Manchester Drive Forest Garden Project

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2010-08-19T06:46:00.001Z

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Earth Writings book launch, Walthamstow 13/1/07

2007-01-01T22:52:00.000Z

Spiralseed and OrganicLea cordially invite you to the launch of
EARTH WRITINGS
by
Graham Burnett

Saturday 13th January 2007,
4pm onwards
AT
The Hornbeam Centre
458 Hoe Street
Walthamstow
London E17

(nr the Bakers Arms - 5 minutes walk from Walthamstow Central BR)

This event will be preceded at 2pm by a talk "Introduction to Permaculture" by Mark Warner of 'Naturewise'

All welcome - feel free to forward this post to anybody who you think might be interested!

www.spiralseed.co.uk/earthwritings

Margaret McMillan Forest Garden, Crouch Hill

2006-04-30T20:03:00.000Z

As well as Robert Hart's forest garden, one of the major inspirations for the Manchester Drive project has been the work of Naturewise, a North London based urban Permaculture project based around the Crouch Hill area. As well as running regular permaculture courses Naturewise have set up two urban forest gardens. The first, established around 1993, was at the back of Bowlers Green Community Nursery on a steep slope on public land, the second, created in 1n 1996, is at the Margaret McMillan Nursery School. Heres an ariel shot from Google maps.

I first visited this project shortly after it had been initially planted up some ten years ago, and spent alot of time their during the full Permaculture Design Course I attended in 1997, when all the trees were very small, and it was still possible to grow lots of annual sun loving crops such as tomatoes, mediteranian herbs, etc in the large unfilled spaces in the heavily mulched beds. I've made various visits back there over the intervening years, either as part of Naturewise courses I've taught on or various permaculture gatherings, workdays, etc, and its been fascinating to watch the evolution towards an edible woodland landscape as the shrubs and bushes have spread, the trees have matured and their canopy has gradually closed. One of the main driving forces keeping the project going was the energy of naturewise co-founder Alpay Torgut, so when he moved away to Wales a year or so ago it was sad to see the forest garden slide into a period of neglect. We visited Margaret Mcmillan during the last design course in the summer of 2005 and I have to say it was beginning to look rather sad, with bindweed getting the upper hand and several of the more rampant fruit bushes such as Worcesterberry in severe need of what Robert Hart termed 'editing' in order to prevent their domination over other plants.

However I'm delighted to say that several volunteers, more than ably co-ordinated by the efforts of course graduate Claire White, have quickly restored the garden to an optimum condition, an abundant balance between wild nature and cultivated edible landscape with a host of yields beyond simply the lush salad leaves curently available and promise of berries, currants and fruits as the year moves on. It was a pleasure to spend yesterday afternoon there amongst the blossom and fresh spring growth with excelent company.

In his latest book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, David Holmgren comments that "Successful gardens do not keep expanding. Instead, they provide a surplus of plant stock and knowledge that help to establish new gardens". There is a story that members of East London based food growing project OrganicLea once took cuttings of an unusual currant which they went on to propogate at their own site. The original bush at the Naturewise garden eventually died for some reason. However they were in turn able to re-establish their stock by taking fresh cuttings back from OrganicLea... An example of the truism that if you give something away it will come back to you threefold. Also of the Permaculture principle that 'Everything Cycles'.

Another permaculture principle is that 'the problem is the solution'. In this case the thinned out Worcesterberry that had begun to choke many of the beds in the forest garden had been potted up and were being given away as plant stock. I took two potted bushes (as well as cuttings of their delicious Strawberry Grape and Buffalo Currant) for the Manchester Drive forest garden, where its rampant qualities may be exactly what I need to compete with my endemic brambles and tough grasses...

For more information about the Margaret McMillan forest garden and volunteer workdays see http://www.ethicalinternet.co.uk/page.cfm?pageid=nw-forest

April 2nd 2006 part two

2006-04-02T15:47:00.000Z

More photos from the forest garden today

Newly planted area (beginning of 2006) showing mulched (mainly) wild fruit trees

East to west view across the plot.

Mulched Sunset apple tree (see earlier post)

More daffs!

