Seedling Swaps in May - Bungay, Norwich and Wivenhoe

Seedling Swaps are the happening event this Spring! This Saturday (May 15) there will be tables overflowing with small salad and vegetables plants all over Transition East Anglia. Transition Wivenhoe will be flourishing at the local Farmer's Market and Transition Norwich (see poster) on show at the Norwich Playhouse bar terrace.

Writes TN's allotment holder, Jane Chittenden: "Growing more of our own food is a great way to start designing a better future. Very environmentally friendly, doesn't require fossil fuel and kind to our pockets too! So we're having a plant swap, where we’ll have seedling plants (tomatoes and other veggies plus herbs and flowers too) and we invite people to bring along their own plants to swap. If you haven't got anything to swap for our plants, a donation would be much appreciated. Do come along with your plants - organic for preference, labelled and with advice on growing tips if possible!"

Sustainable Bungay’s lively Give and Grow seedling and plant swap was held in Bungay library courtyard on May 2. SB's Mark Watson reports: "The place was transformed inside and out with a constant lively buzz as people gathered, swapped plants and talked about everything from beekeeping to heritage bean varieties - in spite of the rain and the cold. We'd all been patiently (very patiently this year) growing our seeds for allotment and garden in homemade newspaper pots, toilet rolls and even ordinary pots. The tables were laden with vibrant healthy lettuces, currants of all colours, tree saplings, cosmos, mints, aloe vera, grasses, lemon balm, foxgloves, snowdrop bulbs, wild flower seeds, seed potatoes, cucumbers, the list goes on. And you had to be pretty quick as plants swapped hands even before they got on the tables. Especially the sturdy tomatoes which several people said they'd been having difficulty growing so far."

Time to get our hands in the earth!

Seedling Swaps on Saturday 15 May: Transition Norwich Playhouse Bar terrace, St George's St. 11am - 3pm. For more info contact info@transitionnorwich.org.

Transition Wivenhoe @ Farmers' Market, 9am-12noon @ Congregational Hall. 9am-3pm. Contact Julia (826015). Bring your excess veg & herb plants to swap/donate, or take some away for a small donation!

Taking home: rocket, lettuce, chives, pot marigold, lemon balm, lovely black grass and a rowan sapling

Kings' Lynn - Talk on Waste Management - Friday 14 May

A last minute cancellation in his speaker dates has meant that Prof Paul Connett, one of the world’s leading experts in waste management, is coming to Kings Lynn tomorrow (Friday 14th May) to give a talk regarding the incinerator which is planned for Kings Lynn, and Zero Waste which is a viable, sustainable alternative.

Dr. Paul Connett is a graduate of Cambridge University and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Dartmouth College. Since 1983 he taught chemistry at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he specialised in Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology. He retired in May 2006. Over the past 25 years his research on waste management has taken him to 49 states in the US, and 52 other countries, where he has given over 2000 pro bono public presentations. Ralph Nader said of Paul Connett, “He is the only person I know who can make waste interesting.”

The talk is free and open to everyone, it is hoped that some of those councillors who are proposing and supporting the incinerator will make themselves available to attend the talk. It will be at the NORA offices 6:30pm for a 7pm start, till 9pm Friday 14th May. The NORA offices are on the South Gate roundabout. There is a small car park on site. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear an independent expert’s view of the incinerator.