Thursday 31 January 2013

31st January 2013

Jill Pindar from the Local Food head office in Newark visited our project today! We were delighted to see her and get the chance to show her the progress we have made -thankfully it was dry weather this morning for her tour with Sarah, our gardener and two trustees/gardening volunteers. We think she liked what she saw!

Monday 28 January 2013

Last week 23rd and 24th January 2013

We had a heavy media week starting with a visit from the NW Evening Mail photographer Harry in connection with our future involvement with the new Good Life festival to be held in Ulverston in June 2013 -see the entry on their web site: http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/ulverston/green-addition-to-ulverston-festival-calendar-1.1029830?referrerPath=news/

We also hosted a 3 hour live broadcast with BBC Radio Cumbria on Thursday which involved interviewing lots of our staff and volunteers as well as the Mayor of Ulverston- the theme for the morning was "volunteering" and the presenter was Kevin Fernihough -see below



21st January 2013-another entry from our volunteer blogger Sandra

Today I spoke to Sarah who is the gardener here at Ford Park. Sarah was recruited as part of the planning involved in the lottery grant that was given to help restore the walled Victorian Kitchen garden and also covers the Orchard as well. Sarah has been working hard on the garden with the help of the volunteers since the 1st August 2012 and the kitchen garden was launched on 9th September 2012, together they have already made a huge difference to the site. Part of the plans for the garden include growing fruit and vegetables to supply the Coach House Café and possibly in the future be able to provide fruit & vegetables for sale to the public.

As well as the garden there is a greenhouse, garden room and cold frames as well as a demonstration courtyard. This area will be used to demonstrate how you can grow & propagate plants in containers. Very useful if you have a small plot or no garden at all, just a small area or courtyard will be enough for you to plant some colourful containers with either flowers or vegetables. Sarah is also planning in February to hold Winter Pruning Workshops for members of the public and the volunteers. More info can be found on the website: http://www.ford-park.org.uk/events.asp?ID=EV1

Over the last few months Sarah has been growing some of the more unusual , hardy members of the cabbage family such as Pak Choi and Tat Soi which stand up very well to our winter weather conditions. For next winter she plans to plant Brussel Sprouts, Kale and winter Cabbage. Ruby Chard & Rainbow Lights are being grown for the salad leaves and then will be grown on to be cropped as a vegetable.
Rufino the chef at the Coach House Cafe has advised on certain varieties of plants that would be good for use in the cafe. Lots of salad is used at present. Beans, peas, asparagus and beetroot will be cropped later in the year. There is also a separate bed for all the herbs grown.

The garden demonstrates two different growing styles one being the formal conventional style where the vegetables are all grown in straight lines which means they are easy to weed. The other way being informal where plants and vegetables are planted together to form swathes and drifts of colour & foliage. These plants and vegetables will be chosen to work well together attracting various useful insects to aid pollination as well as looking beautiful. Some edible flowers will also be grown such as Nasturtiums, Violets, Primroses and Marigolds. The taller plants will be grown to give protection for the lower growing ones.
Also around the edge of the garden are some Victorian Metal Stanchions which when wired up will be planted with Apple trees which will look superb when full of fruit. There are more fruit trees in the orchard and plans to have espaliered apple trees and cordon apple trees against the south facing walls.
I suspect the garden will begin to look very different over the coming months and I hope to show all the different stages with photographs taken over a period of time. The photos below show the main garden with Metal Victorian Stanchions, the seed beds and the Demonstration Courtyard.





Wednesday 23 January 2013

January 22nd 2013

We are getting a good turn out from our volunteers despite the chilly weather! David put a Sparrow group birdbox up in the orchard and Sarah, our gardener, ran a workshop to reflect on our work so far, discuss record keeping and do some sowing in the green house.


Sunday 20 January 2013

January 20th 2013



24 people (including 4 families) turned up today despite the cold and we got lots done + had a lovely sociable lunch and finishing tea break! We had some new volunteers too, which is partly why we meet occasionally at a weekend, so that was great!!

Saturday 19 January 2013

!9th January 2013

We are having a Community Gardening Day tomorrow with a jacket potato lunch and hope that the cold and snowy weather doesn't put everyone off! We are planning to weed and plant up our Butterfly area and get busy in the kitchen garden and green house -it is time to sow tomatoes and leeks! Nature is awake and we have seen frogs, wrens, pied wagtails, long tailed tits and squirrels in the park!

Wednesday 16 January 2013

January 15th 2013

Exciting News! BBC Radio Cumbria are spending the morning with us on Thursday 24th January to do a three hour live broadcast from our Kitchen Garden to talk about volunteering!

Sunday 13 January 2013

January 13th 2013

I have recently started volunteering at Ford Park and after discussion with Kim (the volunteer manager) decided that my contributing to the blog/ website would be a good use of my time here. My name is Sandra and I recently retired from my job for the last twenty years as an ICT Technician at a Special School. I decided I would like to use my free time doing something useful so I will be introducing different people to readers of this blog.

Here is my first interview with one of the volunteers, her name is Jean and she has been volunteering at Ford Park for the last ten years. Jean does a variety of work here but started off picking litter in the grounds. Ford Park has changed immensely over the ten years that Jean has been coming but she says that now the site looks loved and well cared for, thanks in main to the many volunteers that help with various events and activities that go on throughout the year. One of the main changes has been the restoration of the large walled Victorian Kitchen Garden and Jean distributes many of the posters for this area as well coordinating the work on the beautiful garden room wall hanging that you can see in the photo.



Jean comes in twice a week on a Tuesday and Thursday and is also involved in the family activities, which take place on Wednesdays during the school holidays. These activities can be nature, food growing or art and craft based. There are also a lot of public events that take place during the year either at Ford Park or in Ulverston. These can range from the Lantern Festival that is held in September, when classes are run to make the lanterns ready for the procession, to Car Boot Sales to Willow Weaving Workshops.  Jean also helps Kim with educational visits to the park during term time to enable children to participate in the John Muir Award, which involves conservation work.
On the 1st August 2013 there is going to be another performance of Shakespeare in the Park and Jean will, I am sure, be at the forefront helping to organise this event to make sure it all runs smoothly. We are all crossing our fingers that the weather will be fine and sunny on the day! As the New Year begins Jean is looking forward to helping at a wide range of events happening this year. One of the biggest of these is the Eco Fair on Saturday the 15th June. For more info on any of the above events check the website:http://www.ford-park.org.uk/events.asp?ID=EV1

Friday 11 January 2013

January 10th 2013





Our volunteers are back in numbers which is GREAT and we have been spreading manure, planting broad beans, herbs and salads, putting up fun and educational signs and spotting lots of wildlife (frogs, long tailed tits, wrens, pied wagtails etc).

And this is our Chef with a basket of salad for the Vegetarian Theme Night in the Coach House Cafe!