It's Spring 

Or it's supposed to be according to the calendar.  Our beds are all prepared for planting and the polytunnel is bulging with plants ready to plant out.  However we are doing this really slowly with the help of horticultural fleece, as there is still the possibility of frost.  We are lucky this year, in that we have three more beds in our newly acquired Bog Garden.  This will give us room for more variety of plants.  The long dry summer last year saw some of the beds in the photo above, becoming in need of constant watering, which was a problem with a hose pipe ban.  So far we have planted Beetroot, Garlic, Onions, Lettuce, Carrots, Broad Beans, Peas and Potatoes.  We have some plants to spare if you want to get in touch.  Mainly Lettuce, Beetroot and Peas. 

Carley cutting her farewell cake.

  Carley who ran the Thursday afternoon sessions and is part of Growing Forward, has finally had her leg operation and is no-longer able to run the Thursday afternoon  sessions.  She has been replaced by Tara, an experienced community gardener.  There is plenty of space for new volunteers on both Monday and Thursday, so please drop in, or get in touch if you want to help.  It's a really peaceful space to be for a few hours and the rewards come in the summer when there is fresh produce for us all.

The Boots Team taking a break

  We owe a huge thanks to  the team of workers from Boots who have just done a blitz on our newly acquired Wild Garden, which was full of rubbish, ground coverings and excess brambles until yesterday.  We are hoping to use this for children's Forest School activities, as well as for the fruit from the trees and wild plants for eating and herbal remedies.  Lucy, the Nottingham Forager is going to use the space as a base too, which will mean that it will be kept as natural as possible.

Future Activities:

Monday 8th of May.  .SSBC session for under 4s in the morning.

Eat and Exercise sessions will be starting soon, thanks to funding from City Homes and Castle Cavendish and will run through the summer on Thursdays.  There will be a cooked meal using our produce and an exercise session such as arm chair yoga or dance.

Saturday 22nd July - Art in the Garden.  If you are an artist or crafts person and would like to exhibit, or run a creative session, please get in touch.

Rosie Jarrett.  20.04.2023

  

February 2023

FEBRUARY 2023

             We are busy preparing for the growing season at Windmill Gardens.  Over the winter, James and his volunteers have been repairing the raised beds and we have started creating more lower beds in the middle allotment.  Unfortunately, James has had to leave us for other work, but Anna, Connor and Bryn are carrying on with the repairs under Tracey’s watchful eye.

 

  The wildlife pond has filled with water and is looking good, but still needs more planting, which we will do as soon as the ice melts and plants are available.  Unusually for this time of year, the water table is low, so we can carry on making a willow fence and other obstacles to prevent children falling in.  There is also a small bog garden next to the pond, below some large willows, with more wetland plants. This area is now connected to the original allotments with a bridge style ramp to allow wheelchair access.

Wildlife Pond

Wheelchair Ramp

  Growing Forward have added a small polytunnel in the area to the left of this photo and are planning new activities for the coming year.  Vic has left for a new job and has been replaced by Rachel, an experienced community gardener.  Some of their ex clients have become involved with the main gardens and one of them – Becky, is helping to organise another art event in July.  Assia too has been really involved, particularly helping James with woodwork and volunteering at events.

  We had a major loss in a storm last autumn.  A freak gust of wind blew through the allotments, knocking down a wall and our mighty Eucalyptus tree. It also damaged a Contorted Willow nearby and part of our fence.  Fortunately the allotment committee were on the job straight away and cleared most of the timber, leaving us with this stump and a large log to make into a bench.  To be honest. it was a blessing in disguise as the tree was blocking light from the south.

Eucalyptus stump

  One big change at Windmill is that we can now be warm in winter, thanks to our super shed and this great woodburning stove:

It is super-efficient and doesn’t waste any heat, so has made break times and indoor jobs like sorting our seed collection, much more enjoyable.  We also have a dry, rodent-proof, space for storage.  Thanks Tim!

  Our fruit trees and bushes have been receiving some attention, having been tickled and sung to during the Wassailing event, and are now being pruned.  The joint Wassailing and Lohri event was well attended and enjoyable, apart from an un forecasted rain storm in the middle.  Many marshmallows were toasted and bikes serviced.  We also had an informative talk from Her Lohri, explaining how they help girl orphans in India. 

Wassailing the apple tree

Sustrans and Dr. Bike 

 

Volunteers from Her Lohri providing food.

  We will be holding two more events this spring – A celebration of all things Japanese, instigated by one of our volunteers, John, on March 4^th.   Also a Nowruz celebration around March 21^st, the Spring Equinox, date to be confirmed.  This is a Persian and Kurdish New Year celebration.  Of course you are always welcome at our regular sessions on Mondays 10 to 12pm and Thursdays 10 to 4pm.  You can just pop in for a warm up and look around if you don’t want to garden.

Rosie Jarrett 8.2.2023

 

WHATS ON AT WCG IN OCTOBER?

 

Welcome to the official blog for Windmill Community Gardens, Bobbersmill, Nottingham.

If you haven't visited us before, we are the first allotment on the left, on the track at the end of Ascot Road, which is off Aspley Lane, next to Bobbersmill Bridge.  Nearest postcode NG8 5HD

If you come by bus, then you need to catch the 77, 78 or 79 or Trent Barton 1, from Upper Parliament Street.  For the 77 get off at the Ascot Road stop, for the others the Aspley Lane stop.  (Same stop if you are coming in the other direction).

