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Call Out for Budding Forest Gardeners – February 2024

 

Love is Action!

Are you interested in gaining practical experience in creating permaculture gardens, or skills in forest garden design? Here is your opportunity. We are embarking on another blossoming year of creating the Wild City Project in partnership with The Salters Institute. Each year our outreach team works with North London Primary schools, in an immersive learning adventure, focussed on Forest Gardening. The first part of the project takes place during the winter months, when our education team works closely with the children and staff, with interactive outdoor games and learning resources. The children from these schools go on to create designs for their own Forest Gardens, the winning design is announced at the end of March. These colourful designs always astound us with their imagination, naturally including elements with a focus around permaculture, building biodiversity, and honouring wildlife. 

With students, we will be planting the new forest garden during April and May. Co-creating a new nature sanctuary space, to be enjoyed as it grows, by hundreds and thousands of young people. ‘A vibrant, humming outdoor classroom, that literally blooms into life.’ 

To get involved, no experience is necessary. We are interested to hear from people from a variety of diverse backgrounds, who are interested in learning about forest gardening. This training will provide you with transferrable skills, and can lead to paid work. If you would like to be involved in some aspect of the garden design or build process, and can supply a full DBS, then please do get in touch! We would love to hear from you.

 

Strawberry Tree" Images – Browse 3,526 Stock Photos, Vectors, and Video |  Adobe Stock

The drought resistant and ususual, Arbidus unedo, or ‘strawberry tree’

 

 

 

Peaceful and Powerful Climate Actions – February 2024

 

An inspiring week of global climate actions will take place from February 26th, involving a wide coalition of groups, and organised by Insure Our Future. While the scale of our current global issues can feel daunting, it is true that together we can make a meaningful difference. Please visit our Events page for details of February actions.

Climate change campaigning is relevant to our origins in the Transition movement, we strongly support this necessary movement. Forest gardening is activism. As a group we have decided to take the following steps, while encouraging others to find a path that feels right for them. This includes:

  1. Supporting the wider campaign for Climate Action. As a charity, this month that meant joining actions and changing our insurance provider to the most ethical option possible for us. If you are involved in a charity, and wish to do this, please feel free to get in touch. We’d be happy to share what we found. There is also information available through the Insure Our Future campaign website.
  2. Declaring a Climate Emergency. We support a peaceful grassroots movement pushing for climate action, and a Zero Carbon UK. At the garden we aim to become more vocal about these issues, for example at our sessions and through signage. There are some ideas in the brew around workshops, ideas to empower us to come together and share knowledge.
  3. Examining our policies and practices. In terms of impacts, we aim to maintain a negative carbon footprint. We do this largely through implementing permaculture techniques, through monitoring our energy use, and monitoring our consumption of resources. The forest gardening and rewilding elements of our work provide us with tools, while also increasing our local biodiversity. We are currently looking further at elements that can be improved, such as our methods of recycling and sourcing of materials.
  4. Connecting with the wider movement. In simple terms this means outreach. We are currently in touch with umbrella campaign groups such as The Climate Coalition, and Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. We are grateful for the work of Extinction Rebellion, 350.org, Fossil Free UK, and Possible, mobilising our communities to engage in peaceful, powerful actions. We would encourage anyone who wishes to join. Reaching out to the Haringey Climate Action Unit, co-producers of the borough’s Climate Change Action Plan, enables us to push for action within our local borough and beyond. We can share resources within North London schools, and within the work we undertake in the garden.

Moving forward, we are now hoping to create more space for these conversations. If you are an individual or organisation who wishes to do more in these areas, or to join the conversation at ELL, then get in touch! We would love to hear from you.

 

 

Help Design the Woodland Space – January 2024

 

A call out to all budding designers! We’re back for the new year and ready to roll up sleeves. Come and help us to design the new woodland educational space. Perhaps you are a volunteer and would like to have a say, or just find out more. We are also organising our winter tree pruning session, this will be dependant on weather.

