LET THEM EAT CAKE - CAKE EVENT

To cheer up those January blues we are running an event called let them eat cake. The idea is that we will show you in a few hours how to cook cake based on Carrots, Beetroot, Parsnip and Courgette. Yes they are all veg, and yes cake with them in does count as part of your 5 a day - how mad is that !!!

You will chose a group and make one of the recipes and them get to try all of them with a drink at the end. It will also be your last chance to do your bulk seed order so don't forget to come.  Transport help is available so do ask us if you need any.

Its on the 14th of January late afternoon till early eve...times to be confirmed :-D

Bulk Seed Order

Calling all growing groups

We are going to do a massive collective seed order from Suttons Seeds so please let us know if there is anything you would like. We can get a discount though our friends Food 360 of up to 50% of the packet price of any seeds.

We wil place the order early in the new year so use the holiday period to do that window shopping. 

You can view the full Suttons Seeds catalogue here  http://www.suttons.co.uk/online-catalogues-seeds-3991.htm or order a paper copy for free here  http://www.suttons.co.uk/CatalogueRequest.aspx?gclid=CMrHm4OHqLsCFQMHwwod0XcAeQ

Reach Out Orchards - all over Hull

During the next few months we hope to plant 8 orchards within Hull in and around church grounds.  Why orchards ?  Well they are great low cost, low maintainance food growers, that last years and years. They also help attract insects to pollonate other vegtables planted near them as their nectar is sweet and high up.

So far we have planted one orchard of 14 trees at Bricknell Methodist Church (post to follow) with more to come at St Martins CoE and the Boulevard Hope Grows Garden, but we are talking to a number of other venues too. If you would like to help plant or even make tea on planting days do let us know.

St Michaels Youth Project, Orchard Park Hull

St Michael's have the enviable job of working with young people day in and day out. Some of them wanted to try growing their own and managed to plant a herb garden, fruit trees, rhubarb, spinich, Potatoes, strawberrys and beans.

Sadly the beans where victims of the dry hot summer we had (they didn't get enough watering) but everything else did wonderfully well and a few of the hard workers returned to collect some of the crop.

Teenagers ever conscious of their image didn't want to be in the pictures but the crops speak for themselves.

Over the winter we plan to do some fruit tree planting and turn half of their allotment plot into an orchard to make it more manageable to grow on.

We really need a volunteer who can help with watering for this project so do let us know if you live near Clough Road and can help.

GreenFingers - Bodmin Road - Bransholme

The guys on Branshome have had an amazing year, going from not having ever grown anything, to reaping the best harvest of all our groups from the smallest plot.

We never did weigh all the runner beans but my guess would be into the 15kg and more.  We also had over 40kg of squash - from just 4 plants. This is Sheila one of the group leaders having a ball with rhubarb.

We are about to plant some trees here as part of our Reach Out Orchards plan, which will see 8 new fruit orchards in Hull this winter. Click on the article to see more on them.

Plans are afoot for next years growing already with more people showing interest based on the success of this year.

Is is cheaper to grow your own?...Yes and here is the proof

Back in May 2013 i bought a £1 bag of compost from Wilco and 2 cheap bush tomato plants that cost me £1.50.  I planted them in a worn out jute bag (it had holes in ) and decided to be the worst gardener i could be to these poor plants.

I never fed them any fertilizer (tomatoes need regular feeding), i watered them only when the plants wilted during the warmest + driest summer in years (tomatoes also need heaps of watering - twice a day sometimes. They never had full sun (you guessed it they love full sun) and they still grew.

Not only did they grow but they produced delicious fruit, of supermarket quality looks wise and far better flavour.  I didn't weight them but i got around 5 large punnets of tomatoes from them of the quality you see in the last pic. Basically they paid me back more than their cost in great tasty toms.

The pic above is the tomatoes as I planted them in my home greenhouse. The next pic is half way through the harvest period, which lasted nearly 2 months.  As you can see they are not fine looking tomatoe plants by any means, it was abused and lived in the shade.

The last pic is just the ripe tomatoes I picked on the day of the second picture on the left. As you can see there are many more fruits to pick when ripe.

So if you watered them a little more, added a little plant feed and gave them some sun, you would easily double your crop.

So even the lazy, buying everything late, can grow better food cheaper than you can buy them. If you want to know more about how please email us at iwant2livebetter@gmail.com

If you planted the plants from seed and used home made compost these tomatoes below would cost you about 10p and the rest would be ALL FREE.  Who doesn't want free food?

St Matthews Church Hall, Boulevard. HYFC

Its been a while since I posted here but a lot has happened.  Here is one of the many things the new Hope Grows group did in the growing space out the back of the parish hall.

This huge mural was designed by teh young people and painted on teh wall with paints kindly donated by WESTOBYS on Boulevard. they also built a sand pit that day, which they are standing in so parents can grow while their kids safely play.

The group went on for the lifestyle award for helping transform the garden space. They went on to make insect and bird boxes so we have good pollination and pest control when we plant up next year. Scroll down to see the fab results, all made with reclaimed timber.

Bransholme Green Fingers

I was so proud to attend the first annual Home Grown Food BBQ with the Bodmin Road Church Group On Branshomle yesterday, who have now called themselves GREEN FINGERS.  We had 5 crops from the garden on the food table, and for a plot that has only been there for 12 weeks thats not bad going.  We had over 25 people there, most of them far too camera shy, especially the adults.

Star of the show was the fab broccoli you can see over some of the younger growers heads. and more kids ate it than adults, so there is a future for fresh green locally grown food. I will post some more pics of this lovely plot very soon. In the mean time look at the runner beans and squash peeking out behind the left pic.