Sloe blossom

April 2nd 2006 part one

2006-04-02T15:31:00.000Z

Some images from the forest garden taken today, 2/4/2006

A very unsettled day, verging between sunshine and showers and at times very windy. I had hoped to do some work, mainly pulling up grass to use as mulch around newly planted (Feb) trees, but the grass was not yet long enough, and also the ground was too wet. I did put in a few raspberry canes that I'd dug up from my other allotment, where we had manged to get about half our onion sets in beforehand.

I also mananged to fit in dropping the compost toilet DVCAM master in to my friend Chris Izod of Vidia Productions, who can hopefully put it onto DVD so that I will at last be able to make it more cheaply avavilable in DVD format.

Cherry plum in flower at plot edge

Daffs in flower at last!

Eleagnus and family apple tree originally from my mum's garden

Plot boundary. Note cut bramble used as dead hedging to prevent further bramble incursion from neighbouring plot.

Contorted hazel, originally bought in Chelmsford market

I Love Peckham

2006-02-21T14:44:00.000Z

Combining elements of both the Guerrilla gardening and benches as public art mentioned in previous postings, I came across this http://www.ilovepeckham.com/ today, linked via Richard's Guerrilla Gardening website and featuring the work of direct activist and street artist/sculptor/wood carver 'VIRUS', who repairs and improves vandalised benches around the SE13 borough. I particularly like the Holly project. You can also get 'Peckham Rock' from the website if you buy a 'I Love Peckham' teeshirt...

Maybe its not exactly forest gardening, but as far as I'm concerned its just another inspiring example of how ordinary people can take control of and improve the urban environment without waiting for 'permssion' from those in authority...

Conference pear

2006-02-21T11:39:00.000Z

In my last entry I noted that I picked up a Sunset apple from Homebase for a tenner, I've done even better this week by spotting a Conference Pear in Wilkinsons for a fiver! they had lots of other trees as well, including Jonnagold apple, but being limited to a bicycle for transport I could only carry the one, what is more I don't think I've actually got alot more room on the plot for any more trees, even though it does seem a shame to let such a bargain go...

I got down to the plot yesterday morning to plant the pear, it had rained all night, hence hacking out a planting hole in the clay soil with the mattock was like trying to carve into toffee. I also planted a couple of lemon balm plants and some bluebell bulbs that Ron had left out for me, plus cut some willow stems and attempted to replant the willow dome by pushing these straight into the ground. Even if they don't survive it would still be nice to buld some kind of 'twigloo' to either sit in or just to look visually interesting...

By now it was very cold and wet so I came home again. I had the intention of starting to give my 'zone 1' back garden a good post-winter tidy up but it was too miserable. Hopefully the weekend will be a bit better, as I've still hardly had a chance to get down to my 'zone 2/3' 'staples and maincrops' allotment this year...

Impulse buying

2006-02-12T00:08:00.000Z

Confessions of a consumer junky... Went into town today today to buy some printer ink plus paint for the kids bedroom, and ended up making 3 'impulse' purchases. Am I the ideal happy shopper or what?

Anyway, what i bought was,

1) Picked up an Acoustic Ladyland CD half price in the MVC closing down sale. Despite the very dodgy cover which looks more like it belongs on some late 70s/early 80s rock/new wave album like The Cars or The Knack or something, its on the esteemed Babel Label (who often package their releases with artwork by the brilliant Gee Vaucher, whose been turning in some of her best stuff since those classic CRASS covers and posters). I also saw Acoustic ladyland on the Jools Holland show and was well impressed, and have also seen Seb Rochford play at the local Jazz Club and been knocked out not just by his mad hair but also his stunning drumming. I've only played a bit of the CD, but it sounded like a nice blend of punk and jazz energies...

2) a fab little multitool from QD's that cost me £1.50. Its got a saw, a blade, a bottle opener, plyers, wire cutters, a 'lanyard' (whatever that is...), a great little torch and a 'Philips' screwdriver, but is only about 2 inches long when folded up. It also has its own little cool black pouch and fits unobtrusively into your trouser or jacket pocket without any trouble. I must say that most of my practical needs are met by my ever present 'Camper' Swiss Army Knife, but this seemd like a real bargain and a miracle of modern engineering, even if it is no doubt the product of some Taiwanese sweat shop... I'm afraid I can't resist a multitool, one of my guilty pleasures is having the odd peek at the Victoronix website to see which Swiss Army Knives I totally can't do without. The 'Swiss Memory' with its built in USB data storage utility seems particularly cool, but I know I'll never do anything about actually buying one...

