Warmley Waiting Room-a beautiful surprise!

Following a conversation on Twitter I was invited to go and visit a garden in Warmley. A small area of Bristol just across the border in South Gloucestershire. Of course I'm always happy to visit a garden so last weekend off we toodled.

So Warmley Waiting Room is just that-a restored, in stunning detail, railway waiting room that is by the side of what is now the Bristol to Bath cycle track, which used to be the railway line. The waiting room itself has been turned into a cafe, with loads of outdoor seating in the garden, which is also home to a youth community project, ice cream stall, and a loo in a tardis!! And a tardis that makes the noise of leaving for an adventure is the right button is pressed!!

 

To the right is a beautiful lawn and a garden that is beautiful and spans both sides of what was the station wall. Full of strawberries, paeonias, forget me nots, aquilegias, roses, bulbs and more, the garden is the work of Claire Hoggan and her mum who own the land and the cafe and have created a wonderful place for all to enjoy. When we visited the cafe and outdoor space was heaving with local people and visitors arriving by bike on the cycle path,  drinking tea, playing in the lawn and generally loving the space.

 

What a brilliant way to create a sustainable business, support your community and celebrate the history of an area!!

And don't forget the tardis......

 

Garden Visits-A Trip to Feed Bristol

Yesterday, in the vague hope that getting out of the house would calm the Malvern nerves, (see my previous post), we toodled off to Feed Bristol, Avon Wildlife Trust's award winning food growing community garden and agro-ecologically based site. It's a spectacular space that supports health and well being and also gives small producers space to develop their businesses. On site are salad growers, herb specialists, a small CSA, mushroom growers and an incredible nursery that specialised in wild flowers.

Feed Bristol is open on the first Saturday of every month, often with an event going on, but always with the nursery open and the space there to enjoy. It's an extraordinary space that allows you to relax, and the kettle is always on!!

 

 

 

 Feed Bristol is in Stapleton, in East Bristol and more info can be found at www.avonwildlifetrust.org.uk.

Off to the Malvern Hills....

Those of you who follow me on social media will have seen references to the RHS Malvern Spring Show, but now's the time to tell you some more about what's going on.

Back in January I was contacted by Hannah Genders, a garden designer and organiser of the new Grow Zone section of the Malvern Spring Show. The Grow Zone will be home to several groups all producing food in ways that are far from mainstream farming, but are still doing so, very successfully. It's an exciting departure for the RHS and one I'm extremely excited to be a part of both personally and with Incredible Edible. She was hoping that I would go along and make 2 very small, 1m by 2m raised bed gardens in the Grow Zone, one representing Incredible Edible Bristol and the other talking of British flowers, edible flowers and pollinator rich flowers.

Of course it's always safe to come and ask me to do things like this as I find it beyond impossible to say no, although to say this has been a challenge is a bit of an understatement. I'm no newbie to growing for the big RHS shows, particularly RHS Chelsea where our nurseries proximity to the M40 and good relations with a lot of the designers, meant we were in the thick of Chelsea prep for a lot of the year, but having four acres of nursery space makes it a whole lot easier than doing it from a suburban back garden in south Bristol! However, I can report the plants are doing well, except the camassias which were beheaded by the dreadful wind, and tomorrow we'll be crating them up ready for the off.

 

Mexican Tree Spinach ready to go....

But still it's nerve wracking. I'm a strong believer in facing your fears but having been unmercifully bullied in my last two nursery jobs I now realise those voices telling me I know nothing, I'm not interested in plants, I'm not interested in gardens etc etc haven't really gone away completely and this last week have been really loud. To say I'm facing my demons is a complete understatement. 

I am lucky. I have an incredible ( all puns intended) team around me, supporting and taking on all of the logistics so I could concentrate on growing and design. I know I've been hard work and for the last week or two the phrase "it'll have to be post Malvern" feels like the only thing I've said. In case any of them are reading this, thank you guys-you all brighten my day, every day.

