Spring Open Day

It is true that we all got drenched just as the gates opened, and then it remained threatening but not actually raining, until the sun came out brightly - just as we shut the gates on the last visitors.

But: the keen plant seekers were still queuing at the gates for the best seedlings and were rewarded with many excellent quality, competitively priced and unusual plants. Where else can you browse through so many varieties of mint – lavender mint, ginger mint, orange mint, apple, pineapple, English lamb… all lovingly potted up through winter by the strict Mint Monitor. Herbs, flowers, vegetable seedlings surplus to requirement were snapped up.

The garden looked fabulous, though we say so ourselves, although it is early in the season and it will get even better. The tulips were lovely, held back by the cold and the wet, and all looked neat and full of promise. The treasure trail through the sodden forest was busy, storytime by popular demand starred the Gruffalo, and weet pea wigwams were woven by the brave (and we have a couple of extra ones to sell now, if anyone needs one).

The Bee Man showed off his hive and sold his special local honey, which is not only one of the tastiest in town, but also has, it is rumoured, special anti-allergenic properties for hayfever sufferers from the same locality as the bees. And let’s not forget the Breadshop, who have – along with the Bee Man – been to every single Kitchen Garden opening. They are always first to arrive for set up in the morning , and they always spend the first hour scratching their head over the gazebo, but they are still the first to be ready when everyone else is panicking. And they have a special place in our affections because, every week, rain or shine, all through the year, the Breadshop – based on Chiswick High Road, but with a few select branches throughout London - supply our school sessions with free loaves of their extremely delicious bread to accompany the salad picnics or soups that the school kids devour after their work sessions in the Kitchen Garden.

Open Day Sunday 27th April, 1-5pm

A rare opportunity to visit one of London’s rare working kitchen gardens this Sunday. Only open to the public on three occasions this year.

A chance to buy interesting plants - unusual herbs, vegetables and cutting flowers – 14 different types of mint, thymes, artichokes, etc.

Have a go at willow weaving, plant a pea or a bean planting, do a treasure trail in the magic forest. Stalls include fresh bread, local honey, aloe vera products and refreshments.

Entrance free.

Lizzie Slater, 29 June 1956 - 5 April 2008

The Kitchen Garden was much saddened at the death of Lizzie Slater whose funeral was held yesterday.

Lizzie and I first became acquainted in Budgens a few years ago where we stood and blocked an aisle for 40 minutes and bemoaned the fate of our local park, Chiswick House Grounds. Lizzie began to try and extract information from the authorities about their plans for the future, but she soon became an integral part of the Kitchen Garden project itself.

Every Thursday, rain or shine, a different class of schoolchildren attends, and for the last two years Lizzie was one of the main helpers at these sessions. Her speciality was potatoes – first planting them and then digging them up, with the children. If I could explain that we have 25 different varieties this year, you will understand that this is no small task. I could in fact assign Lizzie to any job, knowing that the kids would have fun, would learn a lot, and that the job would be well done. I gave a talk to Kew last month on our educational work, and I used an image of Lizzie with her group of kids planting away to show best practice.

She often commented that walking round Chiswick now kids would acknowledge her, particularly noting her curly hair – Frizzy Lizzie - and remembering the good time they had had digging in the garden and chatting to her.

On Kitchen Garden open days, Lizzie’s first task was to draw an artistic and baffling treasure trail for the kids to follow in the magic forest. Then her job was to police the maze, which she did with the same combination of humour and firmness that she used while working with the kids.

The other job Lizzie took on was running the little plant stall in the café. Her flower arrangements were particularly successful. She would pick the ingredients, say dahlias and verbenas, and then spend quite a bit of time making the bunches really beautiful.

The last Thursday, the day before she died, Lizzie had a lovely day. We got to the garden about 10 and we stayed there until gone 3. She sowed seeds, potted up angelica seedlings, and a few of us sat in the sun and chatted, and we were happy. When we left, Lizzie took chard and kale for herself, and for her neighbour. Lizzie found a haven and a respite in the Kitchen Garden.

The Kitchen Gardeners will miss her, on a personal and on a practical level. The garden is heaving with plants that Lizzie tended, and the greenhouse is bursting forth with seedlings – nasturtiums, melons, kohl rabi - that Lizzie sowed. We hope to get an olive tree for the centre of the herbal maze in her memory. It is terrible that she will not be there to see the spring, but she will be very much missed and very much present.


Karen Liebreich
Friend and Kitchen Garden co-ordinator

If anyone would like to contribute towards Lizzie's olive tree, please get in touch.

BBC's Jelly the Frog comes to film

Spring is sprung and we have had some glorious days – and one or two really nasty cold wet ones, usually when one of the toddler groups has been visiting. Seeing their little hands all frost-bitten as they try to dig in a howling gale, sometimes makes us wonder if we are being too tough on them. But then, again, they each went home with a planted pea in a pot, and apparently they are all happy and want to come again, so I guess we were not tough enough.

The early potatoes are in, the broad beans are growing away, the first rows of parsnips and carrots have been sown. Heaps of leaf mould and compost have been enthusiastically barrowed around the gardens by wobbly learner drivers. This week we started to sow all the tender stuff in the greenhouse – aubergines, chillis, tomatoes…

Wildlife ‘pond’

We have ‘acquired’ a large water tank that was in danger of being demolished, and some frog spawn has been rescued from the jaws of the ducks in the lake, another blob from a drying-up puddle, so we plan to install some kind of rough and ready wildlife pond this weekend. We hope to build up some logs rescued from the tree felling in the park to create a happy frog paradise around the tank, and camouflage it a bit; perhaps we will plant the resulting structure with some alpines that we have been donated. Hopefully this will be done on the April drop-in session.