Lots to get stuck into… we look forward to see you there!

Festive break and Solstice Celebrations – December 2023

 

 Wishing all a merry winter solstice! Thank you to all our volunteers who have worked so hard to make this garden an abundant, welcoming and diverse place to be. From the 21st December we are taking a short festive break over the holiday period, and giving the garden over to the wild creatures of Finsbury Park. We will be back in the garden as usual, on Sunday January 14th, setting our intentions, putting our hands to the Earth in the New Year.  We hope you will come and join us. Please bring a snack and a drink, some sturdy boots and your fine selves. 

Blackbird eating ivy berries | Back Yard Biology

While not so palatable for humans, did you know that ivy is one of our most valuable native species for feeding wildlife over the winter?

Many varieties of Mahonia flower though winter, providing an excellent source of food and pollen for winter active species.

Salad Dressings – Are They Really Vegan?! – December 2023

 

As we head into the new year, a time of possibility and reflection, as we set our intentions, it feels good to check in with the important stuff. Like delving deeper into eating habits.

Spending time in the forest garden gives us the opportunity to try out new foods and new recipes, share our home grown favourites with others and be experimental. 

Anecdotal stories from friends can often surprise us. Some can cause us reason for pause, even alarm. While sprinkling olive oil on our garden sourced greens, or coconut milk on our forest fruit salads, for example. 

It is a sad truth, that for many years now, millions of migrating birds are killed annually, and knowingly, when caught up in olive harvesting systems. These machines act like hoovers, literally sucking up the birds as they sleep. It is thought that harvesting at night time improves flavour. This is a large scale tragedy for the global ecology. Thankfully, it is possible to source from ethical producers. Ethical Consumer offers a list of brands to avoid, and a list of responsible alternatives, for example Zaytoun, Biona and Suma. These brands reliably avoid harmful farming methods. It is also possible to buy more sustainable oils such as hemp, flaxseed and walnut. Plus more widely available oils such as canola, vegetable, and sunflower oil. For these it is ideal to buy organic, to avoid pesticides.

A very similar caveat exists around the sourcing of coconut oil and coconut milk. Depending on the source, there is hope. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), ‘coconut threatens some 18.3 species per million metric tonnes of oil produced, followed by olive – 4.1 species, then palm oil with 3.8.’ Coconut farms in Thailand exploit monkeys as pickers, keeping them chained up, and the coconut farmers are often poorly paid. However please don’t lose hope. If your favourite vegan recipes use coconut oil, and coconut milk, it is absolutely possible to buy from ethical sources (such as Suma, Clearspring, Biona) which ensure good practices. We still feel that palm oil is better avoided at all costs, but that’s another post entirely.

Please continue to research, and share with us your findings! We would love to hear what you have learned and what sources you are trying.

Stag Beetles  – November 2023

 

One of our volunteers recently found two healthy looking grubs in the soil at ELL, near a pile of wood.

What in the earth could they be…? we pondered to ourselves. Well it was quickly confirmed that these are in fact the larvae of London’s much loved stag beetle.

Needless to say, these rare creatures were quickly and carefully returned to the exact same spot as they were found.

If you come across these guys in your garden, it may be because you have a healthy pile of decaying wood, tucked away somewhere in the corners. These precious wonders of the soil realm are harmless to humans, and to be encouraged.

This autumn ELL volunteers have been putting muddy hands towards creating a new stag beetle loggery, and hugel bed at the site. We have had some rare beetle spottings around our existing loggery, which is encouraging us to learn more about our unusual soil-dwelling friends.

Here are some surprising stag beetle facts. Did you know the grubs can live underground, on a diet of decaying wood, for up to 7 years? Stag beetles are only to be found in the South East of the UK, especially around London. They are Britain’s largest beetle. And can even take flight.

If you would like to make an easy log shelter to share with beetle friends here are some handy tips. However if you would like to create a loggery specifically for stag beetles, then then here is a very good online guide.

