Garden Update June 2014

Garden Update 3 June 2014 Working hard and having fun all in order to provide food for community and the bees

A surprisingly long argument about the safety of food grown in & around tires. Some believe that tires are more dangerous when new and that incineration is more dangerous than recycling them. Others are annoyed to see tires for which payment has been made to incinerate in gardens (apparently one pays for this service when you buy new tires) As a result, hopefully less because of money & business, and more because of interest to community & environment, a huge argument has arisen : recyclers vs eliminators - who is the biggest polluter? We grow food in a number of spaces with tires in borders, and in tire towers – some plants seem to like them. However we contacted Glasgow Scientific Services to come and test our soil in order to find out if food grown near or in tires presents a risk to our community”. If so then we will have to remove as many as we can turning the rest of possibly polluted spaces over to the bees, and we have spaces with no tires at all. A report made by members of the Earth Ship community claimed that a lengthy study proved that tires do not leech contaminants into the soil but actually absorbs toxins. Hopefully we shall soon see

So what veg we are growing this year? Survivor potatoes are taking over everywhere, some are already in flower. We have also sown our own potatoes seed ie seed from the green potatoe apple of which we had many last year

The thyme rosemary and chives are as usual wonderful, the rhubarb is huge and there is hope for cherries this year if the tree manages to hold onto the moisture which is hopeful because of the wood core beds at the foot. The young uns have sown lettuce, beetroot, coriander, rocket, carrots & other seed which honestly I cannot remember since the markers seem to have been pinched

Now that June is here and the weather warmer, we plan to sow beans, peas, more leeks and try cauliflower again perhaps in the cooler orchard beds

A number of fruit bushes have given fruit, the older ones were more plentiful We have loads of cuttings growing. The apple blossom was pretty good – last year we had 52 fruits on on Ding but only got two apples. We have started tomatoes, courgettes cucumber and winter squash, and are hoping that there will be melons again this year. We have been drinking nettle tea and eating lemon balm, herb robert chives mint parsley kale bistort fennel and chard and they is all delicious.

Loads of bee flower seedlings are showing including more of the fireking wallflowers which have been so spectacular already this year, sweet william and stock The stock plants from last year growing in the park garden boundary are smelling wonderful and give nice colour. The huge Russian marigold (calendula) are wonderful and the leeks have suddenly begun to produce flowers so will be wonderful for the bees who seem to love those nectar rich balls so much we found them curled up asleep in the balls last year. We are covering the containers with a living roof in order to draw attention to that spot and we hope this will highlight any attempt to cross over into the garden – it seems that folk are more likely to gaze out on something that looks nice than something that looks like everything else. The nasturtiums are beginning to come through again. They grow so fast. We hope the roof garden will be ready to take them soon so that we can leave them to grow crazy. The structure is good and strong with plenty of polycarbonate sheeting and metal for support topped off with pallets. After the nasturtiums have had their glory days, we will be trying more aubretia, thyme and alyssum which are scented and nectar rich there, hoping for a blast of colour next spring Hoping to put some thyme into the spaces in the chamomile lawn as well. The phacelia is beginning to flower now and should last right through til the second or third frost. The bees seem happy and are beginning to buzz around. We hope the primroses donated by LES will have brought more pollinators into the orchard. They began flowering in March and some are still flowering. We had our first lady bugs a few weeks ago, our first butterflies too and first bees earlier still. We even had a few bats early April, and it was nice to see a couple of swallows flitting through the trees in Elder park last week

I hope we can keep a freshwater source for all the wildlife – including Ferdi the Fox, but have had our stand pipe stolen so will have to rely on the rain water source which, like the water in the boating pond, sadly is a little suspect. Probably it is ok for plants, but for living beings, like fracked waters probably not the best