Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 28

Spring is Coming!

In a season where we've seen Cherry Blossom in December it's been a slow start in the Garden, but finally the bulbs planted by our volunteers and the pupils of the Quwwat-ul-Islam school are finally showing signs of life. Everything looks fantastic in the sunshine and it feels as though everything is about to burst into life.

Daffs & Muscari showing their heads

Welcome sunshine!

A thousand bulbs were planted in mid-December and we're looking forward to a great display of Daffodils, Muscari, Hyacinths and Tulips, which will add some welcome early Colour.

Despite the prolonged cold snap our building team are still hard at it and we're now adding the final touches to some of the main areas. 

The pond liner's been trimmed and fixed in place and the pond itself's been decorated with river rocks and pebbles.  We'll be planting the Water Lily and Iris donated by members as soon as we can raise some money for aquatic soil and baskets.  We're also looking for funding to complete the pond planting, including oxygenating plants to keep the water healthy for aquatic wildlife.

The bed behind the pond's been filled with a mixed later of gravel and rubble for drainage, which is sitting under 1 ton of sterilised topsoil.  Compost will be added next week ready for planting with Yukka, Foxgloves, Irises, Japanese Anemone and grasses,  A mix of pollinator friendly seeds will be sprinkled into the remaining spaces.

The final stage of construction's also underway.  The entrance pergola's been marked out ready for work to start next week - exciting!

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 27

It's All Coming Together!

Sophie & Jenny's raised bed

Bill's stage is almost finished

It's funny how everything just starts coming together all of a sudden.  Ever since the pond was lined late last year the garden's really started to take on it's final shape.

Raised beds are going up all over the garden ready for planting and we're starting to place plants ready for planting in spring.  Sophie and Jenny made an amazing bed, complete with trellis backing on Saturday, which will house the wild hop and clematis we found on site when we move in.

The new container entrance

Stepping stones and raised bed

It's difficult to do anything on the side of the garden with the missing hoarding but we've started to edge the path and created a raised bed around the Sycamore.  Once the hoarding's back up we can finish that section off and build another insect habitat.

We're also starting to plan out the final stepping stone paths at the far end of the garden between the Victorian gate, the quiet zone and the pond, which will be dug in next weekend.

A bit of extra work went on during the week and the container now has a permanent astroturf finish (complete with plastic wildflowers) to welcome everyone - a nice match for the 'grass' at the front of the stage. The March deadline's starting to look a bit more realistic now!

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 26

New Year,  New Garden

So much has been happening since the FGCG re-opened on 9th January and things are really coming together now.

Our first raised beds and seating area

The finished Quiet Zone and Pond

Our amazing team of volunteers have finished the Kids Area and the Quiet Zone (apart from a final few touches to the book shed).  We're also finishing off the pond area paving so that we can start filling and decorating the pond. Paths are being laid to connect the various parts of the garden and the entertainment space is now a roofed stage with deck board flooring.

The finished Kids Area and fallen hoarding

View from the Stage out into the garden

Seating and raised beds are starting to appear and all the lovely pots of bulbs planted in December are being dotted around garden and bring some welcome Spring colour and to decorate the seating areas. It's looking great as you can see from the photos.




Still a bit to do before Spring so if you're free on Saturday morning come along and take a look/help out!

New Year - New Job?

We are appointing our first garden co-ordinator!
This is an exciting opportunity for the right person to build on the good start we have made over the first 6 months.
We are looking for someone to organise the practical work in  the Garden for 8 hours a week over the next two years.
Could it be you? Or someone you know?
For the full Job Description and Person Specification email info@forestgate-community-garden.org.uk 
The closing date for applications (on-line only) is January 15th and interviews for short-listed candidates will be held on January 27th 2016

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 25

2015 - A Good Year!

Saturday was our last official work session for 2015 and what a great one it was too!  

The pond ready for lining

The quiet zone - comfy!

Our new willow arch bike parking

The quiet zone really took shape and we were able to finally put in the seating and planter, which makes it look really cosy and inviting.  Only the shed to finish now.

The pond's ready for in-filling with topsoil and carpet first thing next year and should be fully lined and ready to go by the end of Jan - ready for all that winter rain.  

Our new bike parking area's complete.  We've planted some willow saplings in the hope that we can weave an arch over the bikes for cover and protection. It should also look gorgeous. 

  

The entertainment shelter takes shape

Work on the entertainment shelter started in ernest and the framework is now complete.  Pallet flooring, water harvester ceiling and bannister rails to be added in the New Year.

