Goldsmiths Community Permaculture Event

Ruth recently posted this up on the Transition Lewisham email circular with details of a workshop children with the aim of looking at nature in a new way. Details below:

GOLDSMITHS COMMUNITY GARDEN

is hosting a free fun-packed permaculture
 day for parents with children age 6 – 12

Saturday 15th September ~ 11am to 3pm

LOOK AT NATURE …..IN NEW WAYS!

Discover PATTERNS IN NATURE

Learn about theWEB OF LIFE

(how plants & animals are connected)

and help build a HERB SPIRAL!

Where: Room 3, Goldsmiths Community Centre, Castillon Road, SE6 1QD

Map: http://www.goldsmithscommunitycentre.info/#/contact-us/4534120561

Bring a packed lunch or lunch to share

Refreshments provided: Drinks, fruit and biscuits

Maximum 3 places per family (eg 1 parent + 2 children).

There are 15 places in total

 For more information / to book please email:

organicgardener@yahoo.co.uk

Brockley Station Garden Update

Quick update on the Brockley Station garden which has suffered badly from slugs and snails meaning that there hasn't been much food to pick however there is some now! Val informs us that:

The strawberry plants have lots of fruit which should be ready in the next ten days. There is one globe artichoke ready to pick.Apart from that the garden has been mainly taken over by flowering
plants and mint.

There are also tomato plants which are looking healthy however the courgettes haven't done so well.

Please pop along and if you do pick please only take what you need and remember to tell others about the plot alongside helping out at gardening events!

Thanks

Big weekend of activities!

We have a big weekend for Brockley coming up!

Firstly, on Saturday 23rd June is the Hilly Fields Fayre which I'm sure many of you may have been planning to attend. We are participating again and sharing a space with the Brockley Cross Action Group. The Fayre takes place from 12-4pm.

 
Following the Hilly Fields Fayre there is a major community gardening day taking place on Sunday 24th June - please see above flyer for details. This is a joint event with BXAG. There's lots to do some please come along and make it a sucessful day!

Thanks in advance and look forward to seeing many of you!

Progress Update

GARDENSHARE GETS GOING!!

Clearing has finally begun in a large and uncultivated back garden of a council-owned house in Breakspears Road by two local people who will be growing fruit and vegetables. We have been working for some time with the Brockley PFI (who manage the property) to facilitate a 'gardenshare' at the property. The aim is to match up local people on allotment waiting lists with nearby gardens which are neglected for various reasons (often attracting litter) and crying out to be put to a useful purpose!  With the full approval of the tenants, and support from the PFI, it is hoped that the scheme will be extended to other gardens and help those who are keen to 'get growing'. Two other 'gardenshares' in the area (at privately owned or rented properties) have been facilitated by Transition Brockley and if you would like to join this scheme, either as a gardener or to offer part of a garden, please email Fran (fr2rogers@gmail.com).

Clearing one of the gardenshare properties

'Gardensharers'

FRUIT PICKING ON THE RISE AT BROCKLEY STATION?

We have also put in a bid to the Council for funding to construct two raised beds at the community edible garden (next to Brockley Station) for growing soft fruit. Broad beans will have been picked before this is circulated but keep an eye out in June for the strawberries which are currently looking very healthy!

BROCKLEY ENERGY

An energy group has been initiated to tackle the issues of reducing CO2 and energy costs, and several people recently took up the offer to Transition Brockley of having a free Home Energy Saving Survey carried out at their homes. 

HILLY FIELDS GOES WILD AT FLOWERS!

The mini wildflower meadow at the orchard on Hilly Fields (next to the Stone Circle) has been extended, inspired by the brilliant patch of colour and extra habitat for pollinating insects it provided last year. Local residents care for the young apple and pear trees by weeding and mulching and by watering through the summer months. 

Last years meadow

Hilly Fields Orchard Wassailing - an artistic view

Back in February we held our second wassailing event at the orchard on Hilly Fields. Amongst the group was a  local artist, John Kerry, who as I think you'll agree has managed to really capture the essence of the day, bounding around in snow and wishing the trees well!

