BOGnews Spring '10

Bat

h Organic Group Sprin

g new

sletter 2010

Bonfire below zero

From plot to prairie?

Advancing guerrillas

www.bathorganicgroup.org.uk

Plus• Bill’s big birthday• Seed swap info• The BOG spring and summer diary• biodynamic gardening

Dear BOGgers

What a fine AGM we had last November - you should have been there. I was slightly dis-appointed not to have been presented with a gold watch or model of slug moulded in Ma-deira cake but then I am used to these setbacks.

The 20th anniversary of this wonderful organic gardening group was marked by a splen-did January picnic. We cleared away the snow and sacrificed the traditional sausage and baked a BOG grown potato on a brilliant bonfire - you should have been there.

So, what now? We obviously want more people to visit our lovely gardens and experience the de-lights of organic gardening. At the moment, should nature call they can be adventurous and use the long serving and slightly down-at-heel treebog.

Or they have to leg it 7 miles to the nearest public convenience. If you are even slightly disabled this can be a hard decision. The truth is we need new on-site fa-cilities.

It would be a wonderful and fit-ting end to our 20th year to be able to cut the ribbon on a new,

state of the art compost toilet. But we need to raise serious cash.

The first and easiest step of this process would be for all those who haven’t yet to paid their subs (oh how I hate saying this every year). Standing order is fa-vourite and a form is on another page of the newsletter.

But we do not eschew cash, cheques and other easily negotia-ble means of exchange. The next would be to set up a fund raising group.

I am not doing this on my own and the committee is busy else-where, so I need people to join me. Those prepared to help in even the smallest way are wel-come. Phone (319117) or email ([email protected]) me and off we go.

In the meantime I look forward to seeing you (and your friends, neighbours and colleagues) at the Seed Swap on February 21– fac-ing page, or see the lovely web-site for more details.

Yours with crossed legs and no official status

Peter Andrews

Time to spend a penny before it’s too

late

Bath Organic GroupSEED SWAP SUNDAY

21 FEBRUARY 20102:30 – 4:30

St Mark’s Community CentreSt Mark’s Road : Widcombe : BA2 4PA

Entry: £2 (to pay for the room)

The annual SEED SWAP meeting is a great place to share crops that have been successful for you – hope you’ve saved some seeds – and swap them for those that other people have grown. It’s an excellent way to find veg seeds that do well in Bath, and new ones to try out – and it’s all for the price of a packet of seeds from the garden centre.

WHAT TO DO1. Put this date in your diary2. Pack up and label your seeds – in small quantities – for swapping:Plant & Variety – be as accurate as you canYear Grown – very importantYour name – and phone numberand any tips on growing3. Bake a cake – bring cake to share. Tea etc provided.4. Eat – drink – chat – and swap seedsIf you are new to seed saving, come along anyway and find out about it

For further information, contactSue Kendall (01225) 335813

TOAST

The usual BOG celebration cakes had real icing all round for the 20 birthday party of the community garden in January. The snow that carpeted the plot was no great problem: early arrivals had started a bonfire which provided both heat and a cooking medium for potatoes and the charcoal that barbecued sausages and warmed up the pizza. And because the wood had got wet in the snow it also produced enough smoke to make everyone smell like kippers for hours after.There was even water, because some prescient person had thought to

bring a container of the stuff, anticipating correctly that all the normal supplies in the steel shed would be frozen. The only casualty of

the day was Steve Chamberlain’s hedge-laying demonstration, which had to be cancelled, not least because the hedge was a bit snowed up.

In October Bill Brown celebrated his 85th birthday with a big party at the Moravian Church Hall. Among the Guests were Tim ,Steve, Len, Pauline, Rosemary ,Dan and Izzie, the Kales and the Gibbons.

Other guests were some ladies from Shep-pard’s Gardens, and friends from Bath City Farm and the Canal Trust.It was good to meet Ked and Warren again as they had worked with us on the garden

for years and to see Ked’s lovely little girl Iona.Bill had asked us to wear T shirts with a logo on to stimulate conversation so I wore my new green Bath Organic Group one.No problem as there was a happy buzz throughout the evening. We had a splendid meal of soup ,cold meats and salads, followed by huge chunks of sponge cake and the bar did a lively trade. Bill did a short speech followed by thanks from the groups present the n the mock cake with real candles came in and photos were taken. But the real stars were a couple of be-mused city farm chickens which Bill tucked under his arms and introduced to us. Instead of pres-ents he had asked for donations to City farm and was delighted that it raised over £250 We look forward to your 90th Bill .Cheers!

