Ashcombe Community Garden

Apple Day 2011 action

email  webpage  map

LATEST NEWS - (scroll down for earlier new items)

A message from Doe Fitzsimmons:

" I am pleased to announce that we have been awarded two grants designed to help the Community Garden get “properly” started! One grant was awarded by Devon County Council “Investing in Devon” Fund and was supported by Councillor Andy Boyd.  The second grant comes from the Big Lottery Fund, Award For All programme. The money will hopefully be released over the summer and can be spent on deer and rabbit proof fencing for the vegetable growing area, water tanks, communal shed and shelter, a kissing gate, picnic tables and benches and possibly a polytunnel etc.! How exciting! Now all we need is for you to visit and use the garden!

You may have “noticed” that we now have a notice board at the entrance of the site. There will be soon information on upcoming events displayed and also an area for our local gardeners to place adds (swap, sell or buy gardening related items). 

The summer work days were very productive, with the set up of the notice board, the ongoing restoration of the well, the stoning of the entrance area and with some clearing work by the old orchard We had very BBQs in the sun under the apple trees.

The Apple Picking and Apple Pressing Day in September was a real success. We tasted apple juice straight out of the apple press. You can’t beat fresh local juice.  The children had to compete with the adults who also wanted to have a go at pressing the apples! We followed by a well deserved BBQ and some drinks and apple juice…..

The next work day will be a Bulb and Tree planting day on Saturday 10th of December from 10am to 4pm. Bring a mug for hot drinks!  More info on our Notice Board soon!
 

---

Who we are (October 2010)

Our objectives are to:

• provide the local community with an area for rest and relaxation as well as a place to meet and socialise;
• provide a communal garden for those who wish to share production;
• restore and improve the orchard to provide a focus for learning, workdays, recreation and cultural events;
• provide Allotment style plots
• manage the land to encourage a diversity of habitats as environmental and educational resources for the community (e.g. bees, trees, flowers, permaculture, composting, getting the children involved etc.); and
• promote, engage and involve the surrounding community in the use, development and enhancement of the the garden. 

---

June 2011

Encouraging wildlife in the garden…Not sure about the rabbits….

While we are patiently waiting for our grant to fence the vegetable plots, we cannot help observing the local wildlife at work… We are currently sharing our crop with the local wildlife. I am talking about rabbits here…Ah… the lovely little furry creatures… Can you detect a hint of irony? They are having a field day! Excuse the pun.

While we are helplessly witnessing nature at work… we are also proactively looking for ways of making the garden a haven for wildlife.  We want to ensure the sustainability of the woodland area, the river and its wetland margins. We were very fortunate to have the visit of Simon McHugh, the river and wetland officer from the Wildlife Trust who spent a good hour looking at the site. He also sent us some guidelines and principles to apply for sound conservation management. I thought you might be interested in the subject so hopefully the Ashcombe Magazine editorial team will have found some space for it somewhere in this edition. Thank you Ann!

The next work day will be on Saturday 11th of June from 10am to 4pm. Over the next few months, we will be doing some clearance work, stoning the area around the entrance gate and the well, restoring the well and starting making some garden furniture and a notice board!  Just pop in for 20 minutes or spend a few hours with us!  Following the work day, we will be having a “bring and share” style BBQ, from 4 pm onwards. Please come and enjoy a summer evening with us in the garden. Bring salads, bread, drinks and some things to go on the BBQ. We hope to see you there!

Finally we would like to thank Dave the Manager and his team of Value House on Caddisdown Industrial Estate, in Bideford for offering a discount on all seeds, shrubs, trees etc. to all Ashcombe Community Gardens members. You will need to present your garden membership card. Thank you Michael Honeysett for negotiating the discount.

Ashcombe Community Garden is a membership based scheme: If you are interested in becoming a member please contact Kathleen Crane, Stephen Lomax or myself.

Doe Fitzsimmons

Ashcombe Community Garden

Tel: 01769 520 769 or doe@taichidevon.co.uk

---

Nov 2010

We are currently negotiating a 10 year lease with the parish council for the 3.8 acre field just on the edge of Riddlecombe.  We should be able to sign the lease early in 2011. The field is not currently leased, so we have already had our first work day and cleared out the old orchard. Now we can see the trees clearly and will be able to gauge how healthy they are and how to prune them.

The field has a flattish area at the top where there will be 10 individual allotments available to local residents. The rest of the field slopes down to a stream with a small woodland and an ancient well.

HogCO are currently helping us to develop a design for the site along permaculture principles.

September 2010

We have now formed a small management committee. If you fancy joining us for the occasional meeting or to volunteer please make yourself known!

There will be an open evening on site - 3rd of September 2010, 6-8 pm so that people can see what the project is about.

HogCO has helped consolidate the group's aims and objectives to facilitate negotiations with the Parish council. They have provided advice on legal aspects, as well as site design and nature conservation issues.

access to site	allotments area close up
area for allotments	orchard
Orchard before pruning	Pruning Feb 2011 1
Pruning Feb 2011	Pruning Feb 2011
Pruning Feb 2011	Pruning Feb 2011
Pruning Feb 2011	Pruning Feb 2011