Elder Farm Community Garden
Garden Update Jan 2015 - about time we had some kind of garden update
What is going on what gives and what takes - some answers from the previous update :
Tires - it seems that there are plenty of folk out there who don’t like our tires however Glasgow Scientific Services did not feel it was worth their time to come along and check to see if they were poisoning the ground, so... what exactly does this mean ? Who knows
Survivor potatoes and no dig gardening – well we had so many potatoes last year but they did not taste very good. Also while most were edible and there were hundreds everywhere, you could hardly put your fork into the bed without finding a pocket of potatoes, many were spoiled either because they were green or because they were riddled with millipedes.
We tried to get wood chip last year without success and went for almost 2 months without rain using the pond water to water new plants and plants with shallow bases – we planted lots of plants in June just before it stopped raining!! We put roof gardens on top of containers to absorb the rain waters and also provide more pleasing picture from the neighbouring windows and then it stopped raining, so the gardens took a while to take and will need more work this year
Folk did not come into the garden much this summer despite the expense of locks and keys and more locks and more keys. And of course these were paid for mostly by MB, because we still do not have a bank account and therefore do not have any funding. We mostly rely on our own funds and gifts - and we received a few of these this year including some beautiful pots and work tools
Because folk did not come into the garden the strawberries were disappointing, but we got them going again and they lasted until the winter
Not much problem with slugs this year, even though we did not have a lot of wood chip
Chucked the ones we found over the wall into the park and front garden. We had some nice cabbage and finally brussel sprouts which have not grown before, and this winter loads of turnip and potatoes. Beetroot and cauliflower were good and of course loads of marrow, cucumber, courgette and squash. Beans and peas were rubbish which has not happened before, and as usual the phacaelia went wild
The fruit bushes were quite good, the gooseberries were delicious and finally we got a couple of apples from Ding in the orchard. Very nice. I really don’t know why the older kids need to pick them off while green and chuck them around the garden – such a shame. Found our only melon kicked to death last year too but not too much damage. A fire in the orchard has brought about decision to put hugel beds on the boundary in which we hope to grow fruit and flowers including climbing roses from out own cuttings
The summer was very dry, but we finally managed to bring water in around the end of July
Total Ground Care as usual did their bit bringing in compost and clippings for beds. They gave some members work experience and training and allow trained members to use their equipment as well as mow our grass and trim our hedges
We have now found a tree surgeon to bring in wood chip and we also get the odd bits of wood which we can use for edging beds – we have been making new beds under the firs and along the borders and finally have decided to put beds and bug cover in and around what was the old kitchen area – why not? We are hoping to create some bedding outside the boundary around the old cherry, but apparently it also needs to be pruned to stop fruit drop. It is such an old tree not sure how to begin to go about this but hoping to get advice from professionals when tree is in blossom (apparently this is the right time to prune) Also hoping to get professionals to cut down the goat bush outside the orchard fencing to bush level to a/ hide the fence b/ allow light in to grow the home grown rose cutting.
We continue to need workers. There was some great artwork on the walls and banners and we hope folk will return to give promised workshops. Promise of engineering alternative works too - fingers crossed :)