Sheila Blethyn

BILL’S BIG BIRTHDAY

The guerrilla gardeners have worked for two days on a site at the top of Park Street, up behind St James’ Square in Bath. In December a patch of bramble and nettle was cleared to ground level, and then – the real sweat – the team set about digging out the roots. We celebrated the end of our first day by planting an apple tree, not

knowing we were condemning it to a month of freezing weather. On January 24 we had a second day there, taking down an old fence to slightly enlarge the site, then tackling the roots again. Enough space was cleared to start a herb garden with rosemary, sage, oregano and some lavender. Guerrilla gardening has a long his-tory, and much of it is for visual amenity.In Bath, we were directly inspired by the Incredible Edible speaker from Todmorden, who came to the Big Event in November. Incred-ible Edible aims to ‘grow and campaign for local food’. The first aim is to use space for productive

Contacts and linksguerrillagardening.org/ (for a Lon-don example)Virginia Williamson: ([email protected])For future dates, contact Lyn Bar-ham ([email protected] or 01225 428029).

Guerrillas make a mark

purposes (which we all think has great visual amenity anyway!) and for produce to be freely available to the local community. Could Bath guerrilla gardeners have as big an impact as they’ve had in Todmorden? We hope so. A useful step would be to encour-age some people to take on the role of identifying possible sites in their local ward. We can then cre-ate a shared city-wide list, and ex-pand our numbers by encouraging local friends (and anyone else) to work on sites in their area, where they’ll also have easy access to the produce. Virginia Williamson has the begin-nings of a list of ward-based site-

seekers, and can offer advice on how to find your ward boundaries on the B&NES website.Meanwhile, we’ll be returning to those obstinate bramble roots in Park Street some time in the next month. And the apple tree? It’s still there, but very dormant. We’ve got our fingers crossed that it has survived its chilly ordeal.

Left: before. Above: preparing for the herbs. Right: planting the apple tree

What’s on at BOG?FEBRUARYSaturday 13th 2 – 5pm

Ready Get Set GrowIn the Brunswick Room at the Guildhall, Bath

- an Allotment Association event

Sunday, 21st 2.30 – 4pm

Seed Swapat St Marks Community Centre, Widcombe

- please bring any seeds you have clearly labelled and of course .. c a k e ..MARCHTuesday, 2nd11am

Garden Development Meeting

APRILSaturday, 3rdMorning

First Farmers Market of the year. Help will be needed on the Friday to pick/prepare produce. Members who have volunteered to help out will be contacted

beforehand. If you would like your name added to this list please see Sheila, Kate or Pauline

Saturday, 10th 11 am Garden Development Meeting

Friday, 30th Growing Green preparations start

MAYMonday 3rd 9.30 – 5.00

Growing Green Open Dayat BOG community garden

Our main event of the year. Lots of helpers needed for refreshments, the plant/produce stall, and to show visitors around the garden.

To add your name to the list please see Sheila, Kate or Pauline. Saturday, 8th Morning Farmers Market

Tuesday, 11th 11am Garden Development MeetingJUNESaturday, 5th Morning Farmers Market

Saturday, 12th all day John Brookes Plant Sale at Southstoke in aid of Julian HouseWe need helpers both morning and afternoon

Saturday, 19th 11 am Garden Development Meeting

JULY Saturday, 3rd Farmers Market

Tuesday, 13th Garden Development MeetingAUGUSTSaturday, 7th Farmers Market

11am Saturday, 14th Garden Development Meeting

SEPTEMBER Saturday, 4th Farmers Market

Mike Atherton gave a talk on biodynamic gardening in the newly restored polytunnel on a very wet Sunday in October.

For those that braved the elements he pre-sented a picture of the earth, its past and pres-ent condition, and what can be done to combat the changes that are happening.

The biodynamic move-ment started in 1924 after lectures by Rudolf Steiner, ‘a philospher, scientist and social reformer whose spiri-tual research has also influenced education, medicine and the arts.’

It is an holistic move-ment encompassing all life, regarding the planet as a whole, as a living whole. Land is a part of this whole.

