Speedy peeling..

In NW London we're up to our elbows in seasonal fruit - Mapesbury community fruit harvesters have so far picked more than 620 kg that would otherwise have gone to waste, with a similar amount gathered by our sister group in NW6. The best is going to good causes but we're also experimenting with chutney and pickling recipes for next year's local Open Gardens Day. So I was truly thankful to find this new peeler designed by twin brothers Richard and Antony Joseph for their kitchenware company, Joseph Joseph. The curved blade (seen here with some of our windfalls) means it gets round the apple so much faster. Such a simple idea - why didn't someone think of it before???
http://www.josephjoseph.com/

Autumn Glory

Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire are proof that even when nature is starting to shut up shop for the year, you can still have a spectacular display.

Yesterday, as the sun came out, the famous herbaceous border had people literally stopping in their tracks as they rounded the corner and saw it for the first time. Most of the plants are the sort you can come across in any suburban garden, but the planting - against the mellow bricks of the old kitchen garden wall - shows them to perfection. Michaelmas daisies, goldenrod, helenium and sedums are replacing the delphinium, achillea, verbascum and phlox and are set to bloom until the first frosts.

The Formal Garden is also ablaze with colour, much of it from an intricate knot garden with swirls of different medicinal herbs, which lies immediately behind the 'Lamp of Wisdom' statue.

Behind the sunlit patch of this corner near Seb's Garden, a path leads down to the River Thame. The swathe of island beds have been planted so they can be enjoyed from any angle.

Waterperry began life as a School of Horticulture for Ladies early in the 1930s. After this closed in 1972, the grounds were extensively developed and now cover 8 acres. Herbaceous nursery stock beds (such as those above) provide a living catalogue of plants. The teaching tradition also continues. On the current agenda are three Grow It Yourself workshops:
24th November 2010 - Hardwood cuttings, root cuttings, herbaceous plant division
16th March 2011 - Growing plants from seed
15th June 2011 - Softwood and semi-ripe cuttings

Another Waterperry Gardens must-see is the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, right next to the old manor house. It has an unusual wooden tower, the original Saxon chancel arch, some beautiful 15th century brasses and stained glass dating back to 1220.

Waterperry Gardens are open every day and are near Wheatley in Oxfordshire. OX33 1JZ . Regular events include an Apple weekend (Oct 8, 9 and 10) and a Great Pumpkin Hunt (Oct 23).

More details : http://www.waterperrygardens.co.uk/

ph 01844 339254

Ready for action!!

Here are some of the Mapesbury fruit harvesters, about to tackle two huge apple trees in a garden in London, NW2. By the end of the morning we'd picked 150 kg of cooking apples which might otherwise have gone to waste. Instead, they've been taken to a homeless charity, and some are being made into apple pies to raise money for the Pakistan flood appeal.
Our running total for this picking season is now 458 kg - and we've only been going a few weeks! Many thanks to all involved, and to the garden owners who are so generously letting us in to pick.

Contact: Mapesharvesters@hotmail.co.uk

A most unusual royal garden party...

Gigantic sheep climbing a ladder to insulate a loft, a string of washing flapping in the breeze, reusable shopping bags being made from old royal curtains......
Not what you'd expect at a garden party.
But the Garden Party to Make a Difference, in the adjoining gardens of Clarence House, Lancaster House and Marlborough House, in central London is the brainchild of Prince Charles, and aims to show how just a few small steps can help build a sustainable future. So it's out with the champagne glasses and in with resuseable waterbottles for guests as they explore more than 100 displays on everything from building green homes to saving electricity and growing your own veg.
I went down for the morning, but ended up spending most of the day there.

I loved this Ark art installation (above), where children from 10 Oxfordshire primary schools show what they'd take if they were to sail away to a low-carbon future. Garden Organic was giving away seedlings of rocket and chard to encourage visitors to grow something edible, and the RSPB demonstrated how to build a nest box from recycled materials.

