Millennium Square
A brilliant picture of the gardens in Millennium Square, which will soon be full of produce for the city!!
It’s been a bit cold
It’s been a bit cold and frosty, but that’s good news for the gardens!
Hopefully, the frost will have killed off some pests and diseases!
Castle Park
We began work on rearranging the garden in Castle Park this week.
Weeds were removed, strawberries rejigged to create edges and lots of broad beans were sown as green manure to feed and replenish the soil.
Next, we’ll introduce lots of long-lasting fruit bushes and shrubs along with underplantings of herbs!
Definitely watch this space!!
The peas!
These peas were sown in September as autumn sown peas ready for an early crop in 2023.
With the ongoing warmth, they’ve not just started flowering but are also putting on pods.
We’re yet to see if the pods swell before the weather gets cold.
A gentle reminder that whilst gardening and food growing is what we do, it’s 100% as a response to the climate crisis and that as we head into the mid-2020s, the crisis is, quite literally, heating up.
Our classroom at Cultivation Place
Just a corner of our classroom at Cultivation Place!!
We’re busy planning next year’s courses and workshops which we’ll be announcing mid November!!
In the meantime, our winter talks start this Thursday with the amazing Claire Ratinon.
Recruitment time
As we head towards October, it’s time to recruit our next team of core community gardeners.
This team works across the city gardens in Avonmouth, Millennium Square, Castle Park and Speedwell and will be key to an exciting new garden coming on board in 2023. The commitment is two-hour work parties per month, and our commitment in return is to share our skills and knowledge so within a year, each community gardener feels they have learned enough to start their own garden, allotment, balcony garden or even community garden!!
If you think this might be for you, drop us an email to sara@ediblebristol.org.uk, and we’ll get back with further details and how to sign up.
Numbers are limited as we want our core team to have the best experience possible, so don’t delay if you are interested.
Magical willow hedge
The magical willow hedge growing beautifully in its second year.
Willow is so important for so many reasons but growing it and using it as infrastructure makes it twice as useful!
Yarrow
The yarrow is starting to flower. We grow yarrow purposefully as it’s an important medicinal herb, which is used in herbal medicine to relieve many ailments. To some, it’s considered a weed. We’d politely disagree!
Welcome to 2022
As we head into the new year we are starting to open up opportunities for new core team members.
Our core team are the community gardeners that make all this work possible. They join us at work parties, at events and in gardens that we are supporting and get the occasional opportunity to visit places with us. And alongside that we promise to support them to learn growing skills, taking them with us on the journey of the seasons, sowing, propagating, planting out crops, maintaining them and then of course harvesting. Core team members need nothing but enthusiasm when they join us, and our gift to them is a year of practical horticultural skills……
To join the core team a commitment to join two of our four hour work parties per month is needed, but there’s no need for any skills or tools as we will bring those with us, to you.
Do you think this might be you? If you would like further information please do get in touch with us and we can have a conversation. The email to get in touch with us on is sara@ediblebristol.org.uk
Why we’re supporting Bristol Local Food Fund. (And you should too)
Across Bristol there are some extraordinary organisations doing extraordinary work but all of them, of us, struggle with the same thing and that’s bringing in enough cash to continue. About 1 in 9 bids are successful, and when you’re a tiny organisation working in your community fundraising often feels like it’s impossible.
Bristol Local Food Fund wants to create a more accessible funding field. By creating an opportunity for local, grassroots organisations to bid from the pot they are making, it will mean that money goes straight to the grassroots and immediately support food Justin the city. They’re planning on a citizen led panel to make decisions, they’re unashamedly making sure this money will only be available to the grassroots and they’re determined to support communities who are finding their own solutions!! They are creating a change in the funding system, and ensuring that change happens when it’s needed.
Of course we are also aware that life is tough right now. But here’s the thing. A couple of quid makes all the difference but also, shares on social media are really useful. In fact one share, retweet or regram is said to generate around £15 in funds.
So please can you help? Isn’t it time funding went straight into the organisations making change in the ground?