 

Calendula! Ideal for health, for food and for bees. Plus those smiley faces always make me happy...

But the hardest thing? All I want to do is pick up the phone and call mum and say guess what?!? I know she would have been intensely proud but, with the 15th anniversary of her dying just round the corner, as in the week after the show, I feel utterly bereft that she'll never know.

However, onwards and upwards. The hours are ticking by, and soon we'll be off on our very exciting adventure. And if anyone wants me to do a bigger garden next year or in the future, I wholeheartedly say bring it on!!

Alliums-good for people, for bees and for beauty! 

Inspiration From A Devon Hillside.

Last Sunday, during a lovely stay in Devon, I was asked to go and see a community garden and project and having asked a few questions, very quickly agreed with pleasure.
Now I have banged in and will continue to do so, about how vital gardens and gardening is for mental health. There are many who, from knowledge of the effect on their own mental health, will agree with that, and I am at the front of that group, constantly advocating for gardens and gardening to be socially prescribed or self prescribed. However, this garden supports people who not only are struggling with mental health but who are often socially isolated and struggling to make sense of a system alien to them. These people are the veterans of war, our ex military men and women.
Now I am a pacifist at heart and I had a conversation over the weekend with an ex-military person who said to me "I am a pacifist too-I joined the military to advocate for peace." There was a conversation I never thought I would have in a garden half way up a Devon hillside in the pouring rain, and one that has really got me thinking.
But back to the garden.

The garden is on an allotment plot in a tiny Devon village and is run by a group who have been working with this group for a good while but recently lost their permanent space and so decided to create one that was accessible to all. A space where people struggling with the situations they have found themselves in can come, sit, drink tea and eat biscuits, grow some food, put their hands in the soil and chat. And that is what is so vital and why gardening as a prescription is so great.
When you are gardening, your mind is focussed on a job that is often repetitive, making your brain concentrate on that repetition and making anything else secondary to that repetitive work. Whilst the brain has settled into the pattern of the work, what happens is conversations become subconscious, people relax and words flow. Conversations that would seem impossible in a room, with chairs and tables and walls, suddenly begin to happen. People in this situation are more perceptive and more understanding, allowing the conversation to go beyond comfort zones, discussing anything and everything from politics to mental health whilst in the background the repetitive work continues. These conversations can seem almost unworldly when you are in them. There is no anger, although often there is deep emotion. Tears can flow. Deep breaths are taken and silences appear although never the uncomfortable silence that happens in a room. Real listening and deep understanding take place. Worlds that otherwise might never meet join up and are often permanently knitted together. And all the while, the repetition of the physical activity keeps the space safe, comfortable and open.
For people struggling with their mental health, on whatever scale, this is a place where confidence grows through these conversations. The feeling of being listened to, of being heard and understood, fosters a feeling of relief and a belonging in the world. A feeling that whatever happens there is strength and a safe space with others to retreat to if needed. A feeling of belonging and making a difference. It is an extraordinary phenomenon and one that as a facilitator is humbling to say the least.
As someone who has benefitted from this type of horticultural therapy both as a participant, albeit unknowingly, and as a facilitator, that understanding of the difference it can make to a vulnerable person, is something I will fight for.

Somewhere to shelter from the rain, surrounded by a newly planted orchard , drink tea and feel safe is vital.

And so I found myself on a rainy Devon hillside, surrounded by allotments, drinking tea and asking myself why this isn't something available to all. For these ex military men, all struggling to come to terms with the horrors of war, disability, the benefits system and feelings of isolation, this garden is becoming a safe space. A space where they belong and are creating that supportive community that will continue to support them in the years to come. But don't we all need this?
I think so. But I also think we need to fight for this to be seen as part of mental health recovery. Surely all hospitals should have a garden where long term patients can come and gently potter whilst meeting other people in similar situations. And surely all doctors should be linked to a garden for social prescription. Wouldn't our villages, towns and cities benefit from those safe spaces of beauty, kindness and hope?
I left the garden with hope in my heart and joy in my steps. It might be a crazy world out there but finding these extraordinary people, making change in and for their own community made me realise just how lucky I am to be a part of a quiet revolution that is centred around kindness.

