Friends of Abbey Gardens

What will we harvest in 2012?

January 21, 2012 | Author Lydia

What will we harvest in 2012? Well, garden club leader Hamish and our champion waterer Jason have started with some celeriac. That and spinach, salsify, black kale and salad leaves were shared-out at our AGM, where we looked back on a successful gardening year, elected officers for 2012 and looked ahead to the new season.

Erwan Guillo-Lohan will be Chair for a second year. We welcome Ashley McCormick as our new Treasurer and thank Dasha French for an outstanding job over the past few years, as Treasurer and a founder of the garden.

February monthly meeting and Extraordinary General Meeting
Saturday 4 February at 2pm at the garden

The EGM is to welcome and vote for our new Secretary. We’ll also be discussing this year’s events so please bring your ideas!

Informal garden session: Saturday 4 February 10am – 2pm

Blow away the cobwebs with our big tidy-up and stocktake.

First garden club session of the new season: Saturday March 3rd 10am – 3pm

Sessions will run on Saturdays only at the start of the season until we resume all three gardening sessions. Check the blog for details.

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Triangle Camp Hotel

January 21, 2012 | Author admin

Abbey Gardens will be part of an exhibition in Vienna which will open in March. The theme for the show is ‘Hands-On Urbanism 1850 – 2012. The Right to Green‘

Jennie from the Stratford Archives kindly helped us with some of the historic images and unearthed this wonderful picture of the Triangle Camp Hotel. Maybe there is an idea in there baring in mind that several million visitors will come to Stratford this summer.

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Happy new gardening year

January 15, 2012 | Author Lydia

You’d think nothing much would be going on in the garden in January. But take a closer look and you’ll find that the Spring bulbs are coming up, there are broad bean seedlings, the winter vegetables have done well and there’s a burst of colour from the anemones.

Our special January gardening session
Join us on Saturday 21 January for the second of our informal Winter gardening sessions, from 10am – 2pm.

AGM
Our Annual General Meeting will be on Saturday 21 January 2012, from 2-4pm. at Stratford Salvation Army, 1 Paul Street, London E15 4QB, which is near Abbey Gardens. For a map, please click here. The AGM is when we vote in our committee and we like to see new people getting involved. This is an exciting time to be part of the management of the garden so if you’re interested in a committee post, particularly the Secretary role, don’t be shy! Please contact Erwan, our Chair, to let him know ahead of the meeting.

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A Winter wonderland and a look forward to our AGM

December 16, 2011 | Author Lydia

The garden was a Winter wonderland for our Winter Chill, our last event of 2011. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our third gardening season.

Our second special Winter gardening session
Wrap up warm and join us on Saturday 21 January for the second of our informal Winter gardening sessions, from 10am – 2pm.

AGM
Our Annual General Meeting will be on Saturday 21 January 2012, from 2-4pm. at Stratford Salvation Army, 1 Paul Street, London E15 4QB, which is near Abbey Gardens. For a map, please click here.

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The winter garden and our first mushrooms

December 4, 2011 | Author Lydia

The sun did, eventually, come out at the garden during our special session clearing and tidying for Winter. We welcomed some new gardeners, we thanked garden club leader Hamish Liddle for a great gardening season and we harvested kale, leeks, cabbage, George’s spring onions and Loothfur’s first mushrooms.

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Getting ready for Winter

November 29, 2011 | Author Lydia

We can’t promise t-shirt weather but we’re planning an informal garden club session on Saturday 3 December to get the garden ready for Winter. There will also be our last monthly meeting of the year at 2pm.

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Come to our Winter Chill celebration on Saturday 26 November 4.30-6pm

November 17, 2011 | Author Lydia

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Winter welcomes, thanks and celebrations

November 6, 2011 | Author Lydia

Our last garden club session of the season has been full of activity, a good turnout of regular gardeners boosted by new gardener Monica and her team of young volunteers. With cavolo nero, beetroot, parsnips, green tomatoes, Chinese leaves, flowers and lots of Winter salad, there’s been plenty to share.

A big thank-you to garden club leader Hamish Liddle for another great gardening year and for passing on huge amounts of knowledge.

We’re not finished yet, though:

Our Winter Chill celebration is on Saturday 26 November from 4.30-6pm. Come along and enjoy soup, tea and cakes, singing and make some seasonal decorations.

Special Saturday gardening sessions are planned for 3 December before the monthly meeting and 21 January before the AGM, to prepare the garden for next season.

Regular gardeners will continue to garden informally on Saturdays.

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Tulip time

October 23, 2011 | Author Lydia

Planting bulbs: it’s a lot more technical than you’d think… Our tulips have gone into neat trenches to give the stems some protection as they grow. The alium bulbs have needed some teamwork too, two hands to clear the space for each bulb and two to drop the bulb in. Our first mushrooms have gone into their shed. And we’ve prepared the patch for next season’s garlic. We’re looking forward to that.

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Tea and rock buns

October 16, 2011 | Author Lydia

This weekend the sunshine has brought out three generations of gardeners including some welcome new faces. And it’s part of our sociable gardening that somehow we’re all ready for a tea break at the same time. We’ve been working hard covering the paths with bark mulch, planting broad beans and preparing areas for Spring bulbs.

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Welcome to Abbey Gardens, a community garden in West Ham surrounding part of the ruins of a 12th century abbey. There are free garden club sessions and new gardeners are always welcome. The garden is open to visitors from dawn till dusk. See more image of Abbey Gardens on our Flickr page