Brockley Road Tree Planting Update

All,

 

You may recall that last year we made a successful joint bid with the Brockley Society and Brockley Cross Action Group for Brockley Assembly funding for new trees along Brockley Road. I can now report that the installation of the trees happening as we speak! Rupert from the BXAG has provided an update on the works below:

 

BROCKLEY ROAD TREE PLANTING

Works have commenced on the tree planting project on Brockley Road, outside the main shopping parade.

Last year the Council widened the pavements outside the shops as part of a road safety project funded by TfL, but had no funds for any pavement enhancements. So BXAG teamed up with Transition Town Brockley, who submitted a successful bid to the Brockley Assembly for £4600 to cover the cost of new tree pits & trees along Brockley Road.

Following a series of meetings with Council officers we now have an agreed scheme to plant six trees, three on each of the pavement extensions. We would have liked to plant trees elsewhere on Brockley Road but there are underground services in most locations making the excavation of the tree pits impossible.

In a change from the usual single tree in a pit approach three trees will each be planted in a rectangular tree pit approx. 7 metres long by 1.2 metres wide, at 2 metre spacings. This will make a much greater impact and will create more of an “urban forest” effect. The bigger pits, with over 800mm depth of new topsoil, will provide more room for root growth and rainfall catchment so should give the trees a better chance of survival. The bigger pits will also enable the community to colonise them at a later date e.g. to plant spring flowering bulbs.

The tree species we have chosen is a lovely native tree Whitebeam (Sorbus aria), which has greyish green foliage, white flowers in early summer and red berries (much loved by birds) in autumn. They have an attractive shape and won’t grow too big, so there should be no worries about shade. They will be planted as large standard specimens up to 4 metres tall and will be protected against damage with ornamental tree guards. The overall appearance of the tree planting should really lift the public realm along Brockley Road and provide some much needed greenery.

We hope the Whitebeam tree will in time become Brockley’s main signature tree, planted e.g. around Brockley Cross and along Coulgate Street. This will help strengthen Brockley Cross’s identity.

The council have assured us the trees will be watered regularly as part of a contract. Watering may be something the community could also get involved in, to ensure our trees survive the inevitable droughts that will come our way.

The works should be completed by the end of March.

If you have any questions or comments please contact the BXAG via their website www.brockleycrossactiongroup.

Meeting notes 21.02.12

Working groups

Several potential working groups had been discussed at the last meeting and the idea of a visioning group had arisen at the film evening. At this meeting we divided into small groups to give some thought to three of these which were of particular interest to those at the meeting. Some groups were a combination of more than one of the earlier raised possible groups.

Headline messages from these groups were:

Energy

The remit of this group could vary enormously depending on the ambition of the group. Brixton would be a good group to learn from as it has a lot of work underway in this area. A separate Energy meeting is being set up.

Engaging the community/skill share/ visioning

This group talked about developing a sentence which reflected what Transition Brockley is about and the possibility of a 'visioning group' to help do this. It also committed to engage with the new community centre based at the Crofton Park library.

encouraging sustainable consumption & recycling.

This group touched on the importance of developing a vision for the group, such that when people from the group are talking to members of the local community they can reasonably quickly and simply explain what the group is about and why it is doing the things it's doing. The group, could for example, go and talk to people at the new Brockley market. Possibilities included looking at helping people with composting, developing a community compost heap at the station plot, promoting recycling, up-cycling events, making things, reducing use of plastic bags, moving from sharing fruit in the local community (part of last year's fruit harvesting) to sharing other community resources e.g. via freecycle/freegle or toolshare websites. It was thought that it would be useful to ask the Council when they visited the group how it could support recycling efforts.

Discussions on these can continue at the next meeting and an energy meeting will be taking place before then.

Next meeting

Wednesday 21^st March, 7.30pm. Venue: tbc

Updates

• weeding hour, Sunday 11^th March, 2-3pm, at Brockley station
• Transition gardening: Sunday 22^nd April, 10-12 at Brockley station
• Sat 25^th February Freecycle event at Syndenham Park
• The bid for the fruit garden at the community garden at the station would be going in soon. It is under discussion with BXAG.
• Collaboration with the scouts was under investigation.
• Sunday 26^th 12-4.30pm – Gardening with Brockley Cross action group
• New pop up cinema at forest hill would be screening H2Oil. Date yet tbc. See: http://www.thelittlegreenscreen.org/home.shtm