Friday 27 September 2013

Busy, Busy. Busy!!!

There is lots to do in the autumn-we are picking raspberries, beans, courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, salad and leeks! We are planting spring onions, sowing salads, splitting plants to make more for next year, moving self seeded borage and calendular, spreading last year's leaf mulch and doing lots of weeding!





Tuesday 24 September 2013

Plant Propagation

Today, Sarah McCormack (our head gardener) ran one of her regular workshops for the volunteers. The topic was propagation and lots of plants were gathered from around the grounds to be split to produce more plants for next year-here they are at work in the greenhouse!


Sunday 22 September 2013

Crafty

We have had a Craft Fair at Ford Park today. In addition to all the artists with their ceramics and stained glass and textiles we have taken the opportunity sell lots of recycled wood products and fresh veg!




Autumn Quote

































You only need to look out of the window today to see one of our beautiful Autumn days, you can feel a chill first thing in the morning and maybe see some mist over the hills but then the sun peeks through the clouds and the temperature rises throughout the day. The evenings are drawing in and the leaves are gradually changing colour, marking the change from Summer into Autumn and beckoning in the Winter.
You can see some photo's above of the kitchen garden, the apples in the orchard and growing on the wall in the Victorian Kitchen Garden are also a reminder that Autmn has arrived.

Below is one of my favourite quotes about Autumn, if you have any favourite quotes or pictures of your Autumn garden or any produce you may have grown please do send them in.



Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

George Eliot

 


Wednesday 18 September 2013

International Interest!!

It is fascinating to see who visits these diary pages -viewers from all around the world! While by far the most page views are from the UK we have significant numbers of visitors...who are all very welcome!!....from the
USA, Russia, Germany, the Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Vietnam. People are interested in community projects and food growing everywhere! It would be great to get some feedback or local stories from you


Harvest!

We continue to harvest raspberries, leeks, courgettes, apples, greengages, salad, aubergines, tomatoes, cabbages, spinach, blackberries, carrots and much more! Our chef is making chutneys and jams to add to our produce stalls for the local Super Saturday markets this autumn.



The photo below shows Chris in discussion with Lawrence concerning his John Muir Award which is about the importance of insects and worms in the kitchen garden

Saturday 7 September 2013

Charter Festival Success!!

We had a very successful produce stall at the Super Saturday Market today, which was part of the Charter Festival in Ulverston. We sold leeks, blackberries, courgettes, cucumbers, salad onions, onions, beans and much more...we also had some volunteers gardening and harvesting in the kitchen garden and then went to receive the certificate and shield for Best Environmental Project in the Charter Festival!!





Sunday 1 September 2013

Community Gardening Day

We had a great day yesterday with lots of harvesting and support of all ages!