Garden Share Scheme

The idea is that anyone who has a garden with space to spare and who doesn’t have the time or energy to use it all but would like to see the land put to good growing use, can be ‘matched’ with someone who doesn’t have a garden or space to grow any vegetables.

We already have the offer a piece of land which will be suitable for at least a couple of gardeners! If you want to grow vegetables this year please register with us for the opportunity to get gardening. For novice vegetable growers, don’t worry there are plenty of enthusiastic gardeners in the Transition Group who would be delighted to help with advice. And don’t forget the garden owner may well have grown veggies in the past but can’t manage to now, and they could be full of great advice and tips for successful growing.

There is much more information in the Guidance Notes which should answer any questions you have about the scheme. If you want to register either fill in the Gardener Registration form or Garden Owner Registration form. We have included a Garden Share Conditions for the matched owners and gardeners to agree beforehand. We suggest that there is an initial meeting between the parties to discuss the conditions and to see whether you think it will work for both of you as don’t forget this is a commitment on both sides.

If you have any further questions or want to send in completed forms please email foodgroup@ transitionashtead.org.uk or give Derek Smith our Secretary a ring on 01372 378914.

Community Garden

Potential community garden!

We think that a community garden in Ashtead would be a great project. It would be an opportunity for people without gardens or not enough land get out, meet other like minded souls and ‘till the soil’ plus of the great benefit of fresh fruit and veggies.

The exact way that the community garden will work will be up to the group, but we think the plot could be divided into small plots, or everyone can garden the whole plot – either way produce can be divided or bartered between the group.

We are currently negotiating with a land-owner about the possibility of using some land for a small community garden or “multiple garden share” but if you know of a suitable site for a community garden, we’d love to hear from you. We are actively seeking vegetable experts who can give advice to our novice gardeners.

Other Aims

The Food Group wants to promote growing and buying local produce and also encouraging biodiversity by:

• Let the grass verges grow long which is beneficial to wildlife
• Planting more trees and hedges
• Finding sites for bee keeping

If you would like to get involved with The Food Group or the GYO group, please give Derek Smith our Secretary a ring on 01372 378914.

E-mail foodgroup@ transitionashtead.org.uk, or come along to one of the Transition Ashtead drinks evenings where there is normally one or two of us there talking vegetables!

Potential produce!

Nurturing hope in a time of ecological crisis

A talk with Jon Young and Paul Raphael

7-9pm Tue 16th March. Lord Palmerston Pub, London NW5.

£12 open to all.

Please stay afterwards to socialize – bring your musical instruments!

Jon Young and Paul Raphael will speak of their experience of supporting communities all over the world to develop nature connection as their foundation to face these uncertain times.

Jon Young’s life work is about how to help people become more alive in their senses, more uniquely who they are and more profoundly connected to their own land. Jon founded the Wilderness Awareness School and more recently Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness.

Paul Raphael is from the Odawa of the Raven Dodem of North America. He is a singer, storyteller and peacemaker. He has mentored many communities and has focused particularly on how to help people step meaningfully into their elderhood, as well as helping communities to face and tend their grief.

Paul and Jon have worked together for 10 years honing the art of how to mentor people and communities into earth connected, people connected, empowered living.

Jon Young will also be running a 6 day course this July called the Art of Mentoring. Both these events and the July course are brought to you by UK based volunteers.

Venue: Lord Palmerston, 33 Dartmouth Park Hill, Tufnell Park, London NW5 1HU.
Nearest tube: Tuffnel Park on the northern line (5 minutes walk)

We agreed to look at the following ideas:

• Establish a community garden
• Set up a garden sharing scheme (garden sharing involves linking people with gardens they cannot manage with people who want to garden but need more land)
• Find local experts who are willing to help get started with food growing, or advise when gardening problems arise
• Encourage wild life by measures like:
  • let grass grow long
  • plant trees
  • plant hedges
  • find sites for bee hives

If you’d like to get involved in the group or want to know more, we’d love to hear from you.  You can either email us using the ‘Contact Us’ link on the Transition Ashtead home page or give me a ring on 01372-378914.

