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 8 December 2011

Merry Christmas One and All!

Well, we have made it to the end of the allotment year with a polytunnel that still has a cover on it! We were very glad of it, because we did some entertaining today, and the weather would have made it very difficult if we'd been outside.

Today was our last official allotment session this year, as Tracey has a training course next week, so we invited folk over to have a "fuddle" with us to celebrate the Festive Season, and had a delicious meal with our main volunteers and some of the Access to Nature group from Framework.

The polytunnel was looking lovely, as Helen and Phillipa had given it a good tidy up, and we had the lovely decorations created by New College volunteers to put up. We brought the picnic tables into the tunnel as well, so we could seat 12 in comfort, which was great as we got eleven!

The decorated polytunnel, thanks to New College Nottingham

As always, we made it a "cook and eat", using some of our pumpkins and onions to make a risotto, which went down very well (you'll find the recipe a bit further down). Rosie brought a fabulous blue cheese quiche which also used some of our spinach. Helen and Dan brought cakes and mince pies, Ellis contributed sausage rolls and crisps, Phillipa brought fruit and the Access to Nature group brought quiches sausage rolls and nibbles as well, so we had a great spread.

Thanks to all who could make it, and to the many others who have helped us during the year. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


Sitting down to a festive feast.


If you would like to try pumpkin risotto, here it is:

INGREDIENTS
1 Onion
Pumpkin / butternut squash
Rice
Vegetable Stock
Sage
Olive oil / organic butter
Strong tasting cheddar (so you need less cheese for the taste)


Finely chop an onion and fry until it softens in a little oil or butter. Add at least 4 times as much pumpkin as onion by volume, also finely chopped, and fry until the pieces start to loose their edges. Add 1 cup of rice (we used basmati) and 2 cups of vegetable stock (we used a low-salt version), and some finely chopped sage leaves to taste (we reckon about 5 big leaves per cup of rice). Cook until the rice has been boiling for 5 minutes, then turn it off and cover the pan in tea-towels to finish cooking in the retained heat - this will reduce the energy you use to cook the food by about a third. After about 15 minutes, grate some strong cheddar and stir into the risotto to taste (we used about 4oz per cup of rice).

Merry Christmas One and All!

Well, we have made it to the end of the allotment year with a polytunnel that still has a cover on it! We were very glad of it, because we did some entertaining today, and the weather would have made it very difficult if we'd been outside.

Today was our last official allotment session this year, as Tracey has a training course next week, so we invited folk over to have a "fuddle" with us to celebrate the Festive Season, and had a delicious meal with our main volunteers and some of the Access to Nature group from Framework.

The polytunnel was looking lovely, as Helen and Phillipa had given it a good tidy up, and we had the lovely decorations created by New College volunteers to put up. We brought the picnic tables into the tunnel as well, so we could seat 12 in comfort, which was great as we got eleven!
The decorated polytunnel, thanks to New College Nottingham

As always, we made it a "cook and eat", using some of our pumpkins and onions to make a risotto, which went down very well (you'll find the recipe a bit further down). Rosie brought a fabulous blue cheese quiche which also used some of our spinach. Helen and Dan brought cakes and mince pies, Ellis contributed sausage rolls and crisps, Phillipa brought fruit and the Access to Nature group brought quiches sausage rolls and nibbles as well, so we had a great spread.

Thanks to all who could make it, and to the many others who have helped us during the year. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sitting down to a festive feast.



If you would like to try pumpkin risotto, here it is:

INGREDIENTS
1 Onion
Pumpkin / butternut squash
Rice
Vegetable Stock
Sage
Olive oil / organic butter
Strong tasting cheddar (so you need less cheese for the taste)




Finely chop an onion and fry until it softens in a little oil or butter. Add at least 4 times as much pumpkin as onion by volume, also finely chopped, and fry until the pieces start to loose their edges. Add 1 cup of rice (we used basmati) and 2 cups of vegetable stock (we used a low-salt version), and some finely chopped sage leaves to taste (we reckon about 5 big leaves per cup of rice). Cook until the rice has been boiling for 5 minutes, then turn it off and cover the pan in tea-towels to finish cooking in the retained heat - this will reduce the energy you use to cook the food by about a third. After about 15 minutes, grate some strong cheddar and stir into the risotto to taste (we used about 4oz per cup of rice).

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Decorating in the rain

Today, if you were outside, you will have noticed it was very, very cold. We noticed because we were out in it this morning, working with volunteers from New College Nottingham who came to help us decorate the allotment for Christmas. They produced a wonderful array of art work for us. Some was aimed at helping birds - seed-decorated cards that we've hung in the hedges. Some was aimed at stopping pigeons eating the crops - painted CD's that will flash at them.



A great design - all made from bird seed set into vegetable lard

Another of the wonderful bird-feeder decorations

They also painted some totem poles for us which look amazing. We only managed to install 2 of those because of the weather, but they have given the place a great atmosphere.


Painting more poles in the polytunnel


Preparing a hole for a totem pole

Tamping in the pole

A finished pole with its creators.

The group had hoped to add some extra touches to the raised bed paintings that their predecessors had done earlier in the year, but the weather was against us, so, undeterred, they got down to work and helped us to finish weeding the last of the beds and to harvest the parsnip crop, now it's had a good frosting.

Some of the NCN volunteers help our regulars to finish clearing the growing beds.

Lifting parsnips
In return, we provided the willing workers with homemade Christmas biscuits and freshly made pancakes. Being us, we made the pancakes with pumpkin instead of milk, and lots of cinnamon, but sneaking in the veg didn't put anyone off, and each batch that Helen finished cooking was whisked away by eager hands.

Well done all. Thanks to the decorating team and also to the regular volunteers who were brilliant and helped clear up in the cold, heavy rain at the end of the session. We look forward to the New College team returning next year to finish painting the beds, when we hope to have the clay oven back in working order so we can thank them with pizza.

Thursday 1 December 2011

Getting the fruit cage ready for winter and some natural pest control

Fruit cages are useful things when the bushes are full of fruit and you don't want the birds to get the fruit before you have a chance to get to it yourself. They are less useful when it's winter. The main problem is that if it is very icy or there is snow, the net at the top of the cage can get too heavy and either break the cage or break itself. There is also the issue of pests building up in the cage, because the birds aren't able to get in to scratch around under the bushes.

Both these problems are easily solved by taking off the top of the cage for the winter and spring. This lets the birds do their de-bugging, and also means the top net is safe.

So - the team set to and managed to get the net removed from the cage. We also took the opportunity to prune out the old growth from the blackberry/raspberry hybrids and loganberries that we've planted around the edge of the cage, as well as giving the whole thing a spruce up. We weeded - some of the weeds were pretty impressive! Then we put compost around all the bushes, and topped up the wood chippings to keep down the weeds.

It's all looking pretty good now, and we hope that it will stand the weather because we've shored it up with line and wire to make sure the structure doesn't fall apart in the wind. We'll put the top back on around April.