NORWICH: Grapes Hill Community Garden - Grand Opening - 7 August

Since the Grapes Hill Community Garden opened its gates to the public on 2nd July it has proved a hit with people and wildlife alike.

We had a great evening in the garden on Sunday 10th July, after St. Benedict's Street Fair. On other days people come in to enjoy the garden's peace and tranquility. People appreciate the garden's wealth of vegetables, herbs and ornamentals, with the wildflower meadow being a particular favourite.

The garden is attracting birds and insects too. A pair of blackbirds nested in a courtyard backing onto our garden and the parents foraged for food here. Bumblebees, butterflies, moths, ladybirds and hoverflies are moving into the garden and we're keeping a note of what we see.

On Sunday 7th August we have our Grand Opening Day. This starts at 11am when Will Giles from Norwich's Exotic Garden officially opens the garden. There will be food, drink, music, ice cream, face painting, competitions, plant sales and information about the garden, until 3pm.

There will also be a one-off chance at this event to join the Grapes Hill Community Garden Group for half price until the end of 2012 for £5 (waged) or £1.50 (unwaged).

Admission to the garden is free - please come along and see Norwich's newest green space. Jeremy Bartlett.

Above: Drinks and food in the garden - 10th July 2011. Photo copyright Grapes Hill Community Garden Group. Visit our website or our Facebook page for more information.

Bungay: Midsummer Celebration at the Library Community Garden - 24 June

Bungay’s library courtyard is positively blooming this summer as its beautiful, new wildlife garden comes into its own with a great burst of activity.

Colourful chamomile, cornflowers, poppies and foxgloves catch the eye, not only of library visitors but bumble bees and many other insects. And there are plenty of feathered visitors too, including a pair of blue tits who have successfully reared a family of youngsters in one of the new bird-boxes.

To celebrate the success of this flourishing community project and to boost the ongoing Save Bungay Library campaign, a Midsummer Evening is being staged at the library courtyard on Friday, 24 June, from 7-10pm.

All library supporters and well-wishers are invited to come along. Drinks and nibbles are provided and local musicians will add to the atmosphere, playing acoustic instruments.



Over the past year, this underused courtyard space has been transformed into a hive of activity. This spring pupils from Bungay Primary School saw the bulbs they had planted last Autumn emerge from the earth and burst into bloom. On May Day Sustainable Bungay held a second Give and Grow Day, exchanging seedlings, seeds, flowers and veg (and growing tips!) and establishing a permanent plant and produce corner.

During the drought, the library staff and volunteers have been kept busy watering the assorted herbs, wildflowers and young fruit trees, relying on tap water when the rainwater butts ran dry. The busy staff are seeking someone who is willing to spend a few minutes each week, sweeping the courtyard to keep it looking spick and span. Dustpan and broom will be provided! A shed with tools and compost for garden maintenance is now in situ.

Sara Johnson, who redesigned the courtyard garden with the project’s working party, is really pleased with its progress. “I’m delighted - after the freezing conditions of the winter and now a prolonged drought – that it’s established and positively thriving.”

For more details about the midsummer evening, or if you would like to contribute any refreshments, please contact the library staff or email: info@sustainablebungay.com.

Community Gardens – Transition King’s Lynn, Wivenhoe and Bungay

This month there are Transition Gardens in production and construction all over East Anglia. Produce is being swapped and shared, not just from garden shares and allotments, but from Transition plots in all sorts of extraordinary places. Here's our round up of some of the East's flourishing community gardens.

Transition King’s Lynn began their Edible Garden in the Walks (public park) in May 2009. They have been running regular workdays, planting and sowing days, picnics and tree pruning workshops ever since.

As part of Love Parks week last August Transition King’s Lynn staged an event that involved planting up lots more plants, including lavender donated by the Borough Council, and more vegetable and herb plants. Visitors to the bed were treated to a share in the harvest of salad leaves and French beans, and children were able to sow seeds of rocket, radish and oriental leaves in biodegradable origami pots to take away and plant at home.

Here's Viv from KL: "Some members of Transition King's Lynn set up a stall in the Walks to give away some of the produce from the bed. The feedback from this was very positive, though some people were suspicious as to why we were giving it away for free, and others simply couldn’t bring themselves to take it for free, so gave donations (gratefully received!). Other surplus produce has been donated to a local homeless charity to be used by the cooks in their day centres."

The produce from the bed is available for anyone to harvest and eat themselves. TKL is always open for more people to get involved -seeding, mulching, weeding, watering, dead-heading, harvesting etc. So do get in touch if you'd like to join in.

Transition Wivenhoe began their Station Garden this Spring and the Food Group has gained Network Rail's approval of the Station Master's House community food garden. Travellers, station staff, passers-by and garden volunteers have enjoyed crops of rocket and lettuce. Courgettes, peas, tomatoes, potatoes and winter squash are on the way. Volunteers have helped regularly at Broomgrove School veg patch, it has been lovely to suppport the children's enthusiasm for growing food.

This Friday they had a Station Garden cookout. Here's Peta of TW's very active Food Group: "The overwhelming verdict of the station house garden marrow curry, cooked up by Kaushali yesterday was "delicious!". This has been a much watched and commented on vegetable over the weeks as walkers, cyclists, commuters, garden helpers and station staff have witnessed the little courgette turn into a fine marrow. Even Wendy the station cat seemed to have an opinion, though perhaps a slightly dim one as she has had to shift her sun bathing spot as the monster plants have slowly taken over her space. Watch out as the winter squash are next to surprise and delight... along with the fantastic sunflowers of course. Over 40 bowls of veggie curry and handmade rolls were dished up to surprised passers by, a few commuters who made the time to stop and some Station Pub regulars, along with food group activists who set up the stall outside the entrance to platform 1.

In Bungay this summer we've been engaged in laying the foundation work of our Library Courtyard Garden (you can follow our Community Garden blog, brick by recycled brick!). Yesterday we shovelled 5 tons of top-soil into the beds ready for planting up our fruit trees (cherry and apple and pear) in our permanent bed and seasonal flowers, vegetables and herbs in our seasonal round bed. We’ve also got a wormery, rainbutts and compost bin, so our “Living Library”, as well as providing an outdoor meeting place and a quiet spot in turbulent times, will serve as a showcase for the ecological principles behind Transition. Designed by a working party formed after our Permaculture course (taught by Graham Burnett of Southend-in-Transition) in January it will be a living demonstration of everything from carbon reduction to water conservation, medicine plants to the restoration of the honeybee. We’re hoping to have a grand opening for everyone who has been so far involved in the project (about 100 people) in September.


Transitioners hard at work in King's Lynn Edible Garden; making banners under a Walks tree; planting the first potato at Wivenhoe's Station Garden; rocket to go; Sustainable Bungay workparty at the Library Courtyard.