Nancy Reading wrote:That's great news Ac! - pat on the back all round I think!
Its good to hear, for sure.
Nancy Reading wrote:
Some thoughts:
- When do you have to make a decision on the new plot?
- Would your grant money be affected?
- Could you continue 'guerilla gardening' on the old plot (plus adjacent) and get most of the benefit of produce without the hassle of trying to recruit more volunteers?
- What possibilities for more volunteer help can you think of?
Paperwork ideally should go in around 1 Oct with four weeks to pay the rent, which would be about £70 extra.
I've checked with the grant holder, and they are keen to support the move.
I'm going to talk to the site committee about their thoughts e.g. using the plot for soft fruit & maybe seedling etc. propagation for the whole site community?
This might lead to having more plot holders actively supporting the shared community project.
Also, I am hoping the site committee might be more open to wider publicity for the project, helping to attract more volunteers with various skills & interests.
Nancy Reading wrote:
- How can you design the new plot to be more resilient/less work (maybe permies.com can help with ideas!)?
- You'd have to change your thread title
Setting up rainwater harvesting is a high priority.
Leaning into popular perennial veg would be helpful, although tree kale is the main obvious option there.
I suggest if you do try one of the decision tools, you don't do the analysis by yourself - try and get the allotment committee, some volunteers and other stakeholders involved too then you will get ideas you may not have thought of.
Good point. The grant holders are going to briefly discuss the idea on Wednesday, and I plan to talk further to them & the site committee at the weekend.
The main threats I can see are, over-committing risking burnout, and attracting .. disruptive? .. interest to the allotments site.
So, lots to think about relatively quickly! Thanks for all the helpful questions!
--
"Whitewashed Hope: A Message from 10+ Indigenous Leaders and Organizations"
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/whitewashed-hope-message-10-indigenous-leaders-and-organizations
So far, the allotments site secretary is hopeful that the existing plot need not be let out to anyone else (due to the major sun/rain shadow effect), and that we could retain access as a way to keep it from becoming overgrown. We could use the small open growing area to propagate e.g. soft fruit (grapes, tayberry etc) for the site, and pick the fruit for the community.
Meanwhile, the funders from this year are optimistic they can secure funding for the replacement plot, and are keen on the potential to grow more veg.
We have one 'graduate' from the community plot taking on their own plot from October but also keen to help on the new plot.
The local vicar has donated 18 c. 60l sacks of composted green waste from the rectory garden cleanup project, and believes one or two of their volunteers might be interested in joining our project.
Even my No 1 garden worker (my D, N!) thinks we can come up with a managable plan of mulching & soft fruit propagation to make it viable.
I still feel like one more knowledgeable, reliable volunteer in the mix would help me feel a lot more confident it's not going to be too much .. !!
--
"Whitewashed Hope: A Message from 10+ Indigenous Leaders and Organizations"
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/whitewashed-hope-message-10-indigenous-leaders-and-organizations
AC, the project seems to be growing, well done yous.
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Ac Baker wrote:Meanwhile, the funders from this year are optimistic they can secure funding for the replacement plot, and are keen on the potential to grow more veg.
Maybe think about getting funding for features that will make watering easier? Ollas? soaker lines?
--
"Whitewashed Hope: A Message from 10+ Indigenous Leaders and Organizations"
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/whitewashed-hope-message-10-indigenous-leaders-and-organizations
Today has been a bit of a whirlwind: a visit from one of the founders of the funding body, to photograph the suggested new plot to show the Board. They're pretty confident they will want to fund the new plot.
A potential new volunteer who is friendly & enthusiastic, has some gardening experience, but can be very easily distracted & has a lot going on on their life.
More cooking apples distributed, 6 more 60 l sacks of locally made rough compost moved to the site.
Our 'scheme graduate' came to start tidying their new plot, so I gave them a hand getting started.
A couple more potential routes to finding new experienced volunteers have been mooted.
And a bit of rain, slowly easing but not ending our 6 month drought. Plus the waterbutt on the prospective new plot has a proper tap & filling valve!! (just needs a pedastel so we can get a watering can under it.
Oh, and I think we may have Rumex sanguineus on the prospective new plot. But even the new leaves tasted very bitter to me .. nowhere near as nice as sheep sorrel (not sure if they might be milder in Spring?).
What a day!! Still nervous about how much work will be involved ..
--
"Whitewashed Hope: A Message from 10+ Indigenous Leaders and Organizations"
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/whitewashed-hope-message-10-indigenous-leaders-and-organizations
I have been pondering a lot overnight about the balance between relationship building, and practical action. I think a lot has been said, written and thought on this down the centuries!
From Mr Rogers to Indigenous Elders, over and again, the vital and foundational nature of the daily work to build, maintain, strengthen & deepen our relationships with one another has been emphasized as primary to any kind of better world.
But it's so much more tangible to do a garden task!
But we've already achieve so much practical stuff - getting locally grown food onto the plates of local, food insecure people not the least of it - through relationship nurturing.
Any pointers to managing this balance, including fruitful discussions on this site, gratefully received!
