The Wonderful Pot Marigold

  We have so many Marigolds at Windmill this year that we are giving them away.  Some are already flowering and will bring you instant delight, others are still small and will flower over the summer.  They are not fussy plants, but prefer sun to shade and need a reasonable amount of water.  Marigolds attract pollinators and beneficial insects like butterflies and ladybirds to our gardens .  

As well as livening up our beds, Marigold flowers have many uses.  Katherine Bellchambers our friendly herbalist makes herbal remedies from the petals.  Calendula Officinalis has anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties.  If you come to one of her workshops you can learn how to make skin salve.  The petals can also be used in salads and to add colour to stir fries, soups etc.  Also dyes.  So please come along and take some.

The two other plants that we have enough of to give away are Horseradish and Borage.  Horseradish is very invasive, so not recommended for small gardens, but if you enjoy your Horseradish sauce and have space, then it is easy to grow.  The root is also very effective at clearing your sinuses when gated and chewed. If you don't have space to grow some yourself, then please come down and dig up some of ours!

Borage is a brilliant plant for bees and other pollinators and flowers all summer. Again it's quite a large plant, so needs space, but if it gets too large or in the way, it can be cut to make liquid compost or put on the compost heap. As well as being used to decorate your Pimms, the flowers can be used in salads and desserts.  The young leaves can be added to salads, cream cheese and yoghurt for a fresh cucumber like crunch.  The older leaves can be cooked like spinach.  So if you fancy growing some yourself, please come and help yourself to our spare plants.  They are potted up and ready to go.

Rosie Jarrett 9th June 2026

Feel Good Garden Party

 🥰Our bi-annual Feel Good Garden Party is back

😍 Sunday 12th July 12-4pm

❣️more tbc but there will plenty of well-being & mindfulness to join in with or just find your own space

Would YOU like to volunteer at Windmill Community Gardens?

If you're free on Monday mornings any time between 10am - 1pm, or on a Thursday between 10am and 4pm, we'd love to welcome you to Windmill Community Gardens as a volunteer. No prior gardening knowledge or experience is necessary and we welcome anyone who is interested.

Our morning sessions are mainly about gardening, and our Thursday afternoon sessions give you the added chance to learn and use woodworking skills to help renovate and upkeep our wonderful site. We have all the tools you'll need and session workers who can help you learn new skills or work out how the skills you already have can complement the site. 

And if you have health issues that mean you can't do heavy work, don't worry! We have lots of jobs which don't need muscles, like sowing seeds, painting signs, even using an app to see which birds we have in the garden at the moment - these are all activities that make a real difference! We try to cater for all abilities, so we have adapted tools and different kneeling and seating options to help people with strength. flexibility and stability issues, as well as an accessible loo!

On Thursdays, we provide a lunch, cooked on site, which you can help to prepare if you are interested in cooking, and in the Summer, we also have yoga sessions from 11am, which you can do in a chair, lying or standing so they are great for all abilities. 

If you can't manage to come during the week, we still have options for volunteering at weekend workshops and events, so let us know and we can link you up with our up-coming dates. And if you have the kinds of skills that we might use to run a workshop, please let us know too! 

 

Vote for us at Tesco

 😍 Tesco In-Store Vote - we need you!

🥰 Help us at Windmill Community Gardens OUTDOOR FUN

👨‍🌾 We are raising money for a holiday playscheme with a difference! Children can explore our wonderful community gardens, try some eco-activities and enjoy a delicious free lunch.

🙏 Please help us by voting with a BLUE TOKEN when you shop at Tesco stores listed below:

2183 Basford Express Express NG5 1JJ

2960 Nottingham Express Express NG1 3QE

5252 Cinderhill Express Express NG8 6AU

5368 Nottingham Hucknall Road Express Express NG5 1QZ

5628 Nottingham Castle Boulevard Express Express NG7 1SA

5653 Long Row Express Express NG1 6JE

5660 Fletcher Gate The Pod Express Express NG1 2HL

5705 Alfreton Road Nottingham Express Express NG7 5NH

5954 Nottingham Shakespeare St Express Express NG1 4FQ

5957 Nottingham Station Street Express Express NG2 3AJ

6213 Nottingham Ilkeston Road Express Express NG7 3EA

6416 Nottingham Canning Circus Express Express NG7 3JL

6430 Maid Marian Way Nottingham Express Express NG1 6GF

6735 Nottingham Upper Parliament St Exp Express NG1 2AD

To check the location of any of the above stores, please go to the Tesco website here: http://www.tesco.com/store-locator/uk