If you want help to grow like this in your back garden, church hall, roadside verge, get in touch, WE WOULD LOVE TO HELP YOU :-D

Adrians East Hull Growing Adventures

 

Pics of the FAB plot at Longhill Link up Trust

Since starting the ‘Living Better for Less in Hull’ there has been a dramatic take up with churches wanting to get on board. I have concentrated on East Hull and already find it difficult to do all I want to do in one day a week. However we have - Longhill Link Up, St Aidan’s, St Stephen’s, St Hilda’s, St John’s. With a community growing group in North Bransholme.

Spare church land has been utilised and volunteers are using their time in growing veg and salad. St Stephen’s have even dug up some council verge and planted potatoes. St Aidan’s are clearing a piece of land which had been used as a dumping ground for rubble after the churches building works, approx. 10 tonnes of rubble is being moved.

It is all very encouraging especially as our aim is to get people talking about food. Where it comes from? Is it good for you? Can I save money? What can I grow? I have personally stressed that we are not about setting up growing clubs based on an allotment principle, but to encourage a positive approach in being in control of what we eat and grow, especially in these times of austerity.

We will be undertaking cookery demonstration during the winter, hopefully to inspire and get more people growing in 2014. 

St Stephens Neighbourhood Centre, Greatfield, Kinston Upon Hull

The sisters and their keen volunteers at St Stephen's have been busy with Adrian growing some fine looking spuds on a verge nearby.

These are now in flower, and make a great addition to the streetscape.   Just round the corner behind St Stephens itself is some more container growing, with potatoes, herbs, squash, broccoli and tomatoes on the go, and more to follow.

View of the main building at St Stephens, Greatfield.

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St Hildas Church, Greatfield, Kingston Upon Hull

The gardening club are doing great with a good crop of spuds about to flower, some fine looking runner beans, peas, and some strong looking brasicas too.  Much of their fruit and veg is grown up the fence so anyone passing by will be able to pick their own.

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Tresure Corner - some of the amazing and less so things we have found digging

Its got nothing to do with food, but it is rather fun to look at some of the the things we have found across our many sites.This first batch is from Boulevard.


Here are a few pictures, and keep coming back as we will add new pics of things to this post. So far the oldest thing is a clay pipe from 1640 - 1700 shown below. Its a rare find by any measure.  At that point Hull only had a few thousand people living in it, and it was found on the Boulevard, which was the edge of town then, and possibly open fields.

Most other finds are 20th century including coins, one dating back to 1902.  The action man is of 1970s vintage, the car below is 1970s too.

 How it came to have a bramble root through it is pure chance, but it looks great.

How a 1980s ski binding got there we will never know and the car starting handle I'm sure was missed by someone, its a 1950s one we think. Remember that style of peps can, late 1980s, along with an old marmalade lid, a 1960s light switch and a Victorian brass tap.

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Visit to Incredible Edible, Todmorden

 Toddy, as its known to its locals is a place of inspiration and boldness. They have turned their whole town into an abundant basket of food growing spaces.  Here is a small glimpse of their genius and creativity. Do click on the link further down to see more on their website.

This visit was run by Food 360 and Longhill Link up Trust, So thanks to them both :-)

 A local front garden, Mary Clear's, a leading force locally, now a public larder of fresh food.

 Local produce, fair prices, in locally owned and run shops, does it get any better?

 The Health centre healing and herbal garden

 A rather fine planter and seat made from simple planking - one to complement by copying.

 Insect and bee home made from slices of bamboo, simple, cheap and a bee life saver

 BEEautiful high rise living, art and function mixed so well.

 Bird boxes made by local artists, all along the Green Route

More insect homes in a high rise style

One of the many signs around the 'Green Route' which shares ideas and plant identities

A huge veg plot by the railway station

The local church, now a community centre

Narnia like pathway in the church yard....is there a wardrobe in those trees ?

View of Toddmorden from the church

Pollination Street - bee garden next to the market place.

some fine squash and courgettes i think.

go look at their website its full of great ideas and some exciting new growing adventures
www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk

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St Aidans Church, Kingston Upon Hull

 

 We thought this place would be a quick clear with the digger.  What we hadn't banked on was that many years ago someone replaced a concrete roof on part of the church and had dumped it on this area. So instead of just clearing a small pile of rubble visible, we had 2 foot deep of rubble across the whole site under the brambles.

 

 We had a good, if smaller team to do the clearing, but thats not so bad with a digger arm swinging round so often. We will probably fill 3 skips by the time we have cleared the back here. But the soil is good to a depth of about 4 inches, and the church are very excited about doing some collective growing, and serving some of it in their lovely and very popular cafe. More pics to follow, as this place is is so keen there will be plants in a matter of days :-D

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St Michael's Youth Project Allotment Update

 Its been a long haul on this allotment plot, not only was it epically overgrown, but then even a power driven rotorvator could not claw up the boulder clay.  In the end we resorted to getting the digger in a again and after a long days work, the whole plot is turned over.

Sadly this place has pretty much the worst soil in Hull - well it has and inch of top soil, so we are doing minimal planting this year and very heavy manuring over teh winter to get next year off to a better start.   But we will pop some fruits, herbs and salads, and maybe some spuds if we can in all the same.

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Bodmin Road Church, Bransholme, Kingston Upon Hull.

It was with some deep disapointment that a week on many of the plug plants had died, the french beans looking least happy. We think its due to cat urine, we have tried our best to revive some and will replace others.

Time waits for no man tho and so we carried on with bed number 2 and soon enough we had a good team of diggers again and by the end of teh session we had some squash and broccoli planted in it too, kindly donated by Food 360 in East Hull, as they had some spare.  They are a cool bunch check out their work too here. http://www.probeltd.co.uk/community/community/community/f360future.html

I

To make sure cats wont bother the plug plants this time we enlisted the help of spiderman, I guess he will scare off flies too :-)

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