Apple blossom everywhere. Even on a rainy day the space is soothing.

Robbing the Flower Fields.....

Flowers. No matter who you are it's impossible to be unresponsive to the beauty of a flower, and to be able to combine flowers and food is an extraordinary phenomenon that can lead to a really emotional connection with what it is being eaten. Part of my and Incredible Edible Bristol's remit, if you like, is creating both beautiful and productive spaces across the city of Bristol, and use of edible flowers is vital to meeting that. So imagine my delight when I was asked, with Incredible Edible Bristol, to put together two small raised beds in the new Grow Zone at RHS Malvern; one that speaks of the city centre Urban Food Trail and one that supports the more beautiful side of what we do, in showing beautiful blooms that we use, either as edible flowers or to attract pollinators, and all of which are British grown.

So fast forward a few weeks and I had a chat with Jan Billington of Maddocks Farm Organics who grows the most stunning array of edible flowers, some which are instantly recognisable as such but some which are a surprise, such as Wisteria which tastes like peas, who said she was more than happy for me to pop along and raid her flower fields. Well that is not an every day offer now is it folks, so yesterday, with our amazing volunteer coordinator Hannah, off we doodled to have a look.
Now I am a long time fan of Jan. Anyone who creates an organic flower farm on overgrown Devon fields, and grows not just a huge range of edible flowers but also looks after the land and the soil to high organic principles, is inevitably going to be a hero. And oh my.......when I say the farm is beautiful what I mean is the farm is heart rendingly beautiful. Not only are all the plants stunning, healthy and pest free, but the farm is buzzing with life. We saw three different species if bees in one polytunnel alone. Swallows were swooping and buzzards flying. A gigantic bug hotel sits by a pond teaming with life. Swathes of plants are there for pollinators alone. And of course by supporting those pollinators, Jan is supporting the blossoming and blooming of the flowers that make her business sustainable both for people and planet.

Often we see edible flowers as a by product. We might grow Tagetes for example as companion planting and then pick a few flowers to zing up a salad. We might grow Borage for the bees and then fling a few flowers into a salad or a gin and tonic. We all grow violas as part of bedding or hanging basket schemes. Our Wisterias are dripping in glorious flower. But instead of looking at these flowers as incidental perhaps we should begin to look at them as a great way of bringing beauty into the vegetable garden and treating them as a really important part of our salad offering. A salad with mustards, sweet cicely and chervil leaves and flowers, borage flowers, calendula petals, violas and primroses, wild rocket with its flowers attached and bells blooms, is far more exciting than a sad bit of iceberg, and tastes amazing, with different bursts of flavour appearing with each mouthful. Plus of course the more flowers we grow, the more pollinators we attract.

So perhaps let's take inspiration from Jan and l add beauty to our veg patches with more flowers that we grow to eat whilst marvelling at Jan at Maddocks Farm and the many ways we see people farming beautiful British flowers.

Alliums just beginning to open ready for use.

Beautiful calendulas flooring their socks off in the polytunnels and making a grey day bright.

White borage, sweet and full of nectar as well as being covered with bees, which annoyingly weren't in the mood for posing!

Jan grows an amazing array of tulips, and the petals are used to adorn wedding cakes amongst other things.

Two to three inches of local, organic manure is spread on the beds each year, feeding the flora and fauna in the soil that are vital for good organic growth.

Today's favourite.....Alliums

I love alliums. The ornamentals with their white, blue, pink and purple flowers, Allium moly with its yellow blooms and all the edible alliums out there, which are both beautiful, fascinating and the mainstay of so many recipes.