Autumn Harvests  – October 2023

 

Our community medlar harvest and tool care day went really well with a bumper Medlar crop. Volunteers took home bags of Medlar to blett and we also had a huge bag which we took to Stroud Green Market to be given away for free to shoppers. We had a tool care session lead by Christopher who taught our community how to sharpen and clean tools. We practiced on our tools, so they feel almost brand new again. Win win!

Harvest medlar fruit in late October or November, after they’ve been exposed to frost. They will still be unripe, hard and bitter, so not yet ready for eating. They will rarely ripen on the tree in the UK. Harvest in dry conditions when the stalk parts easily from the tree.

Before eating or cooking medlar fruits, they must be ‘bletted’ or allowed to ripen in storage, to make them soft and sweet. During bletting, the starches turn to sugars, and the acids and tannins decrease – and while this improves the flavour, it also makes the fruits look offputtingly brown and rotten, which may explain why they are no longer widely grown or harvested. But this process is not rotting, it is ripening – the fruits should be sweet, juicy and aromatic.

To blet your medlars, first briefly dip the stalks in a strong salt solution to prevent rotting. Then lay the fruits out on trays or straw in a cool, frost-free place, such as a garage. Make sure they are not touching and their stalks face upward. After two or three weeks, they will become soft, darker brown and slightly wrinkled. Check them regularly and use as soon as they are suitably succulent, sweet and aromatic – the flesh should have the consistency and flavour of dark apple sauce, with hints of dates or apricots. The leathery skin is not edible, so just scoop out the soft flesh and remove the large seeds.

Bletted medlars are traditionally used to make a fragrant, amber-coloured jelly (see below) to complement rich meats and game. They can also be used in sweet desserts, or even eaten uncooked, typically with cheese and port.

Bletted medlars should be used straight away or can be frozen.

 

Parent and Toddler Sessions – September 2023

We are starting free drop-in sessions for parents and pre-school, Forest Explorers, 10am -12pm, every Wednesday from 20th September. This will take place in the Woodland Area. Guide your child on wild treasure and bug hunts, and make messy mud kitchens!

Please remember to dress for the weather. Parents are responsible for their own children.

If you are interested and would like to know more, the please get in touch.

Late Summer Foraging – August 2023

 

 

Nothing to forage in late summer? Not so! we say. The warm weather has brought us out to explore the surrounds.

While planting forest gardens, the value of London’s wild edibles are not forgotten. These rugged, drought and disease resistant gems can be treasures to include in a forage bed, or truly low maintenance forest garden design. Clover is an excellent example and has a number of uses. Edible, pollinator friendly, while also fixing nitrogen. We have included some other easy-to-spot examples  –

“Those who know and love nature work harder to protect it.” – David Suzuki

Sometimes the most common species are the ones packed with nutrients. We appreciate these partly because they are very hardy. They offer an abundance of uses. Learning about our wild edibles provides us with a profound connection to the ways of our ancestors. It is a first hand interconnection to landscape.

A few words of good forage practice – firstly, be certain of your plant id. Ideally forage away from roadsides. It’s recommended to wash before eating, at least the lower height harvests. When picking from wild spaces, try more abundant plants, and ideally scatter seeds to replenish the landscapes. We never gather more than a tenth of what is visible.

Readers are warmly invited to create your own ‘forage bed’ or planter. And why not dry some wild wonders to keep in jars for the winter? It soon becomes hard to resist that morning blast of herb robert, yarrow or plantain tea. Full of antioxidants, herbs and berries have our bodies glowing and full of energy.

There is plenty of delicious, easy recipes online for each plant.

We love adding rowan berries to colour our steaming pots of autumn chutney. Caveat – rowan berries do need to be cooked ideally, or frozen, before they can be eaten, and are sweeter when harvested in colder months, after a proper frost. But you can always mimic this in late August by putting them in the freezer. We keep some in the freezer through the winter. They are packed full of vitamin C and antioxidants, nutritional powerhouses excellent for boosting the immune system.