Derek Smith

A few of us from the Transition Ashtead Initiating Group will be there for informal chat about our transition initiative.  There is no agenda, no minutes, just a chance for people to drop in, find out what Transition Ashtead is all about, and decide if they want to get involved. If you want to find out a little more about transition, peak oil, etc, we will do our best to answer questions, and look forward to hearing any suggestions you may have to make us more effective.

Derek Smith

• Share success and failures.  We could encourage people to put their own energy projects on our website and maybe have open days in their homes.  (We have already had an offer to view a local ground source heat pump installation.)
• Bulk buy insulation materials
• Advise on good local suppliers and contractors
• Help people to use the grants available
• Encourage people to measure their personal carbon footprint

If you’d like to get involved in the group or want to know more, we’d love to hear from you.  You can either email us using the ‘Contact Us’ link on the Transition Ashtead home page or give me a ring on 01372-378914.

Derek Smith

The carrots that were too small for a badger...

The nibbled remains of the Autumn carrots...

I squelched up to the allotment in my wellies today – the ground was really sodden and everything was looking a bit bedraggled after the snow and cold weather, that droopy, brown look that gardens get in the winter. I haven’t been down there for ages, as there is not much to do at this time of year but it’s Christmas Eve and I wanted to harvest the Autumn carrots to have with lunch tomorrow. As I approached the carrot patch, it looked like the snow had completely flattened the carrot rows but as I got nearer I could see that they weren’t flattened, they were DUG UP! Flippin’ heck, I’ve been plundered!  With much muttering under my breath about pillaging scoundrels, I looked more closely. The green carrot tops, with a little shoulder of carrot attached, were scattered around, the sad nibbled remains what had been my carrot crop! Not many human thieves would eat unwashed carrots straight from the ground, I decided. Having decided that the thief was probably not human, I calmed down a bit and a bit of Christmas spirit returned. I guess it must have been some very hungry badger or squirrel, who had pounced on the temping orange morsels as soon as the frozen ground could be dug to yield its buried feast. And there were a few small carrots left (very discerning badger, leaving me the small carrots!), so we will be able to have a little taste of home-grown carrots with Christmas lunch…So Merry Christmas, you feral foragers, have a carrot or 50 on me. We’ll just have to eat more Brussel sprouts…

Green Mole Forum is encouraging people in Mole Valley to go to this event and suggests we all go on the same train – see the poster below.  The train stops at Leatherhead at 10:33 and Ashtead at 10:37 and we hope that plenty of people from Ashtead will be going.

The Black Death plastic, just behind the Autumn carrots

Kamekazi weeds on the left, weeds exit, stage right

With the hard-graft digging done, it is a bit galling to see those rascally weeds poking their cheeky leaves up through the freshly-dug. It is a bit surprising that they think it’s worth putting any effort into getting leafy at this time of year, when surely they will be zapped by the imminent winter chill but they seem determined on this kamekazi course of action. And I’m here to give them a helping hand….It is traditional on allotments to cover the ground with old carpets to suppress weeds during the winter but not having a ready supply of this type of “Tufted Weedol” but plenty of black opaque plastic (aka The Black Death), kindly donated by Bryan, I decided to break with tradition and use that instead. It is now spread over most of the dug areas and pinned to the ground with bricks. And there it’s going to stay until I’m ready to plant seeds in the Spring. I didn’t have quite enough to cover two of the raised beds, so I’m doing a bit of an experiment – in those uncovered areas, I’m going to do a careful hand-weeding job and compare the results come spring with the Black Death areas. Will removing all the autumn sprouters mean there are no seeds and roots left to sprout in Spring? It is a very tedious process I can tell you and I’m glad the areas to be weeded are quite small! I did some yesterday and it took ages and it’s not finished – I can look forward to a few more hours of sprout-removal yet…I think I’ll take the wind-up radio next time and listen to Gardeners Question Time as I weed…By the way, hello to all the global blog-followers – hello Agentina (Euge’s Mum), hello France (Pam), hello Wales (Andrew & Wimke) and hello the World! Post me some comments on what’s growing where you are…