‘Instead of simply sup-plying the plant with nu-trients, the biodynamic gardener aims to bring such life and vitality to the soil that the plants

themselves are eager to grow and find what they need.

‘The heart of the biodynamic garden is its compost heap. All organic waste can be transformed into hu-mus-rich compost with the help of biodynamic compost preparations.

‘These are made from yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion and valerian, through a unique pro-cess of fermentation.

‘The humus-like sub-stances are added to the compost in minute amounts and help to guide and regulate the decomposing and humus-forming process-es in the soil and make plant nutrients such as sulphur, potash, nitro-gen, calcium silica and phosphorous available in precisely the form needed by the plant for healthy growth.

‘Two further biody-

namic preparations are used to stimulate and harmonise plant growth.

‘These are horn manure and horn silica, two sporay preparations which act in a polar way to one another. Horn manure is specially pre-pared cow manure and horn silica finely ground and prepared quartz meal. Both undergo a fermentation process in a cow horn.

‘Before being applied they are dissolved in water and stirred vigor-ously for one whole hour - usually by several people. It’s hard work.

‘Horn manure is sprayed towards eve-ning, directly onto the soil prior to sowing or planting.

‘Horn silica is sprayed early in the morning as a fine mist onto the growing plant. It helps to stabilise plant ma-tabolism and enhance the qualitiative develop-ment of the crop. ‘

Biodynamic alternativesby Kate Mills

Continued

• Quoted text is taken from Biodynamic Agricultural Association literature. For more information contact BDAA Painswick Inn Project, Gloucester Street, Stroud GL5 1QGEmail: office@biodynamic. org.ukOr The Garden for Research Experiential Education and Nutrition (GREEN), Upper Grange, Lovedays Mead, Stroud, GL5 1XBGarden Visits can be arranged at Biody-namic Gardening Initiatives, The Marshes Farmhouse, Eaton Bishop, HR2 9QT. Tel 01981 251845 and at GREEN

Continued from previous page

BOG CONTACTS

Community garden matters:Tim Baines28 Ashley Avenue, BA1 3DS01225 [email protected]

Membership/rotas/visitsSheila Blethyn9 Winsley RoadBradford on Avon BA15 1QR01225 [email protected]

Trading hut/farmers’ marketPauline Magrath8 Beech AvenueBath BA2 7BA01225

Not the chairPeter Andrews19 Maple Grove, BA2 3AF01225 [email protected]

Newsletter/GardenshareGeoff Andrews30 Oldfield roadBathBA2 3NF01225 [email protected]

Remember?The next edition of the news-

letter will mark 25 years of BOG and it would be good to trace the history of the organi-sation through the memories of you, the members. All scur-rilous and outrageous stories about characters and events in the past will be published without fear or favour, rely-ing on the vast resources of

the organisation to pay off any court proceedings that follow.

Send your memories now to

Geoff Andrews(contact details in the next column)

Last year BOG used our loaf and grew wheat in the community garden, enough for a loaf at BUFFET (described in the last issue). So here’s how we did it. As members of the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens we got a little packet of Paragon spring wheat and some basic instructions (as part of their Mission Nutrition project with Blue Peter). So we set aside alittle bit of ground, prepared it to a fine tilth and sowed and followed the directions to sow seed 2cm apart in rows 10cm apart between mid March and mid April. A bit of protection to keep the pigeons/mice off was needed until the shoots got going and a couple of weed-ings to keep down the competition. By July the ears were forming on 45 cm high plants and harvesting was done in Early August (the mice and rats kept a bet-ter eye on it than us

and started their own harvest before we did). The grain was dried and (very) laboriously picked from the ears and then winnowed. Grain is stored dry for use and next years planting (come to the seed swap to get some of your own seedcorn). Store in bulk but not in an airtight container.Making flour from the ill gotten grains is a bit more of a problem - I didn’t fancy hours of work with a quern stone and lacking a

coffee/spice grinder I invested in a manual grain mill (available for less than £50, search the internet or your nearest Lakeland shop). 20 minutes light arm ex-ercise later you should have enough flour for a loaf (and the appetite to eat it). It worked out at about 500 grams of grain per square metre - slightly better if you can keep the vermin off - not a high yield for garden space but the soil doesn’t need to be brilliant (though you might consider follow-ing wheat with another crop e.g. buckwheat, if harvested early enough). Lessons learnt:• leave the ears on the stalks so you thresh against something• when winnowing drop the grain onto some-thing large and soft (sheet) - hard surfaces make the grain jump away!• keep an eagle eye on the ripening ears (or grow in a cat patrolled area).

