbles, decking and two lovely benches. Check out our blog this week for more details and images of all our loot! It’s heavy stuff, so we will need help in loading and unloading the lorry when we have fixed a date for delivery in late December / early January. Just the thing to use up those Christmas calories! Please sign up to help if you can. Simply email info@forestgate-community-garden.org.uk. Look out for more great events... We've been part of some great events this year so far, including the Forest Gate Festival in June, our Pop Up Garden in July (see opposite), and our Member Meeting in September plus the WI Fete in the Methodist Church and the Fun Palace in Woodgrange Market. We enjoyed meeting some of you there. Forest Gate has also seen an influx in related events such as two Big Draws in October – one run by local artist Eleanor Pearce for the bees outside CoffeE7 and a woodland gallery on Wanstead Flats by Children's Gallery and the Herbarium Project. We have just confirmed an event for the Winter - details to follow in the next newsletter!  We can't wait to start organising events in the garden when it's up and running. For the moment it would be great to hear from anyone who is running an event we might be able to take part in or who would like to help fundraise for us through their event. Email us at info@forestgate-community-garden.org.uk. You can also see some images from some of our events on our website gallery and in regular posts on our blog. If you would like to promote something on our blog then please do get in touch. Forest Gate Community Garden Monthly Newsletter © Forest Gate Community Garden 2014 Web: www.forestgate-community-garden.org.uk Email: info@forestgate-community-garden.org.uk

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