Community Garden Updates: October

Communities and Education Officer, Viktoria, gives us the latest news on the community garden this Autumn.

'Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.' Emily Bronte

Autumn is truly my favourite time of the year, and I`m always looking forward to the magical colours, the falling leaves, fantastic displays of fungi, berries and conkers, as well as murmuration and changing landscapes. It`s also harvest season in the garden. In September and October, we have been busy harvesting the fruits and vegetables that our groups had been growing from seedlings, learning how to use them sustainably, and cook them at home. We also learnt about how to prepare for the colder season whilst protecting wildlife and creating habitats for winter. Here is a summary of our autumn activities-we had a busy but very enjoyable time.

Gardening club:

September: We had a pizza making session during the September club. The children harvested some really nice and sweet tomatoes, some runner beans, and raspberries. We used the tomatoes from the garden to make tomato and cheese pizzas-some of the kids enjoyed the session so much, they took some of the harvested tomatoes and were planning to do some more cooking at home! What better way to start cooking home made food, that is much more healthier than going to fast food restaurants or having processed food. We also used some delicious herbs from the garden, basil and rosemary were the most popular-perfect for some extra flavour to tickle the taste buds.

October: Following the success of the previous club, we had scary pizza making as preparation for Halloween. The children dressed up in Halloween costumes and created some really great pizzas (they were very scary!) Who would have thought that some mushrooms, olives, and cheese slices can be so frightening with the right shaped pizza base. We had mummies, skulls, bats and spooky faces-great warm up for trick or treating!

Upcoming Family Eco-Gardening Club dates you can join us for: 15th November & 13th December. Book here.

Community group visits:

September: Beaver Tour for Growild Outreach – Beaver Ben very kindly offered to give a tour to our regular community group. On a very windy Monday morning the group had an exciting time visiting the beaver enclosure. Ben showed us around and talked about the project, showed some interesting evidence of the beavers` activity. A great time was had by all, followed by a crafting afternoon session when we had been creating pinecone beavers. Huge thank you to Ben for taking the time and showing the groups around. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19tvbVz5BR/

The garden is located next to Delta pit, with just a fence between them, so the groups often say how good it would be to go and see what`s happening on the other side of the fence- they were not disappointed, and saw plenty of evidence of the activity of our eco-engineers.

October: Both Growild Outreach and Cando Cooperative Care had autumn fun. Cando Cooperative Care enjoyed decorating the wooden shapes for the garden trail, and we also painted some colourful autumn leaves, using coffee filter paper. This is a very good technique to create blended colours, so it`s perfect for creating autumnal designs. Growild had two similar activities, and they made an autumn display too, whilst learning about why leaves change colour this time of the year. As the weather is turning cold and wet, we are going to stay indoors for the winter with the groups. If the weather is suitable, we will still plan either a walk on the reserve, or a short visit to the garden, as part of their monthly visit.

Other activities at the community garden:

September: Higham Beavers visit: on a nice and mild September evening 18 5–6-year-olds came to visit the garden. The 1^st Higham Beavers group were very excited about completing their gardening award, planting some spring bulbs, and doing some litter picking on the Greenway. They really enjoyed their time, and would like to come back next year for some more sessions. They were very keen to take part in a little art project, and many of them returned their wildlife related artwork. The theme was `What I love most in nature` and we had some great designs, such as a barn owl, a sunflower and a lion (why not) , several hedgehog drawings, as well as ladybirds, tulips, and my favourite, a `woodlis`. The artwork will be transferred into an interpretation sign and will be displayed in the community garden. The children and their families are looking forward to seeing their drawings (with their names!) displayed in the garden. I met one of the families on the other day, and they told me that they visit the garden every week now, as their son is so keen to see the bulbs starting to bloom- this might be a bit longer wait, but it`s lovely to have enthusiastic kids- hopefully this is the beginning of their gardening journey of a lifetime. In September, this little boy told me that gardening is for old people, his grandma is doing it all the time, and he will definitely not do anything like that-look at him now, checking out the things he planted! This is how I started at my grandparents’ farm many years ago, and gardening is still my passion!

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October:

we had an autumn garden trail- wooden shapes like leaves, pumpkins, hedgehogs, bats, spiders, and owls were decorated by community group members, and clue sheets were displayed with information about how to help wildlife in autumn/winter time. Many thanks to our garden volunteer, Kyle for helping to put up the signs in the garden.
A new bench, donated by the Swivel club had been assembled and now it`s offering more space for visitors to enjoy the autumn colours in the garden. This was the second part of the donation from the Swivel club, as well as the picnic bench and table we installed this summer. They are planning to put plaques on both pieces of furniture with their name and date of donation on them. We are very grateful for the donations, they will provide the community with extra spaces in the garden area, so they can either enjoy activities, or just have some relaxing time and enjoy the colourful plants and wildlife.
We created a planter for the autumn/winter season, bursting with colours, and plenty of spring bulbs, already thinking ahead of spring. Now it`s time to plan a Christmas display with a Xmas tree, and natural decorations to help the birds that love to come to the garden area.
Half term activity in the garden: We had a pumpkin carving and cooking session-this is getting our traditional Halloween activity now, this was the third year we have welcomed families for this event. Like in previous years, pumpkins were kindly donated by Tesco Wellingborough branch. The families were engaging in proper team work, and they were carving and designing their Halloween pumpkins together. It was lovely to see some new faces too- the kids were exploring the plants in the garden together, which was heartwarming to see. We had a look at the two wormeries too, nothing is more suitable for Halloween than checking out the worms-we were lucky and loads of them were about! The families also enjoyed completing the garden trail and collecting their stickers. After finishing the carving, we learnt about how to reduce food waste, and how to use up innards and seeds. We used our favourite pumpkin pancake recipe, and the children proudly took action in measuring and mixing the ingredients and assisting with cooking. They had fun with using our spooky cookie cutters, so we had pumpkin and ghost shaped pancakes-cream and golden syrup were optional-used by all, of course. We were very lucky with the weather, the forecasted rain avoided the community garden, so we could enjoy the whole session outdoors. This was one of the last events outdoors, so I feel very lucky that we could enjoy it fully.
There are still many lovely autumn colours to enjoy in the garden-marigolds, calendulas, herbs and some courgettes are having an impressive display before the winter season. There are still many tomatoes , some are ripening, and will be ready in a few days, and harvested by some of the groups in the next few weeks. The plan is to make passata, as the groups really enjoy doing this, and this year we will try to make some green tomato chutney too.

Plans for the rest of the year:

In November we will be getting the garden ready for winter- we still have some vegetables and fruits to harvest. As mentioned, passata and chutney making is planned, and weather permitting, I would like to try our shiny, new giant firepit-perfect to toast some marshmallows! Some more autumn crafts are planned too, perfect for rainy days. If we are lucky to have some more sunshine, it will be great to have some walks on the reserve too, all group members love being in nature, it`s so beneficial for wellbeing. In December there will be Christmas wreath making and creating natural Christmas decorations-these are always popular, and everyone is so looking forward to the festive fun. Gardening club will be on for the rest of the year too, we will be learning about hedgehogs and decorating hedgehog bowls in November and doing festive nature crafts in December.

There is still a lot to look forward to in November while nature fades into winter, so let`s enjoy the beauty of the rest of the season-whether it`s in your own garden, on a nature reserve or during an autumnal walk. Here`s to some more golden colours and beautiful wildlife.