LOOKING BACK – ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2014

One of the most noticeable additions to the garden in 2014 was the wonderful poly tunnel that John designed and constructed with the help of garden members. We celebrated the ‘topping out’ in plastic sheeting, and in recent weeks shade cloth has gone over the structure. It’s a thing of beauty and we can’t wait to start using it as part of our food forest project. Other progress with this project included raspberries being planted and fruit trees pruned. We also have an asparagus patch just starting to emerge.

Down at the back of the garden, Karl has produced piles of beautiful compost for us to use on our plots and around the communal areas. Some of the signs we’ve made make it easy to tell the compost that’s ready to use from what’s still ‘cooking’.

Experiments with heirloom pumpkins, tomatoes and zucchinis for our seed-saving project have been really successful. Karl distributed seedlings and we have had bumper crops to save seed from. We were recently initiated into the secrets of pollinating zucchini by hand.
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Another revolution instigated by Karl is the automatic watering system for communal areas. It’s all set up with timers and is going to save many plants that need a little extra nurturing. We are also setting up an ‘adopt a tree’ system for watering our precious fruit trees. Members can adopt a tree or two and water them every time they’re at the garden.