~ WORLDWIDE Vegetable Allotments ~ REVIVAL of last years thread ~

[boggybranch]

Hattie,

Great link. I like how they get you "up close" with different members. Gonna enjoy prowling this site.
Glad your maters weren't "hurt".....and, Lordy....if leaving them outside was idiotic, then...that would make me the king of idiots. I prefer to think of "happenings" like that as just being senior moments.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

I have just found another very interesting site with lots of information for us: it is about city farms.

http://journeytoforever.org/cityfarm.html


:bee Hattie :bee

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Another site showing how people are getting together to encourage others in the growing of vegetables cause. This one is in the Napa Valley.

http://www.familyfarmleague.com/docs/seedexchange.htm

*** Planes seem to be flying in & out of the UK at last & the sun is shining (although we are still having frost alerts every evening........!!! )


Happy Gardening everyone. :bee



:tools Hattie :tools

 

[Hattie the Hen]

I am adding another British allotment blog for your entertainment.

http://hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com/

These two ladies are great wine makers so that's an added bonus. I am thinking of 'hoiking' out all my old equipment out of the barn & having another go this summer. I used to be rather good at it & rcently I have found a shop in a nearby town that sells all the different yeasts & bits & pieces I will need. I have a good dozen of those demi-johns all neatly stored so that's a good start & I actually know where the big bag of airlocks are........that is a miracle......as I am rather disorganised usually................!!

Wish me luck.....!!!


Hattie

 

[boggybranch]

Hattie,

Almost all the "shortcuts" I have on my desktop,from this thread, are being very active after your "crazy" winter and, so called, spring. Sure am looking forward to seeing how this year turns out for the allotmenteers. And Soilman's blog never ceases to make me laugh.....he's definitely a "real" person.

 

[PotterWatch]

I finally got some pictures at my community garden today. The garden is a plot of land in the middle of a commercial district. The land belongs to one of the neighboring businesses who have allowed us to make it into a community garden. About half of the land is fruit trees and the other half is made up of plots that are used by people such as myself and the farm that is helping to host the garden. The farm uses about half the plots to grow produce for their CSA. It is really amazing to drive through this area of town and know that there is this large garden smack in the middle of the commercial district. During a recent city-wide volunteer day, the garden was one of the places where people could come to volunteer to help beautify the city.

Here is a picture from the street:

This is what you see inside the drive-in gate:

There is a maze set up in the middle of the garden that is planted with succulents and drought resistant plants. The maze separates the garden plots from the orchard:

The garden regularly hosts classes on all things gardening. One of these days I hope to make it to a tree pruning session to learn how to prune my fruit trees.

These are most of the personal plots maintained by locals such as myself (I couldn't get them all in the picture however):

This is my sad little plot. I hadn't been maintaining it at all for a while and it's going to take some work to whip it back into shape, but at least I have the time to do it. Tomorrow I am going to pick up some bee-friendly flowers to plant among the tomatoes and melons I have in there now:

Down at the end that looks really overgrown is a strawberry patch and a bit of fennel (can someone tell me what to do with fennel? I wasn't the one who planted it and I have never used it before). I haven't weeded at all in there simply because I didn't want to disturb the strawberries too much and I was ready to quit by the time I got to them anyway . I have a couple watermelons planted in the middle and four heirloom tomatoes at the near end. I just put the cages up today since I had extra time and figured I should do it when I had the motivation:

I will post more pictures when things start to get bigger and fruit. Hope you enjoyed seeing my local community garden!

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi PotterWatch,
Thank you so much for remembering to post the photos -- it is really interesting to see them. It must be a great thing to have this site in an urban setting. I wish every town & city could have them; I am sure it would do everyone's health a lot of good. Keep us posted about it's progress.

As to fennel, is it the bulb type or the herby one?

http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/the-many-uses-of-fennel-158898.html

http://www.ivillage.co.uk/food/fruitveg/veg/articles/0,,164348_172982,00.html

http://www.cookthink.com/blog/?p=185

http://www.cooksunited.co.uk/rs/s0/fennel/recipes.html

I hope these links are useful. I like to grow the herby version amongst my flowers, rsp. the bronze version. Mine was killed off last winter in the cold winter so I must sow some more - thanks for reminding me. It usually self seeds but not this year. I love to use the old, drying stems in the fall to cook whole fish over on the BBQ ( trout is so good, cooked whole with slices of lemon & a sprig of rosemary tucked inside it's belly & brushed with olive oil) Oh it is the food of the gods, Esp if you have a salad of your own home-grown tomatoes sliced up with thinly sliced shallots or sweet onions ---Oooooh heaven......!!!!!!


:coolsun Hattie :coolsun

 

[Hattie the Hen]

:coolsun :coolsun :coolsun :coolsun :coolsun :coolsun :coolsun


Hi there!

No I haven't forgotten about this thread........It's just that I have been a bit busy with my own little patches of soil........ I just HAD to get my raised beds planted up -- it just took a lot longer than I thought it would..... I'm obviously getting slower........................!

Well, here is an interesting load of info on community gardens in Connecticut.

http://ctcommunitygardening.org/features/


Hope you have time to lookat it. Enjoy the sunshine as much as I am!



:weight Hattie :weight

 

[PotterWatch]

I recently found out about two other community gardens in a nearby city. I drove by one of them the other day while taking my kids to camp. It looked like a great little garden! I'm glad to see other gardens around and hope that they continue to grow in number.

 

[boggybranch]

Just ran across this blog.....REALLY nice one, too

http://carletongarden.blogspot.com/