Below is a delicious Rosebay Willowherb recipe, a favorite tea from Russia, also with plentiful medicinal benefits.

6 Step recipe – Russian ‘Fireweed Tea’ or ‘Ivan’s Chai‘, with Rosebay Willowherb:

  1. Sterilise a glass jar in the oven or in boiling water.
  2. Collect Rosebay Willowherb (aka Fireweed) plant stalks and remove the leaves.
  3. Roll the leaves between your hands to bruise them.
  4. Pack them into a glass jar, place in a cool dark place for 2 days to ferment. They will darken slightly in colour.
  5. Place leaves on baking tray to dry in the oven, 100 deg C. You can also use a food dyhydrator.
  6. Brew and enjoy your fresh tea! You can keep crispy and well dried leaves in a sealed sterilised jar, for up to a year.

Step Up – Volunteer Centre Hackney – August 2023

We are delighted to welcome a new partnership with the Step Up project, based at Volunteer Centre Hackney. In August we are hosting a new group of volunteers at the garden.

The broad aim of this project is to support people with mental health issues to access volunteering as part of their recovery, and personal journey towards employment. The project recognises that volunteering has many benefits to mental, emotional and social wellbeing, while at the same time, there can be all sorts of barriers towards finding supportive and practical placements. 

We greatly enjoyed meeting the group, and received some heartfelt and beautiful feedback from volunteers during their first visit this month.  It was a joy to find new friends, learn about new plants together, and how to harvest a delicious forest salad feast in the garden.

Dotty's Wild Green Salad

Making a compost bay from recycled pallets – July 2023

 

This month we are excited to design and create an enormous new compost bay at ELL, which will double as a worktable, using recycled pallets. All with help from our lovely volunteers. For the roofing, we are using sustainably sourced larch boards on solid hinges. With this design, we will eventually be able to hook up a water harvesting system at the back, by propping up the lids at an angle during rainy months. The design also features removable front panel sections, for easy access. If anyone would like to have a go at creating their own compost bay / carpentry table from recycled pallets, and would like some advice about local resources, please do get in touch!

Take the Mini Pond Challenge! – June 2023

 

 

Calling all wildlife lovers! Are you ready for a challenge? The heat is here. And so is the great need for garden water sanctuaries to help our wild friends get through the hotter months. We are calling on everyone to have a go at creating their own MINI POND. To become activists for nature by creating a minature sanctuary for wildlife during the hot dry weather. This  can be as simple as putting out a large bowl of water or basin with rocks in it, accessible enough for a hedgehog to have a much-needed drink. Birds and butterflies, frogs and toads will flock to your garden space!

For this purpose it’s possible to simply use an upcycled container, or basin.


Or if a slightly bigger pond is wanted, it’s advisable to source a pre-formed pond shell or durable rubber liner. There are many sources of information online on how to get started, and videos. Here the wildlife trust offers a simple how-to guide.

It is extremely fun to design and build a mini pond. Why not invite your friends and neighbours to give it a try too? The result would be a beautiful ‘water corridor’of animal sanctuaries, running up and down our back gardens.
 

Wild City Project, Garden Transformation – March to May 2023

 

 

Huge congratulations to Rushmore Primary! We are celebrating the completion of a biodiverse forest garden build with this lively school in East Hackney. The project is part of the Wild City Project, running for a second year, and delivered in partnership with The Salter’s Institute. Each year schools across North London are invited to design their own Forest Gardens, and our team have the pleasure to work with each school in the process to give guidance, during early Spring. The winning design is then lovingly created with the help of students during April and May. Rushmore’s winning design has now come to a magnificent, buzzing, life-filled fruition.

Together we cleared the unused areas, and built a network of pathways, raised beds, a living willow dome and archways, a water feature and bird bath, two seating areas, a minibeast mural, a bug hotel with sedum roof, a large compost bay area, a hammock area, a grape and kiwi pergola, wove a dead hedge and leaf mulch bay, and last but not least, we planted a variety of forest garden beds and beautiful fruit trees. We hope it will inspire many other budding designers to have a go at creating a garden, both younger designers and adults!

