Merry Christmas!

Wishing all of our members and supporters a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Once again we've had a busy year from the planting of the orchard in Hilly Fields at the start to harvesting and juicing apples in the Autumn and of course the ongoing work at Brockley Station on the community garden.

We leave you with a couple of images of the last session of the year at the community garden to rake and cut the wildflower meadow.

We hope to see you in the New Year.

Meeting Update

In a concerted effort to keep people up to date with what's happening at meetings should members not be able to attend we will try and publish a brief resume of what was discussed alongside the date of the next meeting and events coming up.


Outcomes from Meeting 11.10.11 at Browns of Brockley


Local Timebank


Discussion around possibility of engaging with local timebanking community, to help source participants for activities but also to help to increase diversity of the transition town. Maria to investigate further.


Fruit Harvesting 2011

Background

Brockley has an abundance of fruit trees and a lot of fruit goes to waste because the fruit isn't picked. We're following on the heels of others. See:http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/18/fruit-abundance-picking

The main aim is to highlight the contribution that food makes to our carbon footprint (around 20%) and ensure that the harvest from local fruit trees doesn't go to waste, by organising groups of volunteers to go and pick from people's back gardens or trees overhanging the pavement.

Transition Brockley has organised several picking outings over the course of August, September and October. A dozen volunteers have picked from half a dozen back gardens in the Brockley area. There's no doubt that walking around the area with a fruit picker does invite questions and perhaps we have inspired some people to pick their own fruit. (we certainly had questions about where to buy pickers). In early October, we did our final picking session and took some of our pickings along to a juicing event at Honor Oak Park allotments where a large group was engaged in chopping, mashing and juicing apples and pears. The end product was delicious.

Reflecting on the fruit harvesting at the October meeting we noted that difficulties were:

-not knowing how many volunteers were going to turn up

-making sure fruit trees were going to be ripe at the time of proposed harvesting. This in effect means that much has to be organised at the last minute, at a time when the tree owner can be around.

Suggestions for the future were:

-start earlier to catch the plums! Some were picked this year but there were more.

-alongside organising occasional groups of volunteers to pick, we could encourage people to advertise excess fruit on freecycle

-such advertising could be done using posters on trees on roads where we know there are lots of fruit trees.

-if we wanted to get more people we could make use of the Rushey Green time bank which is very active.

As well as sharing out fruit, we also hope to stimulate discussion about other ways in which resources can be shared.e.g. Do you know of others to add to this list? If so, please email us.

Garden Share 
Are you looking for a plot of land to grow fruit and veg on? Or do you have a garden which is neglected and would be happy for someone to use part (or all) of, to grow food? Transition Brockley are investigating matching up available plots with growers. If this might suit you, please email us.

At a national level see http://www.landshare.net/

Freecycle 
Online facility to dispose of items you no longer need to someone who can make use of them. Please see here for details.

Hire your neighbours car (fully insured). See: http://www.whipcar.com/

Lend and borrow everyday objects, skills and spaces. See: http://www.ecomodo.com/

e.g. borrow a power tool - Apparently the average productive time of a drill in its entire lifetime is about 12-13 minutes. http://www.nesta.org.uk/blogs/assets/blog_entries/do_you_own_a_drill


Community Garden at Brockley Station


Volunteers met on Saturday 15th October to prepare the plot for the winter. The new sign is almost ready and will show what we have planted during the winter. The next session down at the garden is on Saturday 3rd December from 2-4pm. Please bring your own gloves and tools and remember that gardening is of course at your own risk so please bear this mind.


Draughtbusting Session 
Going ahead on Sat 29 October from 11 to 1.00pm. Address details to follow.

Mini-Meadow 
Meadow at the orchard plot on Hilly Fields to be cut then raked up within next week. Orchard carers to be contacted.

London Lead on Low Carbon Economic Growth
Event being organised at City Hall discussed and details forwarded to those in group interested in attending.


South East London Transition
Members of different South East London transition town groups met on Saturday 22nd October to share thoughts. Feedback soon!

Hilly Fields Orchard Update

Fran has been in touch with an update on the orchard at Hilly Fields which by all accounts appears to have been a great success this year with the addition of a couple of pear and mulberry trees and the mini meadow.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR LOOKING AFTER 
THE APPLE, PEAR AND MULBERRY TREES ON HILLY FIELDS!