3) (Actually relevant to this Blog!) Went into Homebase to buy the paint and ended up purchasing a Sunset apple tree for a tenner.

Sunset apple is very similar to Cox but much easier to grow. An excellent garden substitute for Cox particularly for regions where Cox can not be grown successfully.
Use: Dessert
Season of Use: Oct-Dec
Colour: Flushed
Flavour: Aromatic
Origin: Kent UK 1918
Pollination Group: C
Self-fertility: Self Fertile

They also had damsons and other apple varieties including 'Discovery' which, I believe, is an old Essex variety, so maybe I'll try and pick up a couple more trees before planting season ends. Not quite in keeping with buying from small and local nurseries I know, but, hey, carriage charges are crippling and at least its 3 or 4 trees taht wouldn't have gotten planted otherwise.

I've got a WLCS committee meeting first thing in the morning (well, 10 o'clock, which to me is 'first thing' when its a sunday...), after that I'll try and get down to manchester Drive and get this apple planted, and maybe even put the mini-multi-tool through its paces and see if it warrants the quid fifty spent on it...

Tree planting session

2006-02-05T18:24:00.000Z

This afternoon I finally got in the rest of the wild fruit stock that I bought from BTCV before Xmas. The full list is;

4 Sea buckthorne
3 Bullaces (wild plum)
2 Bird Cherry
3 Silver birch
2 Guelder rose
5 hazels
5 Rhamanus rose

So hopefully in a couple of years time there will be plenty of wild fruit available for making into wines, jellys and jams. I'd also love to have a go at making birch sap wine (which is partly why I put in the Silver birches, the other reason being that I just like them...). I guess it will be a few years before they reach anywhewre near a size where it would be OK to tap off some sap, but the forest garden was always going to be a slooooow, long term project... Besides if I'd put in some birch treees ten years ago when I first thought it might be a nice idea to make the wine, I might well actually be tapping it this spring, so in ten years time...

It was a beautiful sunny day down at the plot, with a feeling that spring might well be on the way, although further cold snaps are forecast. guess there will be plenty more of these if the gulf stream keeps on slowing down... Lots more little spears of daffodils starting to poke through, and also lots of bird activity. I saw a number of blue tits flying about, as well as the usual magpies and pigeons, also a fairly large yellow bird broke cover on the plot and flew into the trees, too fast to make out what it was clearly, and doesn't seem to be in my 'Birds in Your garden' booklet that I got free from the RSPB (its well worth sending off for this BTW).

The other day Ron told me that the council are thinking of cutting back all of the self-sewn ash at the north of the allotment site before spring arrives as local kids from the housing estate are using them as cover for their various ne'er do well activities. This will mean lots and lots of really nice straight ash poles being available- I've spoken to Adrian of Wholewoods to see if he fancies collecting some, and also maybe organising a green wooodworking course down in Southend later in the year- he's keen, so watch this space!

PS. I also picked up R J Garner's classic 'Grafters Handbook' for £2.45 in 'QD' this weekend! A bargain for sure but what on earth was it doing in the cheapo books section of the bargain basement version of 'Wilkinsons'????

Idling benches and the Sheffield Riddle Trail

2006-02-04T20:01:00.000Z

In today's Grauniard, Idler editor Tom Hodgkinson has a column in which he writes in praise of the public bench;

"Truly, the bench is a boon to idlers. Whoever first came up with the idea is a genius: free public resting places where you can take time out from the bustle and brouhaha of the city, and simply sit and watch and reflect."

He also suggests ways in which public benches could be vehicles for both the expression of artistic creativity and to also promote civic local distinctiveness by commisioning artists and sculptors;

"Each artist would have free rein to play around with the bench, build it from whatever materials he or she likes, engrave it, festoon it with colour, carve it with gargoyles or trees."