Bread - the hardest way

By Danny Smith, (with last year’s

bread)

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at St Marks Community Centre, Widcombe, Bath on November 29

Present : Pauline Magrath, Kate Mills, Su Joel, Jane & Bernard Thomason, Sheila Blethyn, Rosemary Alvis, Geoff Andrews, Su Kendall, Lyn Barham, Jon Lucas, Virginia Williamson, Gill Christie, Di Nelson, James Bond, Bill Brown, Tim Baines, Dan Smith, Helen Woodley, Peter Andrews, Diana Burgess, Steve Chamberlain, Mat Lewis, Len Fawcett and Sylvia Hudnott

Apologies had been received from Steve Isaacs and Simi Rezai

Before the meeting started at 2pm we had a shared lunch

1.The Minutes of last year’s meeting were approved.

2.Peter reminded everyone that 2010 is the 25th anniversary of the start of Bath Organic Group and the 20th anniversary of the community garden and, unlike when we started, it is now thought fairly normal to be ‘organic’.

Report on Activities in the past year : Tim on the Trading Hut : it’s now three years since we took over the running of the hut from the Allotment Association, the last negotiated payment of £250 will be paid to them next year. The turnover was up 8%, takings £5,546, giving a profit of £312.

Tim thanked everyone who helped out with the hut.

The Trading Hut was now taking orders for onions, potatoes and seeds from either Kings Seeds or the Organic Gardening cata-logue and to gain the discount of 25% they need to be able to send an order in to the value of £170. Anyone sending in an order will be reimbursed by way of a voucher which can be spent at the trading hut. Tim also sought orders for West Riding seed compost.

Pauline on the Market : last year they took £1,027 and this year £1,244, which was without the Southstoke sales. They are trying to provide un-usual and/or difficult to buy fruit and veg which no-one else sells. This is very labour intensive, ie soft fruits which are very popular. They plan to sell small plants in the first few months next year when there is not much produce available to sell. Unfortunately there have been a lot of thefts, not only in our garden but generally in all the allotment sites in the area. This has been reported to the police. It was thought that these thefts are done by people who then sell on to pubs and clubs. The garden committee will talk to Simon about putting up a higher wire around the perimeter and Virginia Williamson offered to draft a letter to the Federation of

Pubs and to the Council commit-tee who deal with licencing.Action : Garden Committee and Virginia Williamson

Lyn Barham volunteered to make an A3 board to hang up with the produce prices. How-ever, Pauline said that Philippa Donaldson who helps to take the produce to the market does not have any room in her car, so Lyn said she will enquire if it could be stored in The Hub. Action : Lyn Barham

It was hoped that a leaflet dispenser could be obtained to display various leaflets about organic gardening and the new ‘Once a Pip’ booklet that had been produced.

Garden Committee : The com-mittee try to meet once a month on alternate Tuesdays and Saturdays to involve as many people as possible. Communi-cation is the key as without the volunteers the garden would not exist. John Gibbons was thanked for his help earlier in the year and a letter will be sent to him. The children’s area is now covered and water butts installed and the polytunnel has been reskinned and given a new floor.

The Growing Green Day was the best yet and the garden looked fantastic with thanks to everyone who helped to get it ready.

held at St Marks Community Centre, Widcombe, Bath on November 28

Tim & Dan have put in an ap-plication for funding for a new compost toilet.

Kate has produced a diary for the year with all the dates for the committee meetings and various other Open Days.

Sheila asked for volunteers for the garden rota and a list was handed around the meeting.

Bill is providing funds for chick-ens to be kept in the garden and these will be bought in the Spring.

Sheila on School Visits : Sheila thanks Kate Mills, Pauline Magrath, Margaret Herrick, Alison Mayall, Len Fawcett, Gill Christie and Margaret Hall for their help with the visits. In March two classes from Oldfield Park visited and went home with lettuce and tomato seeds in pots. At the end of the summer term 60 children from Oldfield Park had visited – in two parties of 30 – to help with juicing.

Sheila will send out circulars to another 12 schools but the problem is transport. The schools that do visit are only a short distance from the garden and can be walked to it.