There are serious messages too. The washing-line of t-shirts (opposite a thatched summerhouse built for Queen Mary) seeks to persuade people to dry their clothes naturally - using a tumble dryer every two days could cost over £100 a year. And another sign reads: "Be thrifty with your food" - 8.3 million tonnes of food is thrown away by UK households every year, costing the average family £680.

I was tempted by almost everything on sale in the Farmers' Market, and admired the line-up of electric eco-cars. It was also a real thrill to be able to see first-hand what Prince Charles has achieved in the grounds of Clarence House since he moved in after the Queen Mother's death in 2002. (More to come on the blog about this and the recycling of his curtains.)

The festival is part of the Prince's Start initiative, which has seen him touring the country in the royal train (which runs on bio-fuel) looking at projects that help the environment and discussing with business leaders how companies can source goods ethically and recycle more.

Entrance to the Garden Party to Make a Difference is on the corner of Green Park and the Mall and is open from 10 am - 6pm until Sept 19. Tickets cost £15 for adults.
More details: http://www.startuk.org/

Harvest time

Do you have a tree laden with fruit you can't reach or a lawn covered with windfalls you don't want?
It's a common problem in suburban gardens. But rather than see food go to waste, community fruit harvesting schemes are springing up around the country. It's all done on a very local level, usually through word of mouth or local residents' associations, with tree owners contacting the picking teams once their fruit is ready. The produce is shared between local charities, tree owners and volunteers. Our area in NW London has two schemes going. Last weekend Mapesbury Fruit Harvesters (pictured) tackled a huge old apple tree and ended up with 67.5 kg of Beauty of Bath (mostly given to a local charity for the homeless) plus a few windfall Bramleys. Later this week we'll be picking plums. A plus for tree owners is that a few of us went on a pruning course earlier in the year, and can now bring light and shape into some of the trees which have become too overgrown to produce well.

The umbrella name for the initiative is Abundance - it recently won an Observer ethical living award. Local groups are flourishing in parts of Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh and Sheffield as well as London, and it's hoped many more will spring up.



Last autumn the BBC website ran a feature on Abundance: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8280425.stm
For more information try the following links:
http://ttkensaltokilburn.ning.com/group/fruit?xg_source=activity
http://www.growsheffield.com/pages/groShefAbund.html
or for the Mapesbury area, email Mapesharvesters@hotmail.co.uk

Sissinghurst splendour

A visit to Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent a few days ago provided plenty of inspiration - and some interesting plants from the shop there. The famous White Garden, developed by Vita Sackville-West and Sir Harold Nicolson around the surviving parts of an Elizabethan mansion was looking spectacular, even though some of the roses had finished blooming. The National Trust, which owns the property, has just opened the Priest's House (left) as a 6-bed holiday cottage. Windows look out onto the White Garden, and guests can wander through the gardens in the evening, when other visitors have left.

But what really caught my eye were the hazel hoops set into the ground around some of the rose bushes. What were they for? Alexis Datta, Sissinghurst's Head Gardener, was on hand to explain - apparently bending the stems down over the hoops puts pressure on the plants and makes them produce more flowers. It also provides different heights and shapes in the rose garden.

Sissinghurst Castle is off the A262 in Kent, near the village of Cranbrook. Postcode is TN17 2AB.

More details at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sissinghurst

National Trust holiday lets: http://www.nationaltrustcottages.co.uk/

(All profits from lettings go towards funding the Trust's conservation work.)

Bloomsbury's Exotic Blooms

For a glimpse of South Africa, head to the British Museum in Bloomsbury, where Kew has created a colourful front garden with plants from the Cape region. They range from these agapanthus, with their lilac-coloured pollen, to the Quiver tree, so called because the San people have traditionally used its branches to create quivers for their arrows. According to the explanatory boards dotted among the greenery, South Africa has 22,000 different plant species - two-thirds found nowhere else on earth.


Surprisingly, these are not Wild West cactus, but euphorbias. The San mixed their milky sap with extract from the Diamphidia beetle to poison their arrow tips. But if correctly applied, the sap can be used medicinally, and was a traditional treatment for cancer.

The garden will remain until October 10, and visits are free of charge.



http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/