I've grown millions of them over the years.....

Well perhaps millions is a bit much but we grew houses full of them for early planting schemes and often for gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show where they are often seen in multiple gardens. They're fairly easy to grow in the ground or a container, just needing regular watering if they are in pots or containers. 

 

And I'm particularly loving them today as they start to burst their buds in many of the Incredible Edible Bristol gardens across the city, including the Bearpit Garden.

I do have favourites. Globemaster has an extraordinary flower and grows up to 4ft tall so amazing planted in drifts. 

I'm also a big fan of Allium christophii with its enormous purple blooms with their individual star bursts. Growing to 2ft tall it's great for the front of a border.

But the edibles are also just as useful as ornamentals as they are as edibles. Chives flowering make a wonderful clump of purple globes, or white if you use garlic chives and although they can be a bit prolific in terms of self seeding, they're great to dig up and move around or give away.

 

I'm also a big fan of the Egyptian Walking Onion, for their fascinating way of deciding where they're going next, adding interest to any edible garden.

And of course not only are they all great garden plants, they're also vital for our pollinators, and support a really biodiverse garden.

So hooray for the alliums!!

 

Stop, Take A Look and Listen......

Apologies for the title of this blog and that you will now have an ear worm from Vanilla Ice for the rest of the day but I couldn't help it. Sorry.......
A while ago now I was contacted by an organisation who are running an event called Somerset Garden Day asking if I would like to be an ambassador for them. Of course I jumped at the opportunity to work with a new organisation who aim to begin their celebrations of gardening in my neighbouring county of Somerset. But I also love the fact that the aim is to become countrywide, and I felt in some ways it followed on well from my post about #mygardenrightnow.

My garden is a constant stress to me and I often wonder why I spend so much time on it, when I never feel it really performs for me. I am constantly thinking about what people must think, expecting them to be expecting perfection when in reality they have little or no expectation at all. there's no doubt I can make a garden or grow a plant as the 39 Incredible Edible Bristol gardens show, but I never feel my own garden mirrors that success. Of course that is because my time in my own garden is extremely limited, Mr V has been laid up with a very bad back for a year and although is recovering I am terrified to ask him to do much in case all the good work is undone, and I am pretty gardened out most days and the last thing i can face is a weeding session when I walk through the door at 8pm. That mixed with the fact there is a show garden being grown in the garden, all leads to me feeling pretty deflated overtime I walk out of the back door. That said in comparison to the space it was when we moved in less than 2 years ago, there is now colour, the beginning of some borders and a whole array of pots and plants that are beginning to change the space into one that looks like a garden rather than just a lawn with a washing line in the middle. But you see what I mean in that we always say what's wrong before we say what's right!!

Somerset Garden Day is about recognising all the hard work you put into your garden and celebrating that. It isn't about having a show garden standard garden, or about worrying about what hasn't been done. It isn't even about hiding the plant in the border that looks like it's dying or making sure the garden is weeded but rather celebrating the fact that you have a garden, it's beautiful and you have worked extremely hard to get it where it is today, weeds and all.
As humans, and particularly in todays hurried and wanting to be perfect society, with Instagram and other platforms focusing on perfection over reality, we seem to spend more and more time looking at what we haven't done rather than celebrating our successes. In part this is down to a natural will to get things done and move things along, but sometimes we need to sit and look at our achievements and what we have managed to succeed to do in our all too busy lives. Somerset Garden Day is all about doing just that.
I could of course go on and on about this but in reality you'd be better off reading the information about the day on the brand new and shiny website that has been published but please do follow the Somerset Garden Day social media and see how this might take off across the UK. Imagine a day when the whole of the UK spends one day celebrating their gardens and sharing those celebrations with friends and family. What better way to get others into a garden?
On Twitter look for @gardendayuk
On Facebook Somerset Garden Day
On instagram @somersetgardenday