Busy Bees

June has been a euphoric mix of marvellous exhaustion. We have taken part in Open Farm Sunday - an NFU initiative. They gave us much support in running our first ever Open Farm Sunday, they got us on Lincs FM and in the Lincolnshire Echo. We recieved 150 plus visitors on the day! David spent the afternoon giving joyous children many tractor rides, we had woodland crafts for the 'Off The Grid Kids' project with Greenheart woodworking with Pat O'Carroll, Pottery Bee Tiles with Andrew MacDonald and making a Bug Hotel with Julie Driftwood Dunlop. We had curious visitors to our Woodland Yurt and we have plenty of workshops planned in the summer there... Then we took part in the two day Lincolnshire Show, hosting an Off The Grid Kids children's yurt with similar activities, promoting the work we do on Brattleby Farm and Woodland Workshops at the Yurt. The Seedlings Allotment has grown along fine amongst all of this activity. We have the pumpkins and squashes out of the greenhouse and in the raised bed. The peas are growing and climbing around the maypole, the herb garden is lush with golden sage, white and french lavender, parsley, chives and coriander...The greenhouse is brimming with a variety of tomatoes and cucumbers are growing on the shelving. I'm still fascinated by the idea of a forest garden in the greenhouse, different layers upon layers, but for now we are concentrating on the veggies and keeping the weeds away, We have planted an area full of poppies and wildflowers that sits next to the Bug Hotel. We spent a glorious afternoon identifying all the different Bumblebees, from Red Tails to White Tails. Bring on the sunshine!

Outdoor fun with the Seedlings crew!

We celebrated the start of May with several outdoor skills. Our good friends Matthew and Louise came along supplied with bread to toast on sticks around the fire! We also made Nettle & Potatoe soup - yummy! My lovely other half Dex gave me a Ghillie kettle for Christmas and so we made several cups of camomile tea out in the woods!

Glorious Greenhouse (Apply Self Regulation & Feedback)

Little hands have been helping me in the greenhouse. My littlies have been getting their outdoor education planting seeds in compost and watering them daily...Roots and shoots are appearing and we have a indulgence of pumpkin plants as well as a variety of herbs for making remedies. It is important to regularly take a step back and assess how things are growing. Patience is a virtue when it comes to waiting for seeds to grow. Sometimes they seem to take forever to germinate - but don't lose heart! Those tiny exciting shoots appear and before you know it, the seedlings are growing beautifully and the next step is to harden them off on a table outdoors.

Raised beds & Muddy boots

As far as leaving a trail of mud on the kitchen floor is concerned, I am the guilty culprit. I'm afraid dirt & I go hand in hand. Today was a glorious example of how rewarding it is to get the spade out and immerse oneself in fresh air and birdsong. Our good friend Andy helped create a long raised bed for all of the heritage & organic veg seeds we have collected. I planted numerous tulips and gladioli and wildflowers. The medecinal herbal areas are growing satisfactorily, but I can see that this year we will need better irrigation. All of the extra manure that was put over the herbal area has mulched down well and the crocus bulbs and irises, daffodils and hyacinths are all benefitting from extra nutrients. Bring on the sunshine...

Obtain a yield

Enjoyed our monthly skill share @ No 10, making paper pots from newspaper ready to hold seedlings. Everyone was chatting and sharing news! Loved making it real by planting up our paper pots with organic tomato seeds. We finished up by taking the pots over to our friend Melanie's pretty outdoor terrace, who will be keeping an eye on their growth before we transplant them into everyone's respective gardens, terraces, flats, allotments and farms! Looking forward to seeing them grow!

Obtain a yield

This month is going to be exciting! After attending community Book Share & Seed Swap, I have come away with some goodies to plant and a helpful allotment planner. The planner is already scribbled on with things to do, places to visit for inspiration, planting plands and open source advice. I have been sketching the community allotment and collecting heritage seeds, local seeds and been given a lovely Buddleia cutting to attract the butterflies. Looking forward to obtaining this year's yield...

Catch & Store Energy

This months challenge has been to look at our rain water harvesting system. So far we have a water butt and several containers that regularly collect rainwater. However, we will be adding drains to the 2 greenhouses in order to catch rainshowers and make the most of natural resources. A couple of rolling caravan water containers were sufficient to keep the tomatoe plants happy and nourished over the last summer. This year I intend to grow some heritage varieties such as 'Brandywine Tomatoes' from the Organic Seed company. Some great reading in a permaculture magazine has inspired me to create a 'Forest Garden' inside the large greenhouse. This involves three layers of planting. I intend to plant in layers of tomatoe plants, cucumber plants, fruit bushes, chillies and peppers and a herbal area. It should create it's own mini ecosystem, a fascinating space...

Observe & Interact

Overview It's always easy to look at things with hindsight, and I've been delving into my photo's taken from the very beginning of this plot. Over a few years, the space has grown from a muddy plot of weeds and chaos. I still love a degree of the latter and have made sure to create a herb garden and raised bed full of medecinal herbs, wildflower areas for the bees and butterflies. However, as things are taking shape, I really want to document the community space. It is designed to be accessible for little hands and delighfully edible... Over the next twelves months I am following a pattern. Having contacted the Permaculture Association to become a member and arranged a meet up with course leader Hannah Thorogood, we are becoming a LAND Learner site and registered as a community project, The 3 Ethics and 12 Design principles will be guiding this years planting, growing and harvesting. Monthly Community Skill Shares This community allotment is connected to the monthly skill shares we organise at No 10 Art Gallery and at Brattleby Farm in the woodland yurt. Over the last few months since January 2015, we have been listening to the advice of Permaculture Activist Suzanne Lewis and learning about Permaculture through a teachers guide written by originator David Holmgreen.