My Global Garden

Veg patch planning

25. January 2010

Last summer I spent many enjoyable months helping out at The Village allotments in Eastbourne which was great fun . It was the perfect wayto find out more about the trials and tribulations of creating and looking after an allotment before I take on my own patch of land - hopefully this summer. One of the [...]

Climate change allotments bloom

18. January 2010

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Following on from my last blog , it does appear that the government are finallywaking up to the power of individuals growing their own food in their own gardens, roof-tops or any available space: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/04/grow-your-own-unused-land-2030 The BBC has also got behind the value of growing your own produce to combat carbon emmissions .Check out its on-line system [...]

Growing season lengthens by 1 month

28. September 2009

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The growing season for plants is now longer than at any time since records began in 1772. Since 1900 it has lengthened by 30 days - a whole month - which makes a real difference to the range of vegetables that can be grown succesfully in the UK. According to UKCIP, predictions are that the growing [...]

Overseas veg take root on the South Coast

11. September 2009

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Overseas veg take root on the South Coast

An interesting thing happened after writing yesterday’s blog about the longer growing season making a wider range of veg available for UK allotments. I popped round to see what has been happening in The Village allotments in the Meads, Eastbourne and bumped into a very interesting guy called Jo. I was actually admiring his impressive sweet [...]

National Allotments Week inspires veg plot party

9. August 2009

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National Allotments Week inspires veg plot party

This week is being celebrated on allotments all over the UK as it is National Allotments Week. Run by the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Growers since 2005, this aims to promote the awareness and availablitity of allotments locally and nationally to demonstrate to local authorities the strength of support and interest for the heritage [...]

Big Lunch promotes human warming

20. July 2009

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Yesterday was the day when the Eden Project suggested that we all get together to share a meal, using produce that we have grown ourselves or, that has been locally sourced. The idea came from one of my favourite Eden gurus - Tim Smit who wanted to promote “human warming.” He summed it up when he [...]

Roof launched

30. June 2009

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We finished the main build last week in time for the launch party, which went splendidly. The roof garden is now up and running. Now the fun begins - we are working on an irrigation system and we have all the materials ready to build a keyhole garden. The sun last week dried our beds out, [...]

…in the sky

19. June 2009

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Big work this week - we moved the remaining 3 or 4 tonnes of compost into our storage area to be used later as we build more beds. Big thank yous to Sarah, Anna, Huw, Jessica and Saoirse. We brought the rest of the plants fully out into the weather last weekend. They’ve all responded differently. [...]

Allotment in the Sky

10. June 2009

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The Bash Building near Old Street is the site for the City’s hot new green gardening project. The aptly named Harrison Leaf, an innovative graduate in Food Anthropology and a fan of Urban Agriculture, is building an organic roof top allotment using only re-cycled materials together with 8 tons of compost donated from the North London [...]

Feeling the heat on the allotment

24. May 2009

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Temperatures reached 22c this afternoon when I visited The Village to see how Steve’s veg planting is going. The seedlings started life in pots in his courtyard garden back in April but he is gradually putting them out into the ground now the risk of frost has gone. The runner beans are on their way up [...]