--
"Whitewashed Hope: A Message from 10+ Indigenous Leaders and Organizations"
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/whitewashed-hope-message-10-indigenous-leaders-and-organizations
Nancy Reading
steward and tree herder
Posts: 11279
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
I think there may be a equation that goes something like :
Success of a new venture = sum of (each person x person's enthusiam for event)
So as an individual alone, you need a hell of a lot of enthusiasm to keep going. If you have one other person that is quite keen, it becomes a lot easier and as each other person is added to the group it gets it's own momentum and develops a life of it's own. So in the early days it isn't about the number of people that come along, but maybe more how much enthusiasm they have for the activity.
You could also try looking for forms of capital: I think social or community capital is also a way of thinking of the glue that holds groups together.
--
"Whitewashed Hope: A Message from 10+ Indigenous Leaders and Organizations"
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/whitewashed-hope-message-10-indigenous-leaders-and-organizations
Since taking on an extra plot at the allotment, I've been thinking about how to manage the workload without injuring myself or burning out.
Like you've mentioned already, direct seeding in the way to go. I'd also suggest going a step further and making scatter mixes of salad leaves, chard, herbs, flowers etc. Scatter on the bed before a good rainfall is forecast, rake it in if you feel like it (I usually don't...) and a few weeks later, come back to harvest.
Bonus points for keeping the weeds at bay, can be used between bigger crops like tomatoes, squash, climbing beans, corn etc.
Another area that I used to find back breaking was composting. Now, I compost everything in place (chop and drop) or compost in the pathways (but that's a trip hazard for a community garden). The only thing I remove is diseased material that could spread but there's very little of that.
I'm sure they are many more ways to cut un-necessary labour or concentrate the labour into community days like "potato harvest day" (promise of cake and coffee would help)... You've got this!
This has been a year of drought with record-breaking length of above average temperatures (from March to August) for us. Soft fruit, perennial shallow rooted plants & annual vegetables have done poorly, except where we could copiously water. In practice, this means the deep rooted perennials in our home garden, which got at least 16 l / 4 gallons between them once a week of bath water.
Top fruit & grapes have done well where so watered: plums, apples and apart from the pear midge infestation on plot 33A, pears.
Here is a large ripe juicy sweet pear of unknown variety, from the own rootstock tree in our house garden. We will be donating about 70 good fruits to the community from this one tree.
A question: the conventional wisdom around here (England) is that pears ripen best after being picked nearly ripe.
But due to illness (my partner had a mild gout attack!) we could only get the ladder out yesterday to finish the harvest. Could it be the abnormal heat means these ripened better in the tree than typical for England?
If pears grow well for you, what's your experience with ripening them in or off the tree? Many thanks.
PXL_20250916_164655553.jpg
A large ripe juicy sweet pear of unknown variety.
--
"Whitewashed Hope: A Message from 10+ Indigenous Leaders and Organizations"
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/whitewashed-hope-message-10-indigenous-leaders-and-organizations
As the seasons here turn to Autumn, we've received another sizeable donation of eating apples to our community Black-Led Mutual Aid which our gardening supports (image below).
We have committed to transitioning to the new sunnier allotment plot, which will be a more vegetable-focused garden. But it still has access to five fruit trees: two golden plums, a red pear, an unknown cherry, and a damson.
I will start a new topic for Plot 5, as it is known. However, unless plot 33A is let to a new tenant, the allotments site secretary wants to keep inviting volunteers to tend plot 33A for the benefit of the wider community. For example, we plan to bare root the two pear trees affected by pear midge, and to transplant the soft fruit which is too close to the remaining four dwarf plum and apple trees, plus to propagate the tayberry and continue training the grape.
Once Plot 5's topic is up, I will cross-link these two topics. Many thanks!
2025-10-Donated-eating-apples.jpg
About 10 kg / 100 fruit donated to the community
--
"Whitewashed Hope: A Message from 10+ Indigenous Leaders and Organizations"
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/whitewashed-hope-message-10-indigenous-leaders-and-organizations
Nancy Reading
steward and tree herder
Posts: 11279
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
Well done Ac! It's nice to feel you're making a difference (one apple at a time!)
That sounds like a win-win for you - better plot to grow veg, and access to the established fruit you cared for last year. Moving those that will benefit from more sun seems sensible.
Looking forwards to your plans for plot #5!
Top fruit did well, so those tended to be enough for the c. 60-80 people getting (free) home-made meal deliveries.
We had a tough year, not least due to drought from early March. Although rain has returned since the last week of August, the groundwater will remain depleted unless we get a wet winter.
So although we planted a lot of runner beans, cabbages & tomatoes, we couldn't water enough for useful crops.
But our harvests were significantly supplemented by donations from other gardens. We've been growing relationships too!
Further updates on the project will be on the new topic in Urban Gardening, Plot 5.
--
"Whitewashed Hope: A Message from 10+ Indigenous Leaders and Organizations"
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/whitewashed-hope-message-10-indigenous-leaders-and-organizations
--
"Whitewashed Hope: A Message from 10+ Indigenous Leaders and Organizations"
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/whitewashed-hope-message-10-indigenous-leaders-and-organizations
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