All the trees are looking very healthy - well watered and free of weeds.  New laminated labels have been attached  to replace the worn-out ones.  In our usual weather pattern there would be lots of rain now and much cooler temperatures, and we wouldn't need to water any more until next April.  However, given the high temperatures and dry spell we are having, if you aren't already doing so, it would be a good idea to give the trees a soak until autumn proper sets in!

The mini-meadow has  been really colourful and there are still poppies and ox-eye daisies in flower, but once they all stop flowering, they will need to be cut down, left for the seeds to set for 4-5 days and then the cuttings will be raked up so that there's no mulching down of the dead plants (this gives too  much nutrient which meadow flowers don't need).

Apart from that, I'd just like to say that you've all done a great job, and after the meadow management there shouldn't be anything to do until next Spring, but we will be Wassailing the trees in the New Year to help them grow!  

Hilly Fields Mini-Meadow Update

Fran has emailed us some photos of the mini meadow at the orchard site on Hilly Fields which includes a couple of poppies and is generally looking very healthy which bodes well for a potentially larger meadow area in the future.

The meadow was planted in early May and is part of Transition Brockley's own contribution to the River of Flowers project which aims to increase biodiversity and improve wildlife corridors. For more information on the overall project go to the River of Flowers website. Transition Brockley have been mapping the existing meadows within the borough of Lewisham as part of a much larger project within London and nationwide.

Community Gardening down at the Common

Brockley Cross Action Group chair, Rupert has been in touch to tell us of the next planned gardening session down at the station which is happening on Sunday 12th June from 2-6pm. We've recently been discussing details of watering and maintenance going forward for both our garden and the adjacent beds and it looks like we'll be helping out with their watering and vice versa. Details below:
The planting beds and the edible garden are looking very well and appreciated the recent rainfall. The new meadow is only just beginning to shows signs of life and will need a lot more work to get it established. We are due another community planting day to carry out the following activities:
 
1. WATERING. As from next week we will be organising a weekly watering rota to water the main planting beds, the 2 new Cherry trees, the edible garden and the new meadow. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS! Watering equipment will now be stored at Turning Point on Coulgate Street and the proposal is for a pair of nominated volunteers to carry out watering in each week up to the end of August. The watering will take about 3 hours to complete each time BUT with a load of volunteers (we have about 20 already!) I doubt volunteers will be asked to water more than twice in the summer. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO VOLUNTEER FOR THE WATERING ROTA PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I will be preparing a list of volunteers this week to let Turning Point know (for security reasons etc). We will go through the watering arrangements this Sunday so if you want to know the score come along!
 
2. REPLACEMENT PLANTING. BXAG have purchased some replacement plants to fill in the spaces where we lost a few plants last winter. I have been waiting to put these in but needed the weather to break first - it looks like it has for now.
 
3. WEEDING. The weeds never rest despite all the mulch!
 
I therefore propose we meet up at 2.00 this coming SUNDAY 12th JUNE to carry out another afternoon of community gardening. We will be on site from 2.00-6.00.
 
As before just bring stout footwear. BXAG will provide tools, gloves and refreshments at the Broca Cafe.
 
Hope to see you on Sunday! 

Mini Meadow in Hilly Fields

Saturday saw the planting of small test area of wildflower seeds at the site of the orchard in Hilly Fields. We have planted this area as a tester to see how this area of the park takes to wildflowers. If it is successful then there are plans to plant a much larger area of wildflowers which will become part of Lewisham's 'River of Flowers' which we talked about here.

Fran, who co-ordinated yesterday's event had this to say to the volunteers who helped out:

A huge thank you to all who worked so hard today - it was really tough going but you managed it and I attach some photos (see above and on Flickr) of the digging, seeding and enjoyment of the job completed!  Just as well it was only a small area...let's hope we have a good display.  


If the weeds encroaching are a problem I'll either mulch round the plot or pin down some membrane.  Any help with watering and picking out the odd weed would be great.