This put me in mind of a visit we made to the botanical gardens in Sheffield last summer when we were on holiday as a family camping in the Peak District. We followed the 'Riddle Trail' around the 19 acre site, which featured a series of mosaics, sculptures, carvings and so on placed around the gardens, each of which had an 'nature' theme (dinosaur footprints near the petrified trees, glass tadpoles and frogspawn near the pond, a bronze bear in what was once the old bear-baiting pit, a sunflower mosaic, etc), as well as giving a clue to the location of the next artwork. The works, all made by local artists, were of a very high standard, and the kids really enjoyed the adventure of finding the next section of the 'puzzle'. My personal favourite piece was a bench made of two combined carved trees - as well as being a functional seat made of natural materials that blended into the landscape, it also featured tiny carvings of a host of wild creatures, more and more of which revealed themselves the longer and harder you looked... I've posted up some pictures here to give an idea, but if ever you are in the Sheffield area I'd advise checking this out. Public art at it's best!

No more brambles (for now...)

2006-01-25T19:43:00.000Z

Debby and I went down to the forest garden today and made a final assault on the brambles, and have at last cleared the entire plot! Not that they won't be back (and I wouldn't want to totally eradicate them as they yield beautiful blackberries as well as being a wildlife habitat), however it does feel good to have the upper hand at least for a while, and hopefully from now on we'll at least be able to keep on top of them. Having the mattock to hack out the roots is a great help.

I also managed to start tree planting, getting in two bullaces and two guelder roses before it got too dark to continue. Ron was also down there today tending his forest garden next door, and I was able to scrouge lots of grass cuttings that I put around the new plantings as a mulch. With luck and if the weather holds I'll be able to get down there again before the end of the week to get the remaining trees in that I recently purchased from BTCV. The other selection of wild fruit plants that I bought from Kore nursery are doing well in the greenhouse at home. They look healthy even though currently dormant, but are rather small for directly planting out just yet, and would get swamped by the wild plants at the plot. I think I'll grow them on for another year...

Also the first little spears of the spring's daffodils that I planted last autumn and the year before are just visible, although I also managed to accidentally dig some up as well, which wasn't very clever.

Yet again I managed to forget the camera, so no fresh pics as yet!

Guerrilla Gardening on BBC Southern Counties

2006-01-10T20:56:00.000Z

I've just done a live interview over the phone with Charlie Crocker for BBC Southern Counties Radio, BBC Radio Kent, BBC Radio Solent, BBC Radio Oxford and BBC Radio Berkshire which went out across Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire about Guerrilla Gardening, which was fun although nerve racking! Thank you to the charming Lydia who sorted it out...

Talk about things that come back to haunt you... my status as a 'Guerrilla Gardening Guru' stems back to 1989 when I was asked to write an article for Green Anarchist magazine about allotments and guerrilla gardening- you can read it here if you want- consequently this got recycled a few years later by some Reclaim the Streets folks for a spoof newspaper they put together around the events of mayday 2000, then Grauniard journalist Lucy Seigel mentioned me in her book Green Living in the Urban Jungle. She also gave our Permaculture Courses a plug in the Observer which was nice, but does seem to have set me up as being some sort of authority on the subject! I even got described as the 'original UK Guerrilla gardener', although I think that honour should perhaps be reserved for Gerard Winstanley and the 1649 Diggers of St Georges Hill. However, Guerrilla Gardening and land squatting does have a long and venerable tradition, and hopefully our small efforts at Moon Corner, a previously unloved and littered spot in Leigh on Sea not too far from the Grand Hotel that was cleared by local people and made into a beautiful micro-community garden are a worthy footnote in that history (or should that be herstory as, apart from the Woodcraft Folk kids who got involved, the majority of the volunteers who cleared, planted and made the beautiful mosaic on the floor were women...). Not quite as high profile as The Land Is Ours squatting of the site of the old Wandsworth Guiness Brewery in 1996 , or indeed of Winston's Green mohican, but at least its lasted 12 years now...

Want to get started in guerrilla gardening? Start small- I once found a handful of left over onion sets in my pocket when waiting for a train- I pushed these into the soil of a flower bed by the bench, hey presto, a few months later, free onions!

Or for further inspiration check out my co-guest Richard's website at http://www.guerrillagardening.org

Camp Bling!

