August update

Kitchen Garden veg on sale at Andreas and flowers at Pot Pourri
We have formed a partnership with a local not-for-profit organization, Chiswick Local Produce, which aims to liaise between producers and consumers on a very local level. For fresh, organic local fruit and veg from the Kitchen Garden, look out for the dedicated section within the greengrocer’s, Andreas, on Turnham Green Terrace. And ask for the special local flower bunches at Pot Pourri on the High Road.

If you have a glut of your own fruit or veg that you would like to shift, contact Sarah Cruz from Chiswick Local Produce on sa1design@aol.com, 07771-768-411.

Pigs abandoned
We have sadly been forced to cancel our piggy project. We had everything all set to go with two little Tamworths, under the generous sponsorship of the Falcons School, and in association with Mackens the butcher on Turnham Green Terrace. The pigs would have cleared the northern walled garden, which is to be an orchard, rooting up all the bramble, and then done their baconian duty becoming sausages, hog roast etc. Meanwhile we would all have learnt a bit more about where our food comes from. We are really grateful to both the school and the Parents’ Association at Falcons, along with Mackens who were going to support us. It was all too complicated with the building works in the park, and although the Trust eventually agreed to the experiment, it was too late to sort out before they would have had to be slaughtered as the works progressed. Anyhow, we are now well equipped to appear on Mastermind with our special subject – keeping pigs, since we now know all about fencing, pignuts, DEFRA slap marks, heritage breeds, large animal vets, abattoir transport and so on, so it was not entirely wasted.

Food growing classes
We have had a good response to our suggestion about running food growing classes in September/October. It still seems like a long time away, so we are not asking for firm bookings now, but if this is of interest, please let us know. info@kitchengarden.org.uk

Kitchen Garden news
We finished our school session season (try saying that late at night…) and would like to say how much we have enjoyed having all the school children working in the gardens. We have done good gardening, had some splendid picnics, made some wonderful artwork. At the last session the kids squabbled amicably to grab the last beetroot, rocket, lettuce, carrots and redcurrants, and the teacher stood open-mouthed at the spectacle of children fighting for veg.

At least two of our tadpoles have successfully made it to frogdom, and two minuscule little amphibians the size of a fingernail were spotted enthusiastically hopping away from the pond a couple of weeks ago. We had a lecture on bees from local nature man, Mick Massie, and were were soon able to identify 4 different species hard at work on the hyssop in the maze. Yesterday we saw our first grasshoppers in the gravel garden.

Elsewhere in the park Mick identified a very rare bee, a solitary mining bee, Andrena florea, that only collects pollen from White Bryony. This provoked great excitement, since it is a Red Data Book species, ie. a significant endangered species found in very few sites in Britain. Unfortunately a large clump of bryony has just been ripped out as part of the yew hedge trimming.

In the Kitchen Garden we are currently struggling somewhat with the building works, although they are being very tolerant of our wish to remain gardening throughout the whole painful ‘regeneration’ period. Last week we harvested onions and carrots early from one bed to make way for the builders to install drainage works, only to be told that another couple of beds (potatoes, beans and pumpkins) must also be cleared for some surprise archaeologists. But nevertheless, the garden looks lovely, and we need archaeology and drainage too. I suppose.

Other park news
The House Festival was generally considered to be a great success, and the clear-up operation was immaculate. Fun was also had at the Friends Opera.

The park is, however, a bit of a depressing place at the moment. The old café closed down earlier this week and building work should start imminently on the new restaurant. The replacement mobile café, by the cricket pavilion is imminently expected, and the temporary loos are also immmently opening. The lake path remains closed awaiting imminent completion, along with the classic bridge. Contractors have started work on the conservatory so that’s out of bounds for the foreseeable future. The hockey field also remains out of bounds. Dukes Avenue is generally accessible with a bit of zig-zagging.

July update

Charity registration
We have finally taken the leap, grown up and become a proper registered charity. One of our committee members, the heroic Robert Ward Dyer, took the lead, and under his guidance and at no cost to the project, we have smoothly made the transition. Our aims and work procedures remain identical; the main difference is the extra text and numbers at the foot of our letterheads. For our part, we have seen an increase in junk mail offering to deal with our (non-existent) charitable funds, and spend our (non-existent) income on consultancy fees. We assure you that we will resist, and any donations to our brand-new charity will go directly to the project as they always have.

What’s growing…In the garden, most things are growing beautifully. Our potatoes are an absolute triumph, and each week the children dig up a different variety, obsessively graded from first earlies, via second earlies to early mains and so forth, and totter back to school with a sackful of spuds for supper.

As the potatoes come up, so the squashes and pumpkins go in. Last year at one of our open days someone from a squash-growing association muttered deprecatingly about our restricted choice; earlier this year he (sorry, name forgotten in the mists of the co-ordinator’s increasingly addled brain cells) turned up with some exciting seed packages and now Amish Pie, Hubbards’ Special, Australian Cheese and many other varieties are going in. In the autumn we will have an extraordinary show and feast.

…and what’s not
Sadly, other crops are faring less well. The many varieties of sweet corn, brought back lovingly from a holiday in Peru - big blue corns, stripey red corns, enormous white corns like a moon disc - produced beautiful seedlings. Alas, within a few weeks the new super-squirrels – a kind of black, S-class squirrel, faster and smarter and hungrier than the grey ones, though we have them too – had worked out how to lift the net for his mates and slash down our sweet corn. Although we probably should have grown fewer varieties, since sweet corn cross-pollinates, it is harsh to have them all destroyed quite so thoroughly.