If you come by car, then please park at the end of Ascot Road and walk the last 100 metres, unless you have a disability, in which case please phone 07816899978 and we can open the bollard for you.

Our regular opening times are:

Monday - 10am to 1pm.

Thursday - 10am to 4pm

Feel free to drop in at any time.  Children are welcome if supervised.

Call 079816899978 or email wcgnottingham@gmail.com for more information.

Under 4's activities

Small Steps Big Changes are running a session on Friday 28th October from 10 am to 1pm.  For pumpkin fun and more.

Their normal activities include -

Food growing activities, Stories songs and rhyme and healthy food preparation.

Places are first offered to residents of Aspley, Hyson Green and Arboretum, so please check you have a place before coming by texting 07816899978 or emailing wcgnottingham@gmail.com

Older siblings welcome to attend.

Pumpkin Day Celebrations

Our annual Pumpkin Celebration will be on Sunday 30th October from 3 to 6pm

Pumpkin carving for children, pumpkin competitions for the best carvings and heaviest pumpkin.  

Food

Games

Spooky happenings

There will be pumpkin carving for adults beforehand, please contact the us, using the phone number/email address already given to book.

Growing Forward

Growing Forward, a social proscribing project, combining gardening and therapy, is based at Windmill Community Gardens.  For more information, please got to: 

Growing Forward | Facebook

 

Exciting News!

We asked you to vote for us, and you did!! Thank you so much!

We are delighted to tell you that we've won a Silver Award of £10,000 from Severn Trent Community Fund which will allow us to create a ramp to link up our current garden with a new area we've taken on!

This area floods in Winter, so the grant will also allow us to put in a raised path so we can make use of the site when it's wet, and it means we can put in a much needed pond + liner and some wonderful native plants. 

We'll be using some of the money to put in a lot more water storage on site, so more of the rain falling on the area can be used in the Summer when it's needed.

 The Supershed is Officially Open!

The official opening of our new Supershed! Thanks so much to the Sheriff of Nottingham, Merlita Bryan, for doing the honors and cutting the ribbon. We also have a huge number of people to thank for the creation of the shed, which was built for us bespoke, by James Trickey and a team of willing volunteers who he taught a wide variety of skills along the way. Funding for this much-needed building came mainly from the Health Lottery, with additional help from Castle Cavendish. With prices rising everywhere, the funding was only just able to stretch due to the generosity of many local suppliers who gave us discounts and freebies, including Lomax, Wickes, Permaroof, UK Timber's local sawmill and Irony (metal fabricators). Thanks to all!

We're really looking forward to having a useful space for cold and wet weather, which we know will help some of our volunteers to keep coming over the winter months instead of being isolated, and improve our ability to be a welcoming space for the whole community!

Big News!

Big news! We're really excited to tell you that we’ve been shortlisted for a grant of £10,000 from the Severn Trent Community Fund! We’re one of 10 projects competing for 6 grants in the Silver category, so it would be great if you could help us win by voting at www.stwater.co.uk/publicvote Anyone who lives in the Nottingham area can vote as you’re a customer of Severn Trent Water, but only 1 vote per household is allowed. People in the rest of the country in Severn Trent areas can vote too, so feel free to spread the word!

If we win, we’ll be using our grant to make more of the Community Gardens accessible for wheelchairs, as well as improving our ponds for wildlife and increasing our water-saving on site. 

It would be fantastic if you could help us get as many votes as possible. Bulwell Community Gardens and STAA at St. Ann's Allotments are also up for an award in the £20,000 Gold category, so people can vote for our project and one of their projects as well, as we’re in different categories.

And remember - voting finishes on 24th April at midnight! www.stwater.co.uk/publicvote

February at Windmill Gardens

 February at Windmill Gardens

 

The Hellebores and Snowdrops are out at last and the first Broad Beans are sprouting, so spring is on it's way.  Today I planted our first peas in the polytunnel.  We have to grow them suspended in lengths of guttering to prevent the mice having a feast.  However snow is forecast for Valentine's Day, so we are not being too hasty.

Our main work over the past few weeks has been coppicing the hedges and using the cut branches for poles or dead hedging.  We take the old dead wood out of the hedge first to burn, then replace it with new.  We have nearly finished cutting back the totally overgrown hedge at the boundary of our new plot.

Fortunately the man who rents the allotment on the other side of the hedge is a professional hedge cutter, so we hope that he will fell and cut back some of the trees on the other side, which are blocking the sunlight.  The pond and bog garden have been full of water for about two months, so should make a good home for wildlife.  We are still in the planning stages for planting, but we are collecting bricks for raised beds.  We are also preparing the top corner for a grass area and performance space.  The corner where the shed is, is going to be used by Growing Forward, Clare and Vic's mental health support project.  It will provide a safe space for their clients.

Meanwhile, James and his crew have been getting on with building the outdoor classroom.  I think it's looking pretty good, especially the cedar cladding.  The walls and roof have been been insulated and lined with wood.  They are just putting in the folding doors at the front.  James has reclaimed some pine boards from a skip for the flooring, so everything is well under control.  We are just waiting to see if we can get funding for the finishing touches, like the ramp and wood burning stove.

So we are well prepared for a new growing season, in another couple of weeks we will be preparing beds and planting seeds.  In the meantime we will be educating a class of school children on Friday, on the human digestive system, using home made props.  Great fun! 

Rosie Jarrett 7th February 2022