Welcoming Suzannah Hall – April 2023

 

This April we are honoured to welcome Susannah Hall to our team of educators. Susannah will be leading garden education days on specific Sundays, covering useful forest garden skills, during each the four seasons. Upcoming dates include Sunday 30th April, 1st June and 27th August. A further date will soon be confirmed in October. Practical skills we will cover include propagation, general plant knowledge and identification, and forest garden maintenance. If you would like to get involved, Susannah’s other London based permaculture projects include the wonderful London Permaculture Festival, which is coming up this year on the 2nd of July in Camden, and educational opportunities with Permablitz London, featuring regular events across the city.


Launch of New Forest Garden After School Club  – April 2023

 

We are excited to launch our new Forest Garden After School club, for ages 7-11. Sessions run every Tuesday afternoon, from 3:30pm – 5:30pm, in two blocks of six weeks, from April 18th to 11th July. Children will learn through games, play and exploration.  We will be learning creatively together in the woodland area, building habitats, and learning about wildlife and forest gardens. Students will learn how to identify native birds and pollinators, get planting, create nature art, woodwork and enjoy storytelling.

If you are interested to join, do get in touch!

 

Food for the Ecozoic – March 2023

 

This March we were visited by Deborah from St James’s Church Picadilly. Here they are creating a new project garden in the south facing sun-drenched curtilage area. She came bearing gifts – an envelope of Iron Age horse beans (!) which were readily accepted in return for eleagnus and cardoon.

Already, this community project are growing and promoting sustainable and ancient  growing techniques such as The Three Sisters (corn, beans and squash), alongside their new forest garden bed.

‘To many of North America’s First Nations, particularly the Haudenosaunee whose land includes present-day New York City, these three plants were a sacred gift that provided physical and spiritual sustenance. In this system of companion planting, each of the sisters contributes something different. Together, the Three Sisters provide a balanced diet for humans while promoting biodiversity (including pollinators) and enriching the soil for the long term.’

While the three crops in this guild are not perennials, they can be happily grown alongside a forest garden system, and even within one. We will be planting these nitrogen fixing beans in our beds at the next session, which will in turn feed the other plants around them, if left in the soil.  We are considering trying the three sisters guild in one of our annual spaces.

The Picadilly-based project will be planting experimentally with polycultures – diversity ranging from from ‘wild’ foods like dog-rose, long-grown plants from these islands such as Celtic bean, as well as  foods for a hotter future such as sub-tropical cereals and fruits. If you would like to get involved, please visit their website and get in touch with their Eco team.

 

‘Londoners, gather here and be still.
The restless electricity of your minds
needs to be earthed
here, in this patch of soil
glistening dark
in the city’s concrete heart.
With cupped hands
receive your envelope of seed-lives;
wonder at this green shoot.’
-Diane Pacitti 2023
 
 

John Dewey College – February 2023

We are excited to announce a new collaboration with John Dewey College, with support from Groundwork’s Our Space Award. After a successful introduction period at the end of 2022, students will now join Edible Landscapes London once a week, to work with our team and a horticultural therapist. Students will learn forest garden skills, and apply these modules to transform the area around ELL. We have already witnessed the entrance area start to come alive with new wildlife friendly habitats!

In the coming weeks we will be selecting shade-tolerant plants to populate our pergola area, create new beds and guilds around the site, including new herbal tea areas, shade tolerant trees and fruit bushes. During winter we have built structures including bird houses, insect hotels, and together honed our bushcraft skills to create gifts for friends. We are very much looking forward to the next stage of the journey with John Dewey College, and see what new buds come this Spring!

 

 
 

Rewilding sessions – January 2023

Great turn out today for the first Rewilding session of 2023. Despite the weather and mud, we finished planting part of the new woodland, and expanded the hedge around Edible Landscapes London. This will protect the community garden, improve biodiversity and create a home for wildlife. Thank you to Friends of Finsbury Park, and ELL volunteers who came and braved the wintery elements. For all your muddy bloomin beautiful work!