Under glass, sorry plastic
Our polytunnel is still there, although it has shown an alarming tendency to depart for pastures new whenever the wind freshens. We thought it was very temporary, having been promised our greenhouses back in four months, but now the builders have discovered exciting things in the yard outside – confused drainage and much interesting archaeology, including a well – so it seems our polytunnel may need stronger anchoring. But within its shelter, a crop of melons, aubergines and peppers is beginning to swell with great promise.

Our June open day went very well. We sold lots of plants, heard lots of good comments, enjoyed ourselves and we hope visitors enjoyed themselves too.

Other park news
We welcome the new director, Sarah Finch-Crisp, who joins the project from Lydiard in Swindon where she sorted out a similar park. We look forward to working with her, and wish her good luck. Our experience of this park indicates she’ll probably need it, but hey – we’re still here.

The café will, sadly, be closing on 28 July. The big hole in front of it is still there, but work will be starting in August to transform it – in a year or two – into the new park café. In the lake, the two cygnets are growing beautifully, and soon we should be able to return to the lakeside path, to admire them from the newly smooth and wide path.

The baddies are gradually picking off the lead from the Temple, initially from the rear, but now they have got brave and are peeling off the front too. If anyone sees them there, call the police urgently; it seems to be happening at all hours, not just night time.

Volunteers are certified

Several of the Kitchen Garden’s most long-serving and hard-working volunteers received thank you certificates this week from the Volunteer Centre Hounslow.

Jutta Wagner received hers for all the work she puts into designing and planning the garden, timetabling sowing and planting so effectively that the school visits always have a selection of growing tasks, and making the garden beautiful and harmonious.

Alan Wadner received his for keeping the garden running on a day-to-day basis so effectively, ensuring that equipment and all other practical aspects of the project are well managed.

Helen Whitman runs the gardening club and the plant stall in the café with great panache.

Jennie Figaro is responsible for the school picnics that follow each gardening session, and also takes special responsibility for ensuring the greenhouses are always spic and span.

Madeleine Dinkel has taken responsibility for the mature lemon trees discovered dying in a locked greenhouse, which she has nursed back to health over the past three years.

Nicky Milligan has been in charge of seed-sowing with the schools, ensuring a continual supply of accurately sown and evenly spaced seedlings from the hands of small children.

Mary Walker is one of the longest-established and most reliable members of the school team.

Sarah Morris-Bray, Volunteer Support Project Manager, said: ‘It was lovely to have the chance to come down and present these awards in such a nice setting. This kind of project just couldn’t function without the hours of hard work, enthusiasm and dedication of volunteers like these.’

Project Co-ordinator Karen Liebreich commented: ‘We were only allowed to choose about half-a-dozen, and in fact there are 30 or 40 of us working very hard on this project, so it was almost impossible to choose. But these guys have been outstanding in their commitment.’

Open Day, Sunday June 8th, 1-5pm

Come and admire the garden, try the herbal maze, buy some plants, have a nice cup of tea, test your seed knowledge, make a plant collage, do a treasure trail in the scary magic forest. 25 different varieties of potato, 19 varieties of sweet corn (although two have been devoured by some strange beast), fruit including banana plants, blue berries and avocados...

Entrance free, via the car park on the A4. Photo shows kids from Belmont preparing for the Open Day and drawing pictures for the exhibition.

May update

Everywhere in the garden things are bursting forth, with plants and weeds enjoying the alternate rain and sun. The herbal maze is in flower, the potatoes are beautifully heaped, and the fruit is ripening promisingly.

We had a bit of a surprise a few weeks ago when we suddenly heard that we would no longer have access to the greenhouses during working hours, so we needed a very urgent complete re-think of the way we work. If the kids were no longer able to pot up and sow seeds in the greenhouse, what would happen to our seed-sowing timetable? Luckily we recalled seeing a roll of old polytunnel cover in the back sheds, and with the help of the building contractors, UPM Tilhill (thanks guys!) we covered the decrepit shade tunnel and transformed it – with a lot of hard work – into our new greenhouse replacement. Just in time for a torrential downpour during the school session last Thursday.

We also have a new tadpole tank, with some of the fattest tadpoles in town, and they are enjoying weekly free-range steak off-cuts from Mackens that send them into a piranha-like frenzy that is scary to behold. Don't put your hand in the tank kids..

Other park news
Building work has started. The portakabins in the back yards are almost gone, and construction of an enormous new compost heap is to start soon. The path alongside the lake is being re-routed and re-surfaced. The bricked-up arch from the A4 car park is reopened, and this now forms the new entry from the car park. The archaeologists in front of the café are happily digging away, logging and photographing the remains of the old service wing (stables, brewery, etc), and the volerie (Lady Burlington’s bird garden), old walls, pathways and drains.
The geese have had goslings, the moorhens have chicks, the mallards as usual have nothing. This year, after rolling two eggs off a sloping nest into the lake, the swans finally produced two cygnets, only for the male swan to die earlier this week, probably by crashing into the bridge defending his brood. The single mother is now working over-time; if you can’t see the cygnets, they may well be hiding on her back where they are almost invisible.

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.