Welcome to the Secret Garden South of Bobber's Mill Bridge in Nottingham

Welcome to Windmill Community Gardens, home of the Climate Friendly Gardeners Project.

We are a group of local people, who are nurturing a wonderful community garden in the heart of the city. You'll find us just South of Bobbersmill Bridge, on the allotment site at the South end of Ascot Road. The Gardens are a great place where anyone can come to find out more about growing their own food in a changing climate. We cater for all abilities and welcome any nationality or age group.

Why not come and join us?

Thursday 19 September 2024

AUTUMN NEWS 

It's that time of year again when the Pumpkins and Squash are maturing nicely ready for our celebrations at the end of October.  This year they will culminate on Sunday 27th of October with our Carving Competitions, Spooky Trails and Games, Autumnal Delicacies, Tombola and a Light Show. If you want to have a go at Pumpkin Carving, please let us know, as we will be having several carving workshops leading up to the event.


We will also be holding a Harvest Supper for Volunteers and Workers on Tuesday 8th October at the site.  So if you have volunteered in the past, but are unable to at the moment, please come and join us and bring food to share.

Make A Difference Awards

We were entered into the BBC's Make a Difference Awards this year.  Someone visited the site and interviewed Tracey and photographed us working. The video was shown to the judges and we were shortlisted for the Green Award.  Mary, Bryn and myself attended the presentation at Nottingham College and were well fed and watered by the college catering students.  There were four groups in our category, The Beeston Bike Shop, The Hucknall Wildlife Group and Kathryn Cooper from Sneinton who runs a group called Mini Growers which is aimed at helping pre-school children connect with nature.  Kathryn won the award, I'm sure because the children were so endearing! We do run sessions at Windmill for this age group with Small Steps Big Changes and they are proving very popular.  We were Highly Commended.


Bryn, Mary and Rosie at the awards with the BBC Regional News Deputy Editor.



Bio Blitz and Butterflies


Friday 2nd August, we had a Bioblitz at Windmill Community Gardens. Families and volunteers at the gardens took part in both a bioblitz activity, and the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme 'Big Butterfly Count'


Dr Linda Birkin was on hand to lead the activity, help with identification, and discuss what was found. All observations were recorded and uploaded to the ongoing Windmill Wildlife (1) project, using the iNaturalist app.


Everything was identified as best as possible on the day, from group of wildlife (e.g. 'bumblebee') down to specific species (e.g. 'Garden spider').


What did we find?

124 Species

We recorded 238 observations, covering 86 different species / groups. This included 16 species of butterflies / moths, 5 species of beetle and 8 species of hoverflies.  This brings the current (August 2024) total number of species recorded at Windmill Gardens up to 124!  This is dominated by insects and plants, so there's still plenty out there to find.  Please add your casual records to the projects as well as ones with photos/evidence: www.inaturalist.org/projects/windmill-wildlife

Unfortunately I can't copy all the documents that Linda sent us as they are in a difficult format, but if you are interested, please get in touch and I'm sure we can send you a copy: wcgnottingham@gmail.com

Below is a list of the bug species found:

 

Species list from Windmill Community Garden Bioblitz August 2024                                            

22 spot ladybird

Common wasp

Loosestrifes

Slug

7-Spot Ladybird

Dandelions

Lygus Bugs

Small white butterfly

Apple tree

Eurasian

Smoothwing

Marbled white

Soapwort

Apricot tree

Evening promrose

Marmalade Hover

Fly

Spear thistle

Asparagus Beetle

Garden Snail

Masked Bees

Speckled Wood

Batman Hoverfly

Garden spider

Meadow brown

Spider

Bindweed

Gatekeeper

Meadow Crane's-BilI

Stitch wort

Bird's-foot Trefoils

Globe thistle

Melanostoma

Syrphid hoverfly

Black ant

Globetails

Mint Moth

Th istle

Blackberry

Grasshopper

Nasturtium

Violets

Brown lipped snail

Green veined white

Peacock

Wheat

Bumblebee

Green bottle

Plantain

White Bryony

Bumblebee (carder)

Harlequin ladybird

Plum

Wild Carrot

Bumblebee (red tailed)

Holly blue

Pussy Willow

Woodlouse

Bumblebee (white tailed)

Hollyhock

Ragwort

Worm

Cabbage Bug

Honeybee

Raspberry

Yarrow

Calendula

Housefly

Red Admiral

Yellow Meadow Ant

Cinnabar Moth

Hypericum

Red ants

 

Coltsfoot

Large red slug

Red Soldier Beetle

Comma

Large white butterfly

Ringlet

 

Common Blue butterfly

Lavender

Robin

 

Common Globetail

Leafcutter bee

Sawflies

 

Common Mugwort

Lesser Hornet Hoverfly

Silver Y

 



Rosie  Jarrett 19.09.2024








Monday 17 June 2024

WORLD GARDEN WORDS

This Thursday, June 20th at 12 noon 

With Lunch and a look at all the different language words that people have come up with for gardening activities, tools and fruit and veg.


Refugee Week started on Saturday. We're proud to be a Garden of Sanctuary, so we're marking the week with a lunch on Thursday 20th June starting at 12noon. This is to celebrate the end of our "World Garden Words" project, a collection of words from as many languages as possible, covering the basic tools, jobs and crops of our community gardens. We aim to make this available to anyone it could be useful for. We have about 35 languages currently, but if anyone would like to help us add to that number, please use this link: https://forms.gle/Z4KBkmP5KHEN5Q366As always, refugees are welcome to come to our gardens, and we're happy to support with plants, seeds and crops if anyone wants to grow where they live - we can help if you have access to a garden or just a windowsill.

As always, refugees are welcome to come to our gardens, and we're happy to support with plants, seeds and crops if anyone wants to grow where they live - we can help if you have access to a garden or just a windowsill.



LITHE LUNCHES

Thursday June 27th, July 11th & 25th, then fortnightly until October.
11am for yoga, gardening or food preparation, shared lunch @ 12 noon.






FEEL GOOD GARDEN PARTY

Join us on Saturday 20th July from 12 noon to 4pm

Come and discover lots of ways to feel good as you wander round our gardens.
Foraging, forest bathing, yoga, live music, garden café, arts & crafts, massages, herbal walk, circus skills
Our green urban space brings together people of all abilities, local & diverse communities
This event will help us raise money for our charity, all donations welcome