Additional information 

Please note the below advice in terms of do’s and don’ts before and during the voting period:

Do:

- Cast your vote as soon as you receive your token for a project in the current voting round

- Only submit Tesco

blue tokens to cast your vote

Feel Good Garden Party

 🥰 The plans for our bi-annual Feel Good Garden Party are well under way

Sunday 12th July between 12-4pm 

☯️ Some lovely well-being therapists being confirmed. Including massage, yoga, forest bathing, wiki & much much more. Please keep an eye on our event & posts for more details.

😋 Delicious food & refreshments on offer 

😊 This is a free event, however we always appreciate donations on a "what you can" afford.

s food

Plant & Seed Swap

🌼Plant & Seed Swap 

🏵Thursday 7th May

🌸5.30-7.30pm

🌱Bring along any spare seeds & plants you'd like to swap. If you don't have any, you're welcome to take plants & seeds home & give a give a donation if you're able. 

☕️Refreshments available 

😍All Welcome.  No need to book just come down to our beautiful urban gardens & share & swap you plants & seeds.

Time to relax and enjoy our hard work

Costoluto Fiorentino Tomatoes

After many months of hard work we now have plenty to show for our labours.  Much assisted by the weather, for although it has been hot and dry we haven't had a hosepipe ban.  This has meant that we have been able to keep watering, even when our rain water supplies run out.  Hopefully next year we will have even more tanks installed to catch the rainwater off our rooves.  The tomatoes and cucumbers have done really well in the poly tunnel.  The ones shown above are an Italian variety, which I planted far too many of.  All of them germinated and these are showing alien tendencies.  We certainly didn't subject them to radiation.  The small varieties have provided food for the under 4s to forage on their Friday morning sessions.  We have also had young foragers from the Spencer Trust, a group supporting LGBT+ families which Lucy our resident foraging expert is working with.  

Aaron and Jas with Beans.

  Some of our produce has been used in our weekly lunches.  These have been cooked by Toni and Aaron and Jas from Tiger Community Enterprise, alternating with Erica and our volunteers.  There have also been other cooks who have produced wonderful Pakora and Middle Eastern food.  We have been treated to vegan and vegetarian delights.  Really healthy tasty meals, made with some of our produce and accompanied by yoga sessions with Lisa Henry in the Orchard.  About 12.30 on a Thursday, people suddenly start appearing out of the bushes and we often end up with 15 or more people eating.  The following afternoon DIY and Maintenance session with Ben has prospered because of this and they have created a den from old palettes behind the kitchen, an arch for the rogue pumpkin to grow over and carried out various repairs.  They have also assembled 3 Teak benches which we have been donated.

Volunteers enjoying a Thursday meal.

Drew and Richard enjoying their hard work

Another reward for our hard work was an outing to Barnsdale Gardens near Rutland Water.  These are the gardens created by Gardeners World while Geoff Hamilton was presenting it in the 1980s and 90s.  They are now owned by his son and open to the public.  He was serving in the shop and very interested in our group.  We were worried that we might be too late for flowers, but we needn't have worried, there were plenty of the lovely gold and red autumn varieties and still some lovely roses.  The main part of the gardens is a series of example gardens for different types of property and effects, like First Time Garden and Reclaimed Garden, which had some interesting features.  One of the favourites was the Japanese Garden which was really peaceful with a pond and golden bamboo.  There was also a Stream and Bog garden with a trickling stream, which could have given us some hints for our bog garden, but unfortunately the water in ours doesn't trickle, it appears and disappears with the seasons.  My favourite was the Mediterranean Garden with grasses and plants growing out of gravel.  Giving a dry dusty appearance.  We were all impressed by the fruit, there were so many varieties of apples pears and crab apples.  We had to sample a few and we were allowed to pick up windfalls, but sometimes they just happened to fall off the tree when we were passing.  So many thanks to Tracey for organising the trip and Tracey, Shelagh and Dina for driving us.

Apple and Pear Pergola

Malus Sun Rival

John in the Japanese Garden

Bev enjoying the shade.

Rosie Jarrett 12.9.2025