KEMBLE COMMUNITY GARDENS

The story so far …

In the beginning …Early spring 2008 the site was impenetrable – a wonderful wilderness

covered in brambles and trees. A group of people got together, wanting allotments and community gardens. We spoke to the Parish Council, who

spoke to the Cotswold District council who own the land…

Cutting the brambles by hand! One lone woman begins the task with an ancient machete! We decided to preserve all the trees plus some areas of brambles

too. The site has many birds and slow worms.

Luckily, Travis Perkins heard about us and offered to join forces to give us a hand! Using mini diggers, they speeded up the

process without compacting the ground or disturbing the wildlife too much.

Alison Ensor from Glos Wildlife Trust led a workshop for us in the permaculture no-dig method. We planted potatoes through cardboard, then covered this with manure and straw. The potatoes broke up the soil for us with the help of our friends the worms, saving us the task of back breaking digging!

The no dig beds with potatoes planted in them – spring 08 – it worked!

Building a rain water harvesting compost bin under the guidance of Alison Ensor

Our first rain water harvesting compost bin – there is no tap on the site so we have to harvest the rain water.

By summer 08 after a lot of hard work, the first individual plots had begun to flourish.

Kemble Primary School took on their own plot and started to tend it on a weekly basis

Three Kemble school children who have taken on their own small plot.

We had a workshop to create ponds to attract predators to eat up menaces such as slugs. By spring 09 the ponds were full of tadpoles, plants and pond life.

Our work parties are very friendly and sociable and we always stop for tea and flapjack or cake! There is a real sense of community.

BBQ made from stone on siteby Averil – it works well and tea has often been brewed on it!

Iced ponds – winter 09

We began clearing an area of land by hand for an orchard

in spring 09. There were already some old apple and plum trees there which we pruned.

We planted apple, plum, pear, hazel and soft fruit in the orchard – in Spring 09. Lots of people turned up to help.

Planting one of the apple trees.

We encouraged the younger generation to come and meet the cider apple tree! They started to clear their own patch in a corner of the site where they may build a shelter.

The nose cone from an old aircraft was discovered on the site and has now been turned into a water feature with flowers planted around it!

Alison Ensor led us in a permaculture workshop on poly planting, stacking, mulching and companion planting in April 09. We then set up research beds to experiment with these techniques.

What next?

Here are some ideas we have had …

Willow structures Shelter building for the teenagers and adults

More pondsMore fruit trees

Planting a hazel hedge – thanks to Debs’ adviceWorkshops for children and adults

Building a low impact round hut with grass roofBuilding a clay or brick wood-fired oven

Thinning some of the woodland – again Debs’ adviceInvolving marginalised groups in horticultural therapy

The End?But really just the beginning

– WE HOPE!

Thank you for watching!