River of Flowers

We've briefly mentioned the River of Flowers project before as something we have been discussing at our meetings so here's a bit more information about it and what we're doing locally:

The 'river' in River of Flowers is an evocative way of describing the planting of urban meadows in 'pollination streams' or 'green corridors' in order to help our pollinators, bees, butterflies and hoverflies, find forage in the city. It describes the flight path of the pollinators as much as it does the flow of wildflowers. Having started in north London, River of Flowers is expanding rapidly through London. It has contacts in east London via its connections with the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park and The Golden Company, with west London via the Kensington& Chelsea Meanwhile Wildlife Garden and Living Medicine and with south London via the Walworth Community Farm and Roots and Shoots.

Our transition group is mapping the current wildlife areas in the borough and we have signed up to join the London branch of the River of Flowers. This is part of a nationwide campaign supported by The Co-operative who state that "the UK has lost an alarming 97 per cent of its wildflower meadows since the 1930s and this has had a major impact on pollinator numbers. The number of honeybees in the UK has halved in the last 25 years, and three quarters of butterfly species and two thirds of moths have seen population declines since the 1970s".   Unless this habitat is reinstated there could be disastrous consequences on our production of food.

Here in Brockley we're running a sample wildflower meadow at the orchard site on Hilly Fields which we're planning to plant later in May (more details below) - something which, if successful will be of benefit to both the orchard and the parks diversity. There is also the recently planted wildflower meadow adjacent to the community garden at Brockley Station. These projects will be included in a mapping of Lewisham's wildflower sites which we are undertaking which will be added to the London wildflower map and is effectively a new 'stream' to the 'river'.


Meadow Flower Pilot
Would you like to join us to plant a very small area of the orchard site with wildflowers?  

This is the background....Our Transition Group, Friends of Hilly Fields and a couple of orchard 'carers' have been discussing how we can help to increase the planting of wildflower meadows in order to provide more habitat for pollinating insects, and thought a good way to start would be to pilot a small area at the orchard site. 

This is the plan.......

1.  Time and venue:  Sat 7 May 2.00 to 3.00 at Orchard Site on Hilly Fields.

2.  Remove turf from an area approx 6' x 5' (site agreed with Glendale).  Rake ground and scatter meadow flower seed.  Cover with chicken wire (pegged down well) to avoid disturbance from foxes and dogs (and to be taken up once plants start to grow through and cover the ground).

3.  'Plant' small sign to tell people what's growing.

4.  Water plot at regular intervals as needed.

5.  In the autumn, cut the flowers to let seeds set and after 4- 5 days rake up the cuttings to compost elsewhere (meadow flowers thrive on poor soil).

All hands will be welcome!  Bring gloves and (if you have one) a spade.  Can you join us?

Wildflower Meadow - Brockley Common

Just a reminder that this weekend sees the first session in creating a wildflower meadow at the northern end of Brockley Common. BXAG chair, Rupert writes:

Work has already started on the new 2011 Edible Garden - it's time to start work on the creation of the wildflower meadow! This will be located mainly on the steep bank right at the north end of Brockley Common, below the Edible Garden and next to the railway bridge.

The bank is currently overrun with weeds. The plan is to grub out all of the existing weeds, prepare the soil and sow a flowery wildflower meadow that will attract bees, butterflies and other insects while also creating a very visible splash of colour for everyone to enjoy at the junction of Coulgate Street and Brockley Road.

The idea is to sow a mix of annuals and a meadow mix together. The annuals will provide a quick splash of colour later this year while the meadow mix will develop into a more permanent feature in subsequent years - well that's the plan!

But it is going to need a lot of work just to prepare the site, so we need lots of volunteers! Can you come and help us?

The key dates are as follows:

PREPARATION DAY: SUNDAY 17th APRIL, 1.00-6.00pm.

PLANTING & SEEDING DAY: GOOD FRIDAY 22nd APRIL, 1.00 - 5.00pm.

Depending how we get on other evening gardening get togethers may be added in the w/b Monday 18th April.

As always BXAG will provide tools, gloves and refreshments. All you need to do is wear stout footwear and some warm clothing! I do hope to see you on one or both of the days - there will be various other maintenance chores on the Common as well, so the more the merrier! Note: no previous gardening experience necessary!

*UPDATE*
Transition member John will also be building some compost bins on the site so that we can properly compost the green waste which is already there and needs sorting for future use. If you would like to help then please come along from 1pm on Sunday.