Newsletter : Peter thanked Geof Andrews for producing the news-letter and the next one will be sent out in February – last date for entries 8th January, also for his help in producing the Once a Pip booklet.

3.Treasurer’s Report : Dan presented his accounts.

BOG was very lucky to receive so many donations for the Shed of Steel and everyone was thanked for their involvement.

£200 was made from Tim’s stall at the Flower Show and the 2010 show will be more of a community show, which will probably be beneficial to BOG, as we will be able to provide lots of small plants from the garden.

4. Appointment of Auditors : Lyn Barham volunteered to audit the accounts.

5.Election of Committee : Peter Andrews is standing down as Chair. No-one came forward for this position so it was suggested that at future meetings we have a ‘rotating Chair’. Everyone else is willing to stand again but it would be good to have some different faces on the committee and everyone was reminded that anyone can attend these which are usually held at Peter’s house.

6. Any Other Business: On 13th February from 2-5pm a Ready Get Set Grow show will be held at the Guildhall, an Allotment Association event. There will be 12 stalls [BOG will have two].

Mention was made of BAGS which is being run by BOG, the Allotment Association and Transition Bath, which enables people without land to contact someone who has surplus land or who are unable to look after

it themselves. However, the council won’t give the names of those who are waiting for an allotment, so one of the stalls will take the names of anyone interested in having some land and vice versa. This scheme is quite strictly controlled with rules. This will also enable people to become aware of what they will be taking on when they do get an allotment.

Dan Smith was thanked for the excellent BOG website and mention should be made of his homemade bread as he had grown the wheat and milled the flour himself.

…tea break… with auction of various items which brought in £30+

We then broke up into smaller groups to discuss the future of BOG and the following items arose : 1. How to attract younger people into the garden? - Diana Burgess mentioned a young man who had been very enthusiastic but had been told that he could not come down. This, in fact, had been discussed at a BOG committee meeting held on 5th October. We were concerned as he was only 14 years of age and therefore came under the Children’s Act. We also became aware that we had no Child Protection Policy which has now been written. However, we are still unsure of where we stand on this. Diana is going to work at Bath City Farm and is undergoing a Criminal Records check at the moment. We have

asked her to enquire at Bath City Farm how they deal with this situation.ACTION : Diana Burgess

2. One-off evening courses at the garden covering good organic practices – perhaps initially these could be offered to parents after a school visit.

3.Education : How to Grow Vegetables plus a starter pack /

plus plants with flyers perhaps at Trading Hut4.Plants being grown to show the stages of development of a plant :• just germinated• two weeks later• two further weeks on – and so on to full grown5.Weather conditions – what affects plants.6.Simple garden courses 7.Square meal project

8.Feedback of activities9. Surplus of produce10. Large laminated map of BOG with opening times information – at library/BRLSI/ where else?Peter thanked everyone for their suggestions which will be discussed at either the Garden or BOG committee meetings. He thanked everyone for at-tending and the meeting closed around 4.30.

Income Payments2008/2009 2007/2008 2008/2009 2007/2008

Garden 231.30 962.45Admin1 96.52 148.24Farmer’s market

2,061.80 1,233.94 1,137.28 1,298.66

Membership 1,042.00 856.00 185.00 91.50Donations 529.00 216.68Rent 161.29 153.07Gardener2 2,215.99 1,836.00Seedswap 75.00 40.00 30.00 6.50Square meal 12.92 79.00Growing Green3

619.71 310.60

Shed of steel4 1,009.47 1,410.00Insurance5 399.00 76.00Total 5,336.98 2,670.14 5,866.38 4,651.42

OPENING BALANCE

1573.52 CLOSING BALANCE

1,044.12

NOTES 1email newsletter for majority of members. 2 includes some mate-rial expenses. 3 spring flower show stall inc. 4 Triodos account emptied. 5 two years of garden insurance

Accounts

Bath & North East Somerset Allotments Association

Ready, Get Set – Grow!Saturday, 13th February, 2-5 pm

Guildhall, BathThis is a FREE event for anyone who wants to

start growing vegetables?

Come and find out what’s involvedin preparing and maintaining a plot.

Of special interest to anyone

• on the allotment waiting list

• thinking of applying for an allotment

• who would like a ‘garden share’

• who would like to gain experience in a community vegetable garden

• planning a veg plot at home