Our Vintage Summer Party really was an event for, by and about all ages. Children made tiny top hats and bonnets, the first workshop in our new eco-shed designed by students from London Metropolitan University. Young folk musicians Theo Bard entertained visitors enjoying delicious picnic food by caterers and early Abbey Gardens volunteers Gary and Elisabetta Andrews. Garden club leader Hamish (pictured with a giant cabbage – we do like our pictures of Hamish with giant cabbages) led a plant history tour. Illustrator Fred Apps drew visitors as characters from our history. Historian Colm Kerrigan gave a history talk, followed by Gordon Joly’s history walk. Older garden friends shared memories of the area. And president of East End WI Colleen Bowen judged the Victoria Sponge competition.

The event was also part of Open Garden Squares and the Chelsea Fringe.

A huge thank-you to everyone who made the event a success, including our hardworking volunteers and event organisers, and to London Borough of Newham for its support.

Abbey Gardens Vintage Summer Party Saturday 8 June 2pm-5pm: a free event for all ages

Join us for some vintage Summer fun:

Hear about our history
Join a history walk around the neighbourhood
Enter our Victoria Sponge competition
‘Where did you get that hat?’ workshop for children
Story corner with our older gardeners
Collecting our garden’s history – gathering stories
of when gardeners and friends first discovered the garden
Have your portrait drawn as a character from our local history
Enjoy a lunch of traditional dishes from our communities
Live folk music from Theo Bard
Plant history tour with garden club leader Hamish
Goodies on the honesty stall
Visit our tea stall for tea, coffee and home made cake

All activities are free. Tea, cake, lunch and honesty stall produce for donations to the garden. Cake competition entries are to be prepared in advance and brought to the garden on the day.

We are also welcoming visitors as part of Open Garden Squares Weekend 10am-5pm 
and we are part of the 2013 Chelsea Fringe: Plant history tour starts 2.15pm

Thanks to designer Catherine French for the poster and flyer.

There’s lots to do at the garden this Spring: sowing, digging, planting, organising our Vintage Summer Fair on 8 June… so it’s a good thing that we eat our greens! Harvested cabbages are enormous and it’s a group effort carrying them to the cabin, admiring them, cutting them into portions for sharing amongst our gardeners and taking the surplus leaves to the compost bins.

Everyone who walked into the garden on Saturday said how colourful it was all looking: a sea of glorious reds, yellows and oranges. With all of this colour and a bit of sunshine, our thoughts are turning to our Summer event:

Abbey Gardens Vintage Summer Party
Saturday 8 June, 2-5pm 
A free event for all ages

Have some vintage Summer fun and find out about the history of the garden and our neighbourhood

• Hear about our history
• Join a history walk around the neighbourhood
• Enter our Victoria Sponge competition
• ‘Where did you get that hat?’ workshop for children
• Story corner with our older gardeners
• Collecting our garden’s history – gathering from gardeners and friends their own stories of when they first discovered the garden
• Have your portrait drawn as a character from our local history
• Enjoy a lunch of traditional dishes from our communities
• Live music
• Garden tour with garden club leader Hamish
• Goodies on the honesty stall
• Visit our tea stall for tea, coffee and home made cake

All activities are free. Tea, cake, lunch and honesty stall produce for donations to the garden. Cake competition entries are to be brought to the garden on the day.

We’re also taking part in Open Garden Squares Weekend, welcoming visitors from 10am-5pm.

Lab, workshop, exhibition space… Abbey Gardens was buzzing with bright ideas at our Spring event. Visitors could hear all about the birdbox project and the new ecoshed, have a go at paper making, get involved in the building of our new weather station, visit the greenhouse to find out about Experiments in Household Knowledge and take a (very) close look at our plant species and bugs.

A huge proud-to-know-you-all thank you to Amanda and colleague from the bird box project, biologists Marleen and Anna, Torange and students from London Metropolitan University, Andreas, Charlie and the French brothers. Ideas being hungry and thirsty work, our appreciation to all bakers and servers for our busy cake stall. Thanks too for warm welcomes at the greeting table and garden chat at the honesty stall. A round of applause to the events team, our Chair Erwan, who now has a donated lectern for his announcements… and after a late start to the growing season, a salute to Growing PlaceE16 in Canning Town for helping to stock our honesty stall for the day, our gardeners and a generous visitor with three fruit trees.

To all of our visitors, thank you for coming along on a glorious Saturday afternoon. We look forward to seeing you again at our garden club sessions and events.

Explore science, innovation and design in the garden at our FREE event for all ages
on Saturday 20 April from 2-5pm

The launch of our new Eco-Shed designed by students from London Metropolitan University
Adventures in Household Knowledge with Public Works and our veteran innovator Charlie
A plant science safari
Find out about the new bird box project
Have a go at one of our innovation activities
Q&A with garden club leader Hamish
Goodies on the honesty stall
Visit our refreshment tent for tea, coffee and home made cake

All activities are free. Tea, cake and honesty stall produce for donations to the garden. 

It’s that moment of the year again when the very generous donation of seeds arrives – a kind supporting gift from Chiltern Seeds. An entire growing season in one parcel. Time to get to work …
THANK YOU CHILTERN!

Even on a very rare day when it’s raining so hard that there’s little we can do but discuss dahlias, study the planting plan and eat a few rock buns, there’s something new to discover. Our veteran innovator Charlie, who designed our greenhouse with its wooden structure made from floorboards, has been giving old flooring a new life as a worktop.

We like a bit of invention at Abbey Gardens – so our Spring Fair, Bright Ideas, Saturday 20 April 2-5pm will be all about science and innovation in the garden. Watch this space for details.

Heavenly first Tuesday gardening session of the season, with the warm sunshine bringing out some lovely garden scents such as fennel. Two fans of Abbey Gardens stopped by, Sayed and his daughter Zahra. Sayed is a keen cook and likes to buy veg from our honesty stall. He is impressed by the huge range we grow. “I’m very proud to live near this garden, I always bring visitors to see it,” he says. “Although I am not actively involved with gardening here, myself and my daughter are a part of this project somehow.” He suggested we try mashed potato Bengal-style: add onion, green chilli, coriander and (optional) mustard. Zahra has been coming to Abbey Gardens since she was a baby, but she has her own name for it. She calls it “Hamish Park”, after our Garden Club Leader.