2006-01-01T14:45:00.000Z

At last made it to Camp Bling, the protest camp set up on the site of the Saxon burial ground that Southend Borough Council wants to destroy, along with a good section of Priory Park and many beautiful mature horse chestnut trees, in order to widen a road that will save drivers about 3 minutes journey time (and I can vouch for this, I frequently drive a Southend Borough Council minibus along this stretch during rush hour when its at its most congested, and it only evr takes about 5 minutes to get free of the traffic jam...) I'd gone along to our friend Andrea's new years eve party, but as Bling is just around the corner we ended up going there to see in the new year, and partying til about 4 in the morning to Future Sounds of London and Thin Lizzy and everything musical in between... And I also nearly got my bike stolen by passing local chav-types, thanks to Olly for rescuing it! my head is suffering today though.... So no trip to the forest garden for more bramble clearance as semi-planned ... No snow either, whatever happened to the 'real winter weather' we were threatened/promised???

Anyway, camp bling is an amazing place, some brilliant structures, the main communal house/bender thingy is really roomy, warm and comfortable inside, here's more about it at their 'Blingblog'. I'm going to try to get there a bit more often, and if i remember drop of a few Permaculture books and magazines...

http://blingblog.bravejournal.com/index.php

Bramble attack..

2005-12-29T23:11:00.000Z

Spent about 3 hours this afternoon down at the forest garden attacking the brambles- the third (or is it fourth??) such session over the last few weeks. basically the whole plot had been over whelmed over the last year due a lack of attention, and the brambles had certainly gotten the upper hand, engulfing many of the fruit trees, and making the paths totally inpenetrable. I'd previously slashed back alot of the bramble growth with the Chillington grass slasher, but as I hadn't actually tackled the roots it had simply returned with a vengeance while I'd been away.

But I have a new tool in the armoury now, a proper 'fuck off' mattock that I recently obtained from the BTCV catalogue. I'd checked out a few local garden centres for such an item with no luck, then made a request on Westcliff Freecycle in case anybody had one kicking about they didn't want any more. The only response was from good old Keith Baxter of the Famous Potatoes who offered to lend me one, but by now I had it in my head that I wanted to OWN one... I was chatting to my friend Adrian, a ex Southend lad, fellow Naturewise permaculture teacher and green woodsman who runs Wholewoods about this, again he offered a loan, but this would have meant carting the thing from, then back, to London on the train which didn't appeal, he did however loan me his BTCV catalogue which had exactly the thing I wanted. Unfortunately (or not..) the catalogue also has a really excelent plants section, so also ended up ordering quite a few trees and bushes for the forest garden, mainly wild cherrys, wild plums, bullaces, Sea Buckthorne, hazel, some wild roses, etc, etc. unfortunately I'm a sucker for a plant catalogue... AND I ordered a couple of the BTCV handbooks, the one on Woodlands and the one on Urban projects, which I have to say are excelent. the woodlands one is extremely comprehensive.

So anyway, the new trees are all bundled up and heeled in, ready to plant out just as soon as the bramble clearance is completed and provided the soil isn't too frozen solid, and the mattock has been brilliant for grubbing out the bramble roots, which has been really satisfying and hopefully a more permanent solution than just slashing back the top growth.

The only down side was having that bloody awful '9 to 5' song by Sheena Easton running through my head while I was working, due to a discussion I'd been involved in on the Idler message board earlier in the day; "He works all day, to earn his pay, so we can play, at night..."- so what is "his" job he "Takes the morning train" to??? Arms trader? Vivisectionist? Stockbroker? Sad little office clerk??? These I'm afraid were the thoughts that swam through my sad brain whilst the bramble roots were disapperaing 10 to the dozen! actually another downside was that i took my camera down to the plot hoping to get a few snow shots, but the batteries were flat- but if we get the promised/threatened snowstorms over the next few days maybe I'll be able to stuggle down and get a few 'Narnia' style pics...

At the moment I feel really on top of the project, its like I'm entering 'phase 2' now, especially once all the new wild fruit stock is in.

I also got this blog up and running as well, something I've been meaning to do for a long time, and it was quite interesting to retrieve the old Yahoo groups post below to see my 'summer attitudes'...

June 2002- from the archives!