Famous visitor: A frog named Jelly...

A propos, frog paradise, Jelly - who is a fluorescent green frog puppet - from Cbeebies (BBC digital children’s TV) came to visit the garden to do some filming. This meant little to those of us who are over five years old, but it turns out Jelly is a big star… Some children from St Mary’s came to help Jelly plant potatoes, spinach and peas, and the Kitchen Gardeners tried very hard to talk with a straight face about vegetables to a chatty frog puppet. The episode should be transmitted next year (!) and we will of course be boasting about it nearer the time. Congratulations to the children who had to barrow their load past the camera so many times that the worms in the compost got quite dizzy.

Dukes Meadows wildlife garden
The plug plants that some of the kids planted up in autumn have been transferred up to the new wildlife garden in the old paddling pools, and planted up by Cavendish school. They don’t look like much yet, so if anyone is up there, don’t play on them! Hopefully there will be a lovely meadow up there soon. Many thanks to Barretts for providing the subsoil, and to Burleys – the park gardeners – for transporting the plants over. And of course thanks to all the kids, under the firm direction of Nicky Milligan, for all the planting.

Park news

Tree cutting has finished for now, in order to let the birds get on with some nesting. The camellia shrubbery in particular, and the far bank of the lake saw quite a bit of felling. The archaeologists are moving in next week to check out the area that is to be covered by the new café, which was the old stable area, and part of the volerie (bird garden) of Lady Burlington (opposite the current café). Otherwise all is waiting on the appointment of a new site director, and the start of works, initially around the access yard (behind the conservatory).

Duke of Edinburgh Awards

These have been held on alternate weekends, but are about to switch to Mondays after-school. If anyone can’t make the after-school sessions, they can continue with the monthly drop-ins, along with some additional help, for instance at the Open Day.

The team is very strong this year (well, there are lots of them, anyhow) and they have cleared ivy and brambles from a row of elderberry trees, with some finishing touches from some muscular Belmont school parents, so we hope for elderberry champagne and cordial later in the year. Then the teenagers were dragged through bushes backwards in the undergrowth of the northern garden to retrieve useful bits of wire, and emerged tousled but triumphant.

Spring news

Everything is looking very shipshape in the garden, all mulched and trim and weeded ready to crack on as soon as the temperature warms up. This year the borders along the central axis will start off with wallflowers – they were supposed to be ruby red, but one or two are already showing yellow, so who knows. The weeds are under control, the kids have been digging and mulching, putting leaf-mould over the potato beds ready for the spuds to go out immediately after St Patrick’s Day. The greenhouse is already bursting with seedlings and chitting potatoes and the children have started sowing peas and lettuce. The broad beans and sweet peas are already germinating nicely, and the sweet pea wigwams and cordons, along with the potato and bean structures should be built over the next couple of weeks. Black and redcurrant cuttings have been struck, the chives divided up…. The first tulip just opened up this week, which is a bit early, but it seems to be the only one. Roll on spring.

Fundraising
Our search for funds to enable us to afford a salary to help run the Kitchen Garden has got off to a flying start with a very generous donation from the Hintze Family Foundation. We are very grateful to them for getting us off the starting blocks. Anyone else – or any other company – keen to get involved in our very worthwhile project, we would love to hear from you.

Specialist vacancy filled, more available
We had been advertising for a new team member - we started by requesting a sweet pea expert, and then decided to settle for an enthusiast instead, so welcome on board to David. We expect him to be promoted to expert by the end of the season.
If anyone else has a particular passion (particularly if accompanied by knowledge or a willingness to acquire it) for any kind of fruit, vegetable or cutting flower, please let us know. With the more time-consuming plants it is helpful to have a dedicated person responsible for overall care. So our Sweet Pea Person joins our Lemon Lady, Tomato Man, Mint Maniac, Bean Bod, The Propagator and Compost Queen on the ‘specialist’ ‘staff’. The rest of us remain Jacks of All Trades (and of course the specialists are allowed – encouraged - to do other jobs too).

Pig person required
We are vaguely thinking about borrowing a couple of pigs to help clear the northern walled garden, which is to be a grassy orchard. If anyone has specialist porcine knowledge or knows where we can rent-a-pig (and especially an ark/shed and electric fencing), we would like to find out more.

Open day, plant sale, Sunday 27 April, 1-5pm
Make a note now, we will remind you nearer the time. We should have lots of plants and seedlings, herbs, many different varieties of mints, all home-grown. Also art and children’s activities, and a tea and cake stall. All the proceeds of course going directly back into the garden.

Park news
The project has begun, and over the last week parts of the park have begun to ring out to the happy sound of chainsaws as the first tree felling gets underway. There is a rush to finish the first tranche before 1 March when the birds are booked to start nesting preparations.

Toddler session

Successful, but stressful.

All through the winter

All year long the Kitchen Garden has been worked on by weekly school parties. In February it was the turn of East Acton Primary, who mulched the wallflower borders, shovelled compost, dug over the beds, and planted out stocks and spinach for food and beauty later in the season