The kid's zone, recently our bulb planting area, has now been tidied and a makeshift weed membrane laid down over the section marked for grass seed next spring,  Hopefully this will mean a quick hoe over before seeding instead of a major dig.

The kids zone waiting for grass

The kid's zone from the main gates

A great big thank you to everyone who came along to work, deliver cake, give advice or shared a few words of encouragement - we really appreciate it all!

See you all in the New Year - enjoy!

Making the Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 24

Garden Hero 11 - Kevin Harris

Kevin lives on Sprowston Road and is the man responsible for the amazing film of our hoarding artwork in progress.

He's also turned out to be a dab-hand at paving and started working on pathways in the kid's zone with Jo, Mike and May and is now working with Peter paving the area around the pond to make it wheelchair accessible.

Kevin's attention to detail and desire to get it just right is bordering on the fanatical - just the way we like it!  Not only does he turn up for most of our Saturday sessions but he's been known to pop in during the week too.  Star!

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 25

Gates A Go-Go!

Belated but special thanks go to Keiran, Dara and Bill  who spent a good few hours fixing the entrance gates on Earlham Grove a few weeks ago.

The gates had never shut properly and the job wasn't quite as straightforward as it looked - the gates are very heavy and only had a wobbly post to hang on to. 

The guys reinforced the post and put a wheel on the bottom of the right-hand gate to take the strain off of the post.  The  left-hand gate also has a new drop bolt to replace the one stolen during the break-in in the summer, which holds it nice and still.    

The higher left gate means that you no longer have to use a length of metal as a wedge to raise it to line up the padlocks.  I for one won't miss trying to raise the gate with one hand (and foot) whilst bashing at the hasps with a hammer to get them closed!  

Making the Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 24

Inside Out

As you're probably aware the hoarding blew down during the heavy winds and rain Sunday night just over a week ago.

Member and regular building volunteer, Kevin, who lives overlooking the garden alerted Myanah and a group of us gathered to see what could be done.  Much excitement ensued with the Fire Brigade in attendance and the police notified.  Everyone was waiting for an emergency team to come and make the area safe, which was done at around 8pm.

The wall was subsequently taken down on the Sprowston Road side as far as the old Victorian gate as it posed a risk to public safety.  The hoarding is being stored in the garden until we can put it back up - hopefully very soon and for good this time!  Meanwhile we're all grateful for everyone who's keeping an eye on the site for us - thank you.  

Building work is going on as usual and next Saturday (12 Dec) will be our last official day of 2015.  However, some of us might be popping in and out to do odd jobs between now and opening again next year (9 Jan) when we'll start constructing raised beds and seating.

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 23

Garden Hero 10 - Peter Tymkow

Peter has rarely missed a week at the FGCG and has been instrumental in building our pond & accompanying raised bed -  measuring, cutting and bolting away week after week.  The pond is now known as Peter's Pond and we may even give it a name plaque!  Peter is known for his quiet determination and dry humour.  He has a background in nature conservation and has valuable experience working with other groups such as ours including the Stave Hill Ecological Park (www.tcv.org.uk/urbanecology/stave-hill-ecological-park) .  Peter was also part of the team that volunteered to help with the Groundworks delivery way back in January.

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 22

Well, That Caps It All!

Another slightly soggy building session this week, although nowhere near as wet as last week.  

Sola and his capstone

The final fencing for the kid's zone went in after much digging and pick-axe work by newcomer Sola.  As you can see there was no way a fence spike was getting through that lump of concrete (a jumbo capstone as you can see from the angled shape).  Thankfully Sola persevered and the spike Finally went into what was a rather large hole.  Just another day in the life of the FGCG and a good example of why all the planting will be in raised beds.

As you know the FGCG was originally a double-fronted Victorian villa, which was levelled and the rubble spread across the site. Over time the soil and plants took over but some of them are surviving in very shallow soil.  The Budleija forest is actually rooted on roughly 5cm of soil on top of paving stones.  Sometimes the terrain's helpful - when you discover existing paved paths for instance, but often it can make life tricky.  However, a bit of lateral thinking and/or elbow grease usually gets us where we need to be!  