If you’re keen to get involved, rewilding work takes place on the last Saturday of the month, 10am-1pm. We meet at the cafe next to the lake. Find out more about the Rewilding Group here.

The next dates coming up are :

25 Feb – Tree planting and hedge planting around ELL

25 March – Wildflower areas and planting yellow rattle seeds

 

 

Forest Garden Healing Space – April to December 2022

 

The talented residents of Causeway Housing have been working with our outreach team over Spring and Summer, designing and creating their own beautiful Forest Garden Healing Space. Currently we are completing the raised pond, rain garden and sheltered seating space, within the completed pergola structure. We will continue this work through the Autumn. The materials from this project have been scavenged, donated and funded with support from Groundwork’s Our Space Award. We are very grateful to our partners the Garden of Earthly Delights, who have supported our volunteers and residents to learn to build sturdy benches out of recycled pallets. This will create a much needed, much loved social and educational area. It will enabling residents to meet together within nature, create their own workshops, and cook together outdoors.

Many of the more specialist tools came from the Dalston and Walthamstow Tool Libraries. Materials were gifted from members of Freecycle, and plants donated from local garden centres such as Boma. Thank you! It’s extraordinary what can be achieved on a minimal budget.

If you would like to get involved in this project, learn skills in forest garden design, carpentry, and rainwater harvesting, please do get in touch!

Wild City Project – May to July 2022

 

Giant congratulations to Wilbury Primary! We are celebrating the completion of the first stage of our forest garden build with this lively school in Tottenham. The build is part of The Salters Institute’s Wild City Project. Wilbury’s winning design came to a magnificent, buzzing, life-filled fruition in July. We hope it will inspire many other budding designers to have a go at creating a garden, both younger designers and adults.

Process

We worked with four different local schools over summer, which was a joyful process. We witnessed talents emerging, with many cherry-bud ideas. Each class took what they’d learned about forest gardening and put it into practice, by designing a garden space for their school. Each a wonderful story, cultivating inspiration for things yet to take shape. The panel then chose a winning design, that would soon come to life.

A garden blooming with life

Where there was once only compacted grass, (and with the dry weather, this was very compacted), the Wilbury students and garden team manifested a new garden and educational space from scratch. The garden was based on students’ original designs, layouts and moodboards. Together we completed five beds with edible and useful perennials, seating, paths, a shady water feature and bird bath area. Habitats with plentiful log piles emerged, and a secret ‘forest school space’, complete with toadstool seating. Six edible and robust trees were planted with care. We added mycorrhizal fungi to the roots of the trees to help them establish. Lastly, and very importantly, we mulched with barkchip, in preparation for a hot summer to come.

A practical meditation you can try at home

As a group we wrote down our intentions for the space and coming years, and then placed these pieces of paper in the roots of the trees as we planted them. This is a simple ceremony you can try at home. Gifting a tree to the land reconnects us and roots us in our actions. Perhaps you know someone who you would like to give a gift to? A new small tree within your own garden, a community space, or to a much loved friend’s garden. Trees on dwarfing rootstocks need a much smaller space,  a sunny space is usually best for fruit. Autumn is actually the ideal time for planting, when the tree is dormant. Planting a tree is immensely rewarding, and can be a good way to start a small backyard forest garden.

What next?

Support for this school project is ongoing. A lectern is being added for the September term to enhance the outdoor classroom. ELL’s outreach team will look forward to working further with the students as the garden evolves.

If you have ideas for your own forest garden project but aren’t sure where to start, please feel free to get in touch and one of our team will try to get back to you.

 

 

 

 

 

Spring is springing up – April 2022

 

 

We have been dancing in the mulch – our new raised bed area is nearing completion! This Spring the forest garden and wildlife area has been sprouting with blossoms and filled with the buzzing of pollinators. Our beehouse team has been creating safe spaces for swarms of wild honey bees around the park. We have enjoyed hosting a number of schools and new community groups, for nature connection activities and forest garden events.

