Dates for your Diary

FEB 19th 10am -2pm: Transition Worcester Seed Swap, at the Community Garden. Back by popular demand. The rule is ‘take what you need, give what you can.’ Bring your own seeds to exchange or give a cash donation. Delicious hot soup will be available!

FEB 12th 10am-2pm THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED: Grafting workshop at the Pumphouse Environment Centre, run in co-operation with Duckworth Worcestershire Trust.

Tony Kennell from Worcester Community Garden and Arthur Rowe, from Worcestershire Orchard Workers will teach you all about tree grafting. Grafting is an ancient skill and a better and more reliable way to guarantee a tree that bears good, healthy fruit than you would get from planting a seed.

This workshop provides an excellent opportunity to learn this skill directly from the experts. On the workshop, you will not only get an opportunity to put what you have learned into practice, at the end of the course you will also be able to take away your own newly grafted fruit tree!

The course costs £5 per person, to help cover costs, and places are limited. If you are interested in attending, please register without delay by emailing us at [email protected].

 

Old North Stables wins Worcestershire wildlife hero award

In January the Old North Stables won a prestigious Worcestershire Wildlife Hero award, which was collected in person by Tony Kennell at an awards ceremony organised by Worcestershire Wildlife Trust.

The citation for the award reads as follows:

“Tony and the team of volunteers at the Old North Stables have worked wonders to create a community garden out of a disused space just off Pitchcroft racecourse.

As part of Transition Worcester, they are helping to educate the public about sustainable food production and wildlife-friendly gardening techniques.

Most resources are donated or recycled, and imaginative re-purposing avoids unnecessary waste, with old bathtubs collecting rainwater, plastic piping providing the structure for polytunnels and raised beds made from old water tanks.

The relatively new forest garden has made a good start, an area of bramble and big trees is left wild apart from the bird feeders and nest boxes, the much decayed hard-standing where the stables once stood feature raised beds, poly tunnels and greenhouses.

There is a meadow, lots of fruit and edible trees, no pesticides and a small collection of beehives.

Open most days to welcome the public, Tony speaks enthusiastically and knowledgeably to passers-by about the garden, what grows there and why, as well as encouraging them to have a go themselves.

It’s a haven for local wildlife with hundreds of birds, bees, butterflies and the occasional gang of brawling foxes!”

 

new tree nursery


At the beginning of February some of our volunteers helped collect young saplings from a private estate in Kempsey and transplant them into a new tree nursery here on the community garden site. All the transplanted trees are doing well in their new surroundings, and in due course will be planted around the city.

dates for your diary

Annual seed swap

Saturday 14 March 2020,
Saturday 11 April 2020
Saturday 9 May 2020
We’ll be holding the seed swap on these three Saturdays between 11am and 2pm at Repair Café, Unity House, Stanley Road, Worcester WR5 1BE. Bring along any seeds that you have saved or would like to swap. If you don’t have seeds to swap you can give a donation instead.

Annual plant swap

Saturday 2 May 2020 11am-2pm

The annual plant swap will again be held at the old north stables community garden, Pitchcroft. An opportunity to swap plants with fellow gardeners.

Apple pruning workshop

Saturday 27 June 10.30am
At the old north stables community garden, Pitchcroft. A great opportunity to learn how to prune your apple trees to help them flourish.

Open air cookery demonstration

Saturday 4 July 12.30pm
At the old north stables, Pitchcroft with Steve Dent, aka the circus gardener. Steve will be cooking with organic seasonal produce grown here at the old north stables, and there will be an opportunity to taste the results!

 

volunteers needed!

Whether skilled or unskilled, whether you can volunteer for an occasional hour or two, or can make a regular commitment, we always welcome new volunteers on the community garden. As the weather begins to warm up we will have plenty of jobs to do, including weeding, hoeing, mulching, planting and pruning. We are also planning to lay new water pipes to make the job of watering a little easier, to create a new forest garden designed to attract pollinators, build a new pond, rebuild our flood-damaged insect hotel, and build seating areas in our orchard/forest garden area using donated wooden pallets.

If you are interested in becoming involved, either send us an email [email protected] or drop by and have a chat. We are open between 10am and 2pm every day of the week except for Tuesdays. If the weather is bad, or if you have any questions you are welcome to call Tony on 07532108144.

Old North Stables pitching at Worcester Soup

On the 16th October we will be doing a pitch at the Worcester Soup
We could use your support in this.

This event is held at Cafe Bliss at the Arts Workshop
21 Sansome St, Worcester WR1 1UH from 2pm – 6pm.

soup

What is the Worcester Soup?

Each quarter, Worcester Soup will host a group dinner in Worcester City.

Worcester Soup is a potluck style dinner. You are invited to bring food to share if you want. (usually soup, bread and salad). It is a free dinner. The door fee is for grant funding of local community projects.

  • Worcester residents and supporters donate £4 at the door (you can give more if you want🙂
  • 4 people working on projects that benefit the community get 4 minutes to present their proposals to the group
  • The diners get to ask 4 questions per project
  • Over dinner, diners cast their vote for the project they want to help fund
  • The winning project goes home with all of the money raised on the door
  • Winners come back to a future SOUP dinner to tell us about how the project went!

We will use these funds if we win to fund our running costs, buy seeds and look in to creating more raised beds. To make sure we will get the votes we will need your support and we hope you would be willing to come to the event and support us.

More information about the Worcester Soup can be found on www.worcestersoup.co.uk