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 21

Buggies a Go-Go! (October 2015)

The bike & buggy park in
the kid's zone

Another glorious day on Saturday.  The sun was bright and warm and we finished the month on a building high as well as a weather one.  We made real progress on the kid's area, which should be finished next week and the buggy and bike park's up and running thanks to Sophie and Isobel.  Mike's taken charge of completing  the kid's area, which has freed up some of the team for path planning and the quiet zone - Jo and Kevin are the king and queen of paving!  Peter continues to work his magic on the pond, which will be completed next week ready for paving.  The quiet zone boundary's going great guns thanks to two new volunteers, Keiran and Lucy, who bashed in fence posts with a sledgehammer for an hour after collecting more donated paving slabs in their van.

Making the Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 20

Garden Hero 9 - Michael Nash 

Michael is a local artist who is not only involved in the FGCG on a weekly basis, but also with the Forest Gate Arts Trail. Michael works with reclaimed material, in particular metal and a piece of his work is currently in the FGCG - we hope he’ll do more for us.  He’s been involved in all aspects of the FGCG so far and is happy to have a go at anything and everything, especially anything that involves metalwork such as repairing our chain-link fence.  Most recently he’s been contsructing the ‘living tyre wall’ in the kids zone and has a real talent for packing skips.

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story - 19

 Garden Hero 8 - Veronica Jeans 

Veronica has a beautiful garden at home and an extensive knowledge of plants and gardening, but she’s also a very useful member of the building team.  She’s been responsible for uncovering a lot of the original paving around the edges of the site, which has saved us all a lot of time and effort in laying new paths.  She’s also been weeding, uprooting unwanted plants with a pickaxe, drives a mean wheelbarrow and is happy to turn her hand to any task.

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 18

Chip ’N' Skip (October 2015) 

The chips

The skip

October’s turning out to be a very busy month.  We received our first load of bark chips from Keith Archer Tree Surgeons, which are steaming gently in this cold snap.  This batch will be used to provide a nice soft play surface for the kid’s area but we aim to use them over most of the site to cover the hardcore and fill in the dips and holes.

The gang

Also this month (Sat 3rd Oct) we managed to clear the large mound of debris accumulating in the centre of the site, filling our second skip! It was really good to have everyone working on the same project for a day - the tea break was particularly good as Darren Farr and his colleague from the Stratford Community Police and our lovely FGCG member, Barbara, provided cakes!

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 17

Garden Hero 7 - Jennie Gillespie

Jenie's a nurse and when she’s not training up baby doctors and walking her dog Wilma she’s working hard in the FGCG.  So far she’s put together the framework for our bottle greenhouse, helped with site clearance and hauled wheelbarrows of rubble around the site.  She’s also donated a bird table and bird bath to start off our upcoming bird box project for the quiet zone.

Making the Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 16

Beds & Sheds (Sept 2015) 

The sentry box - sorry, shed

Jo, Jervine and those slabs

Peter 'the pond' Tynkow

               

It seems that after a few months of hard graft but little to show for it, everything in the garden’s suddenly taking shape.  The shed in the quiet zone is well under way, the raised bed that provides a floral backdrop to the pond is finished and the pond 's well underway.  The kids area is coming along in leaps and bounds and should be finished by the end of October.  If the weather stays with us (and we've been blessed so far) we should stay  on target for completion of major features by the end of the year - fingers crossed! 

Next year raised beds, furniture and tweaking.  

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 15

5 Tons Of Joy (Sept 2015)  

In preparation for Spring planting and because we had a small amount of funding, we decided to invest in some topsoil.  5 tons of glorious soil were delivered this month by Lewis from the London Lawn Turf Co. Roll on Spring! 

Unfortunately we can’t use donated topsoil for growing as we don’t know it’s history, but any soil given to the FGCG will be used for bedding in paving slabs and for evening out all the dips and holes throughout the site.

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 14

Garden Hero 6 - Kerena Fussell 

In between being the Trustee of a theatre company and being heavily involved with Newham Cyclists, Kerena has rarely missed a week since the FGCG opened for building in May and has been instrumental in getting the water harvester up and running.  She’s now working on the book shed (shed come insect habitat, water harvester and plant box - no pressure!), which will be housed in the quiet zone.  Kerena’s had plenty of experience building with random materials on her allotment and is putting that experience to good use in the FGCG. 

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 13

 Kids Away! (August 2015)

This month we held a kids open afternoon.  It was a simple event with drawing, tattoos and games such as scoring points if you got the pebble in the pot, hopscotch and skittles. 

Fun & games

The kids also had great fun running around the Buddleja forest and climbing one of the giant ‘cotton reels’.  it was good to see the potential of the space and getting the kids' ideas on what they'd like to have in their area.  We also asked the kid's to draw the kinds of animals and insects they thought might be in the garden - we got a lot of spiders! 

