Friends of Abbey Gardens

Danny and his team from City Wood put some late hours in to finish constructing the remaining raised beds before this weekend. With all beds in place planting can commence on the eastern side of the garden. This weekend, the 4th & 5th of July the garden will be open 10 - 5 again for both Saturday and Sunday planting sessions on the final beds.

We (the friends group) are in the process of finalising a license agreement with Newham Council for the garden. Once this is in place the garden will be open daily. In the meantime we will only be able to open the site with someone around for supervision.

As from next week the site will regularly be open 3 times a week for the garden club sessions at the following times:

Free Garden Club Sessions (June - Nov 2009)
Saturdays 10.00 am - 2.00 pm
Tuesdays 10.00 - 1.00 pm
Thursdays 5.00 pm - dusk

Informal sessions will take place in between - best is to have a quick look on the webcam to see if anyone is around and the garden is open.

photo by Loopzilla

This weekend we have a bumper two day gardening session on site - Chris will be on site all day Saturday (10-5) and Nina will be there all day Sunday (10 - 5). All welcome - there’s a variety of jobs from mulching to planting, everyone can help out - beginners or experts!
regular garden club sessions will start once all construction of the raised beds has completed (hopefully next week)

On Sunday you can also visit us at Three Mills where we have a stall as part of the The Story of Three Mills Island event: SUNDAY 28 June, 2009 11.00am–4.00pm

Explore this unique island site at the heart of East London with FREE:
· Tours of the Grade I listed House Mill
· A unique insight into the excavation of the stones of the Euston Arch at Prescott Channel
· Tours of British Waterways London’s newly-opened Three Mills Lock
· Update on the creation of Lea River Park, and children’s activities with Thames 21
· Sale of reclaimed gardening artefacts from SHED
· Refreshments from the House Mill Café and garden BBQ (weather permitting)
· Stalls and activities from East End Women’s Institute, West Ham Allotment Society, Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, Remembering Three Mills, Friends of Abbey Gardens and Tesco Healthy Eating

Find out more at www.waterscape.com
or call the River Lea Tidal Mill Trust
on 020 8980 4626

Join us in the garden to share lunch on this nationwide project.

With Construction of the raised beds and remediation nearing completion this will be the first event to share and enjoy the finished Harvest Garden while enjoying some nice food together.

Some images of the construction that has been going on over the last two weeks.
Danny and his team from City Wood Services have been working very hard in the blistering sun keeping their spirits high to build the 800 meters of raised flower beds. We had a good flow of Volunteers to drop in and help out but any help is always welcome (there is a lot to do). If you have a few hours to spare get in touch with Chris who is co-ordinating all volunteers - his mobile number is 07723733056 or email chris@whatwilltheharvestbe.com

Here is the link to see what’s going on from the comfort of your desktop.
Diggers, raised beds, seedlings, you name it.
http://www.whatwilltheharvestbe.com/webcam/

Dusk at Abbey Gardens

Remidiation of the site nears completion. The the site has been covered with a membrane that stops any of the pollutants coming up through the ground. On top of the membrane a 20cm thick layer of ’super clean’ top soil has been added. Once the layer of new soil is levelled, 30cm deep raised beds will be constructed increasing the depth of clean topsoil to 50cm which will be plenty for growing food safely.

Work is well under way and construction of the raised beds will start this Wednesday (10th of June 2009). Volunteers to help construct the raised beds are very welcome and should contact Chris on 07723733056 or email chris@whatwilltheharvestbe.com

A final concentrated effort spearheaded by Nina resulted in the successful installation of the Web camera on the building of the Nehwam Depot (a day before remediation works are meant to begin). The camera is overlooking the garden and a live feed will be visible on-line shortly. Besides being able to enjoy the garden remotely we plan to create a series of time-lapse movies that compress the making, growing and harvesting of the garden into a short film.

A special thank you goes out to Nina (somewhere), Tim and Louis (FOAG), Dorian (theusefularts), Keith and Robert from Newham Homes and last but not least John Wyman-White from Newham Council.- very collaborative indeed.

Snap shot of the web cam soon to be on-line

Dear Friends, at the risk of jinxing the complex plans now in place, we’re writing to let you know that Abbey Gardens is finally on the brink of change.

We are awaiting final confirmation that our new top soil is in the tip top condition we need but once this is in place it will be all systems go, as the contractors come on site to carry out the remediation programme we need - providing us with a freshly top-soiled level site on which to build the Harvest Garden.

Other news is that we are delighted to have appointed our new Garden Club Leader Chris Cavalier who we hope you’ll all be getting to know at the regular Garden Club sessions he’ll be leading once we are up and running.

If you’d like a sneak preview meeting with Chris and to help us say good-bye to the current site why not come along this Saturday and help us out? We plan to pot up some of the wild flowers in order to save them for the new garden, we also need helpers to clear and sort wood from the felled trees, and to harvest the garlic from the ‘test bed’.

If you want Chris to have a look at how your seedlings are doing bring them along, equally if you’re yet to start a seed tray we’ll have seeds, soil and trays with us that morning.

So Saturday the 16th of May 10.00 to 12.30 come to the garden to help Chris, Nina & FOAG prepare for the next steps in the project.

Our next mailout will contain details of the installation programme for the Harvest Garden raised beds, this will take a week (early June) and we will be looking for as many volunteers as possible to help out … more details to follow very soon.

Any flowerpots you have lying about at home would be much appreciated for the transplanting of wild flowers. Any questions or comments do please get in touch.

Nina, Karen & the Friends of Abbey Gardens.

2nd and 3rd year Students from the architecture department of London Metropolitan University (LMU) are using Abbey Gardens and its surrounding area as the site for a year long study into alternative student accommodation. As part of which they built a small mobile structure entirely made of found and recycled materials. The delightful room has kindly been donated to Abbeys Gardens and hopefully will furnish the Harvest Garden when it is up and running next month.

In the meantime the room is on a residency at the Manor School which is a short walk away from the garden. The LMU students together with Chris Cavalier (the garden club leader) ran a couple of planting workshops with the student and hopefully started what will be a ongoing and long lasting relationship between school and garden.

Students of Manor School planting their first seeds