2005-12-29T22:12:00.000Z

This is a post on the forest garden that I made to a Yahoo! group back in June 2002 that I've just been able to recover from the archives;

Forest Garden News June 23rd

I visited the forest garden at Manchester Drive, Leigh On Sea today for the first time in a few weeks. Alot of grass had grown up but the thick mulches of cut grass and weeds I'd put around the bases of the trees I'd planted during winter & spring have been effective in holding moisture and keeping down weed regrowth so these were fairly clear. Most of my time I spent re-defining the paths, which were just starting to become indistinct, and pulling up and cutting grass which I used to top up the mulches. I also slashed back a fair bit of bramble which had also been re-encroaching using my Chillington grass slasher which I recently obtained from the Permaculture Magazine. On the plus side, it looks like there will be another good crop of wild blackberries this year- last year's got made into wine, I made a couple of gallons which went in a very short period of time- in fact it never even made it to the bottling stage- delicious and highly potent- some of my more 'left-field' postings at Eco-Vegans & elsewhere have no doubt been fueled by this brew :-)

Of the willows I planted in winter, 5 have survived and seem to be doing well, although 4 have died. These I will replace in autumn or winter with fresh cuttings. I'm not sure if the willows have produced enough growth this year for me to have a go at creating some living willow sculptures or furniture, but you never know...

The dwarf family apple tree (unsure which varieties!) that I obtained from my mother's garden where it has never done very well was for the first time ever laden with fruit, as was the Own rootstock Katy apple that I obtained from Phil Corbett's 'Cool Temperate Nursery', and it broke my heart to have to remove it all! Still, tempting as it was to leave it all, my logical right brain managed to convince me that the trees need to put their energies into getting established in this first year after planting if I'm to reap the full benefits in later years...

I also noticed that the ORS Katy has a little damage around the base, looks like strimmer damage but since that isn't possible maybe it's rabbits? Anyway, I've created a protective barrier using cuttings from the slashed back brambles which I hope will be effective, and also has turned a 'problem' into a 'resource'...

I was surprised to see that a peach which I grew from a stone several years ago and has ever since sat in a pot looking miserable that I decided to plant at the forest garden is actually growing away healthily, although I seriously doubt that it will ever fruit... On the downside though I do seem to have lost a 'Stella' cherry on a 'Colt' rootstock which is a shame. it has no leaves and looks very forlorn, although still has green wood just below the bark so you never know.

I noticed that Ron's plum on his neighbouring plot (also a forest garden) is fruiting abundantly, so I guess a couple of plums will go in next autumn as well- there's still plenty of space.

The rowans & hazels that I planted are also looking good...

Still havn't done any grafting yet, but the rootstocks that Ron & I obtained from Phil Corbett this winter are looking good and healthy...

The week after next ron & i will be doing an 'alternative tour' of Manchester Drive allotment site, including our plots, and some of the wilder areas, such as the Northern area of the site which has ben 'neglected', but is in fact re-establishing as ash and oak woodland, and from whence we have been harvesting ash poles for green woodworking projects. This is as a part
of the Manchester Drive Allotment Society Open Day, and is at the invitation of Leigh Town Council & 'The Committee'- a sign that attitudes are at last changing to accept 'other' ways of allotment gardening than straight rows of veggies???

Still havn't got a website with photo's of the forest garden together yet, watch this space...

I also fitted in a visit to my 'Zone 2' veggie production allotments today, dug up the first of this years new potatoes, and some nice young beetroots- you know summer's arrived when you have beetroots for tea and your first pee of the following morning is bright pink! It scared me the first time happened but I'm used to it now...

Cheers for now, Graham Burnett

Why this Forest Garden blog?

2005-12-29T21:20:00.000Z

The purpose of this blog is to document the development of the forest garden project that I have been setting up at Manchester Drive allotment site in Leigh on Sea, Essex, as well as any other random permacultural (or not) rambling thoughts that might happen to stray from my brain. This is both for my own benefit, as well as something that might be of general interest particularly to others who have, or are thinking, of setting up forest garden projects.

The forest garden blog is something I've been meaning to get off the ground for a long time, and its now about 4 years down the line from when I began the forest garden project, so apart from a few sketchy pages in my paper notebooks, and a few posts that I've made to a couple of Yahoo! groups over the years, documentation is a bit vague up until now. I shall endeavour to retrieve what there is and add it here as and when I get the time and/or inclination. There are also a number of photos that I've taken since the project began which I'l also post up, or will maybe put on a seperate webpage somewhere...