forest Gate - Forest Gate Community Garden

Grapes – Saturday 14th September, 2024

We have had quite a bit of rain this week, including a couple of furious, rainbursts. They lasted less than ten minutes, but the rain belted down in stair rods, to replenish our almost empty metre cubes (IBCs). Except one. We have three, they hold about a 1000 litres each. Two were filled by the rain to about a third, but one not at all. The pipe from the pergola gutter wasn’t quite reaching the orifice of the IBC. It must have become dislodged, and the water would have gushed out and onto the ground. We have added a piece of pipe to make sure the water goes where it should.

image of plums from the forest gate community garden

Plums – Saturday 10th August, 2024

I am a volunteer in the community garden today. My shift runs from 10 am to 12.30. There’s always two of us on at any time. That’s a safety thing, we haven’t had much trouble, a difficulty person occasionally, but back up is more comfortable. It’s warm and windy, but when the sun goes in the clouds it suddenly chills. …

image of Harry Demmon playing guitar in the garden

Harry – Saturday 3rd August, 2024

The weather was warm, but windy, with music sheets blowing. The ukulele band was the first group on. This was led by Misty with around 20 of her students from the Sunday morning sessions. They played and sang folk and pop, mostly well known. Misty did some solos to give her group a break, and to vary the session. Among her solos were Moon River, Jolene and Dream a Little Dream of Me, whose best known rendition is by the Mommas and Poppas in 1968 with lead vocals by Momma Cass. I came into the garden when the whole group was playing Leaving on a Freight Train. It was good to see their first gig.

Agapanthus – Saturday 27th July, 2024

The summer has been wet and warm, on other days a little cool. An English woman living in New York says she yearns for cool, wet British summers as she swelters in east coast heat. Which makes me reckon that in twenty years, we’ll yearn for the cool summers of the mid 20s. Climate change has us firmly in its grip; we cannot assuage our fossil fuel fever. Old habits keep us flying and driving, as if our tiny contribution is of no accord. Multiply that by 30 millionfold.

Leafcurl – Sunday 9th June, 2024

In a mid raised bed, we have a beautiful cluster of deep purple lavender, with the bonus of its scent. Growing by it, we have purple toadflax, almost merging with the lavender, and lychnis with its reddish purple flowers, like an ad for lipstick. The same bed has globe thistles. As yet, they are small and green. It will be a couple of weeks before they are blue planets in a weird solar system. A few yards away, there’s a plum tree with clusters of plums, still green, but will ripen in the next week or so. Who will get the fruit? The birds or children? In the Fothergill beds, the geums are hanging on, with poppies and marigolds and penstemons taking over. Just behind is the buddleia tunnel suffering from leaf curl, the leaves blotchy and crinkled. I look closely at the leaves.

Spring Garden – Saturday 11th May, 2024

The pond is definitely clearing. For over a month, it has been a murky green, created by growth of single celled algae in the water. It seems that was a temporary phenomenon. The growth would have brought about by a flush of nitrates in the water. And my inclination is to think it was from the waste created by all the adult frogs we had in March, possibly as many as forty over the month. The pond is now clearing as the nitrates have been used up. We hope.

Acanthusigloo – 13th Jan 2024

2024 came in with rainy days that soon ceased, and the temperature dropped. The cold days have kept the garden quiet, but the low temperature is no bad thing. Frost kills bugs, such as greenfly, who would otherwise survive the winter and reproduce in greater numbers in the spring. Daffodils and our apple trees need a period of cold weather. …

Forest Voices – Saturday 16th December, 2023

It’s not quite the end of the year, but all the signs are there. Short days, bare trees, and few birds. Today, we have our mince pies, mulled wine and carols from Forest Voices who have grown in number from last time I heard them. Their volume swells through the garden with old carols and pops. We have a good …

Temperature – Sunday 10th December, 2023

It’s wet and its cold. We swaddle up to keep the heat in. We tell each other it is close to zero. That is the Celsius scale, formally known as Centigrade. The scale was invented by the Swedish Astronomer, Anders Celsius in 1742. 0ºC is the freezing point of water and 100ºC its boiling point. These keys points crop up …

Vine Leaves – Sunday 12th November, 2023

Another wet November day. Chilly but not yet cold enough to deter mushrooms. On the limit though, perhaps the ground is holding a little heat, as in a walk in Epping Forest yesterday, I saw more mushrooms than I’d ever seen in the forest before, growing on the ground, on decaying stumps, and growing off trees. Few visitors today. It …