Clay oven and open day in Llanidloes

Oven insulating layerWe started the second day of the clay oven workshop glad to find it had survived the rain and wind over night. The clay hadn’t dried as much as we hopped which meant we had to progress slowly during the day. We mixed up the clay slip with sawdust to make the insulating layer and applied that it stages.

time for teaWe had to leave it then to dry, so lots of time for tea and chats. Lots of visitors popped in to take a look at the progress around the site and sign up for a micro allotment. The final layer will be finished next Monday during our regular volunteering session.

Meanwhile we continued to work on the sunken seating area,  regular volunteer Brian gaining help from Aidan and little Sammy. We are now ready for constructing the bench seat and putting in a solid floor.

sunken seating area

Two of the micro allotment holders have bought raised beds from our cultivate site in Newtown, so while we had some time Alexandra and I put the  beds together.

We have a regular volunteer day every Monday and have several events coming up. Including a willow weaving course with local weaver Beryl Smith. Sunday 9th March only £5. We will be lighting the oven and having a Pizza lunch with local artisan bread maker Andy on Sunday 30th March. The same day we are running a bug hotel making session for all the family 10am – 2pm.

raised beds

Community Garden Design course

Community Garden design course 2013

Community Garden design course 2013

We ran this week long course last year to design the Pen Dinas community garden site we have here in Newtown. This year we are going to be working on a community garden site in Llanidloes as well as a school site Caersws. The 5 day course will be based in Newtown at the Get-Growing centre next to Coleg Powys. The course will be an excellent opportunity for anyone interested in community growing, garden design, permaculture and putting those interests into practice. Our towns and communities are full of odd unused spaces.. just going begging for someone with a bit of drive and imagination to see the potential it. Dead urban blighted spaces can quickly become attractive and productive wild life heavens.

With tutors Emma Maxwell, Sue Stickland (tbc) and Steve Jones you will get an insight in garden design process, drawing and presenting ideas as well as a thorough intuition into the principles of natural systems and working with nature and wildlife. Participants will get to take part in designing a real site, undertaking client interviews and in generating an integrated site design.

The resulting design will be implemented and there will be an opportunity for local residents to become fully involved in this process.

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This community wildlife garden was designed and planted by course tutor Emma Maxwell 4 years ago.. it is jsut a few yards away from the derelict site we hope to redesign and shows the potential of what could be achieved

The focus for the week is fun, practical and in generating a real tangible outcome. This will give you the tools and confidence to go out and design a community garden for yourself. Full price of £125 includes lunches and the whole course.. but for those involved in community gardening, either actively or as a volunteer then there are places available on application for £25 only.

This challenging but excellent site has all the ingredients that we look for in a site and to a certain extent the dereliction and waste make it even more attractive in the light of the potential for transformation.

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Emma Maxwell and volunteer contemplate the site at Llanidloes that we have been offered as a potential community garden.

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Get-Growing gets busy

February is a key month for gardening.. preparing the soil, sharpening tools, getting ready for the coming growing season.  We have been propagating our perennial plants, grafting fruit trees, making paths, training our crew, planning courses and events and meeting with partners and funders. A hugely busy and exciting time of year.. here are a few pictures giving insight into some of what has been going on at the project.

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View of the Get-Growing organic garden Feb 2012

permaculture revolution

Permaculture is the fastest growing grass roots movement in the world, its simple philosophy of working with nature challenges the very foundations of current behaviour. Many of our ideas are informed by Permaculture design.

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Globalised production systems means there is no longer any accountability or traceability in the most important and fundamental of things.. food

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Two of our project team, here on work experience and apprenticeship and learning how to grow

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Work on the main path to the community micro allotment area

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Project member Richard tends the fire at the centre of the garden

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Fruit tree grafting workshop.. it is actually possible to graft the wood from several different trees onto a rootstock

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As part of our grafting workshop, one of our regular Get-Growing courses we practised with cutting of dogwood to learn the various techniques required

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Fruit trees are made by grafting Scion wood onto a chosen root.. you can see the scar and healed up area where the new wood has established and grown

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I am fascinated by mycelium, that part of the fungus organism we don’t see… it creates a massive amount of surface area by branching and it exudes enzymes to digest its food

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Another view of mycelium.. in the tree of life, our closest relative is fungus.. like us it breathes in oxygen and out CO2 and was possibly the first organism to live on land

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This pic is for Matti, I am hugely pleased and proud to be see our Newtown made raised beds at the community growing project in Liverpool, made by our apprentices they are helping people grow in other locations

First draft of an advert for our raised beds

First draft of an advert for our raised beds, being made by the project apprentices as part of our community entrerprise project

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Climate change is here, it is a real and present danger and we need to learn how to rapidly respond to this challenge

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Permaculture founder Bill Mollison has an uncanny knack of putting his finger right on the pulse… the solutions to our problems are simple. we just have to do it!

Permaculture is the study of natural systems and the application of that insight as a design system

Permaculture is the study of natural systems and the application of that insight as a design system

 

Please come to our project launch and open day – Newtown, Weds, Nov. 14

Open day invitation

Open day invitation

We have only just moved in at Pen Dinas, the new Get-Growing community garden hub in Newtown. Since moving there late summer from our previous base at the Cwm Harry compost factory on the Vastre estate.

In the weeks since August we have finally been able to make a real start at our new base and the place is starting to feel like home. We have a fully consulted design in place for the 21/2 acre plot and have been busy digging up trees and taking down sheds from the old garden and moving them to the new one in readiness for building a new garden.

We have also started working with our first work experience students, Zak and Jono, who will be with us one day a week for a full school year. We have also started regular work experience days with first-year college students on a 7 week cycle.

Get-Growing is also developing an opportunity for 6 month horticulture and permaculture apprenticeships, for under 25’s, not currently employed or in education.. about which we will have more information available soon.

We still have our volunteer Wednesdays, each week, where we focus on developing the new garden as well as seasonal gardening tasks.

We have also hosted visits from a wide variety of student groups, community and other interested people.

Get-Growing has also just started working with Treown community to develop a small toddler-friendly garden on the estate there.

We are really excited about the coming year and the possibilities of working together with like minded groups and individuals.

Please do come along if you are interested in any of these kind of themes.

PS Chris is making a curry, but when it has run out, its run out.. so come early if you fancy a taste.