The event went well and we'll be holding them every half term until the FGCG's open full time.

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 12

Garden Hero 5 - Dennis Chipperfield 

Dennis has rarely missed a Saturday and always brings a smile and some local news to the FGCG.  He’s happy to turn his hand to anything and gives it his all every week.  Amongst other things he’s helped clear the pond area and the quiet zone, uprooted Buddleja, done some tree pruning and laid paving slabs in the kids area.  Dennis is known for his bike (rescued from a skip and with a tin can bottle holder), singing the occasional tune and for his snazzy hats!

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 11

Ponds Away!  (July 2015)


The summer's turning out to be a busy one as things in the FGCG really start to get going and thanks to the Aviva Community Fund we now have the money to purchase railway sleepers for our pond and raised bed.  We received the money at the end of last month and our regular volunteer Peter is pictured bedding in the first layer of sleepers for the pond after he and fellow volunteer Rob finished measuring, cutting and building the raised bed that forms the backdrop.  

The rest of the team are busy providing lots of rubble and topsoil for in-fill as they clear the rest of the site.  Nothing goes to waste in this garden - we recycle everything!

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 10

Water Water Everywhere. . .  (June 2015)

Kerena & Bill pulling their best
Bond moves

Now that the storage issue’s been solved we need to think about water as the garden has no mains water supply.  With just a rough sketch to go start them off Kerena and Bill managed to complete the water harvester this week, so let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!  

The water harvester just before
the guttering went on

The water tank was part of the haul from Groundworks and holds around a 1,000L so we need to hope for a nice wet winter.  We also plan to have water butts running off of the entertainment shelter and the book shed to make sure we have enough water to keep everything alive and healthy

Next job for this dynamic duo is the book shed in the quiet  zone.

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 9

Garden Hero 4 - Bill Bremner

Bill is involved in many projects including the local Woodcraft group and Newham Cyclists (the Newham branch of London Cycling Campaign), but luckily for us he's found some time for the FGCG too.  Rarely seen off his bike Bill can literally turn his hand to anything and has been an absolute star in getting to grips with the water harvester and entertainment shelter.  At home he's built many a lovely thing - solar lighting globes and bottle walls to name a couple, so we'll not only be using his practical skills but also his creative ones.  

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 8

The Container Has Landed (June 2015)

Our main priority now is storage, so we asked Newham Council to provide a shipping container, which arrived on 15 June.  Now we have somewhere to store tools, safety gear, chairs and wheelbarrows  & a place to display the designs for the garden.  

The container is our ‘hub’ and will support the water harvester and the entertainment shelter.  We also aim to turn it into a real focal point by painting it to create a welcome area.

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 7

Garden Hero(es) 3 - Don & Gill Lewis

Don and Gill are a welcome addition to the team, always enthusiastic participants in any task. Don hails from Wales and we haven't seen them since the Welsh victory so presume he's still celebrating!  Both he and Gill have been involved in clearing the site and even a damaged foot didn't manage to keep Don at home.  They've also said that if anything needs doing during the week we should let them know - there's dedication for you.  

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 6

From The Community, By The Community (May 2015)

Our horde of fencing, edging
and planking

Our stockpile of paving slabs

As you can imagine funds for the FGCG are scarce so we thought we’d asked the local community to donate building materials and were overwhelmed with people’s generosity.  We’ve also become quite good at scavenging from skips and building sites!

The materials include plant boxes, wood, paving slabs, old sheds, plants, dustbins, compost bins, watering cans, water butts and drainpipe - enough to build a garden!

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 5

Garden Hero 2 - Jo Barker 

When asked what she does for a living Jo jokingly (we hope!) replied “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you”, but in between spy missions Jo manages to make it to help out most weeks.  She’s always more than happy to do whatever we ask.  Most of the time we have her working in the kids area and she’s currently creating paths, which involves a lot of heavy paving slabs and tree roots - nothing she can’t handle!

Making The Garden Grow - The Inside Story: 4

From Humble Beginnings (May 2015)

This is the site shortly after we got the lease.  Making a garden feels like quite a daunting task at the moment but everyone’s incredibly positive and enthusiastic and work has started in earnest.

                   

Lots of buddleja and a dead cherry tree -
not very promising

Armed with some initial sketches, a Blue Peter style model and a whole heap of enthusiasm we’re starting to clear the space ready for building. And already we’ve managed, fuelled by sugary foodstuffs, to fill our first skip!

Darren, Kate & The Bruderhoff Community
start clearing