Wintery happenings – January 2022

Wild City Project

We are excited to announce that this year we will be working with Salters’ Institute on the Wild City project.
It’s a competition for year 5 students to learn more about biodiversity, sustainable food growing and garden design. The winning school will get a forest garden/planters in their playground, which we will then help them to create.
You can learn more here. Why not enter your school?

Tree Planting

We have 3 tree planting days in Finsbury Park in partnership with The Friends of Finsbury Park. We will also be restoring nature in Finsbury Park with community hedge planting days. Gathering over three Saturdays to plant a hedge of mixed native plants such as Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Dog Rose, along the northern perimeter. Get those wellies and gloves on!

Dates are Saturday 15th Jan, Saturday 26th Feb, Saturday 19th March
10am-1pm.
Meet at the central cafe by the lake.
We need between 10-20 people each day, so please bring your friends. Insects and birds are going to love these native mixed hedges and trees. We look forward to working with you to help other species flourish in our park!

 

Guest blog – October 2021

 

 

On Sunday we had the pleasure to welcome a new volunteer, Rupert Hughes, who writes In a Green Shade. Rupert offered to share with us his first experience in the garden:

This sylvan scene is in the heart of London. Today I visited Edible Landscapes, a forest garden project which occupies a plot in the more municipal surroundings of Finsbury Park. I’ve written about forest gardening and permaculture in a number of entries, particularly in reference to Martin Crawford’s work in Devon. Suffice to say, the basic ethos is to design a largely self-sustaining ecosystem using perennials that can be cropped for food and/or other practical uses. There are numerous smallholding scale forest gardens in rural parts of Britain; away from the urban centres it’s still possible to go “back to the land”. In a city like London permaculturalists tend to focus their efforts on community gardens as a way forward. Back gardens and allotments have scope for experimenting with forest gardening principles but needless to say very few people have an area big enough for a forest! Edible Landscapes grow a wide range of species suited to this approach. There are some familiar native and garden plants among them but many are not much seen outside of botanical gardens if at all. It’s good to know that London has places like this.

New Tuesday sessions starting – September 2021

 

By popular demand, we’ll be starting to open our gates for new Tuesday Sessions, running from 10am to 4pm, starting at the beginning of September.

We’ll be adding focus on creating space for mental and physical wellbeing activities, outdoor play, foraging healthy treats, and skillshares. We’ll also be looking at how to create new wildlife habitats around the site, and within Finsbury Park.

Plus having a lot of fun in the process!

 

New addition to the Edible Landscapes Family – July 2021

Warm welcome to Bethany Anderson! who joins us as ELL’s new Project Coordinator. We are very excited to have her on board. Bethany is part of local Guerrilla Gardening group Guardians of the Green, as well as being a Trustee for the Friends of Finsbury Park. She is currently studying Community Orchardry. As part of GOG, she organises family gardening days and volunteer sessions. With FOFP Bethany is leading the fundraising campaign to build a bigger skatepark, recently organising a Skateathon and Jam. In her new role with Edible Landscapes, Bethany will be working with the team to outreach to schools and community groups, create a new volunteer day on Tuesdays from September, while getting more plants out to local community groups. In a variety of ways, spreading the news and benefits of Forest Gardening. We are greatly looking forward to the days ahead, and working together!

 

We’re hiring! –  June 2021

 

We are recruiting a Project Coordinator.

Edible Landscapes London are looking for a knowledgeable and motivated individual with the experience, passion and drive to share forest gardening skills throughout our community. We are seeking someone who can think strategically and work together with us, our networks and partners, to reach more people and establish forest gardens in more places.

For details please see the Project Coordinator Job Description

Please provide a CV and a covering letter explaining why you feel you’re appropriate for the role, how you meet the person specification detailed in the job description and why you want to provide Project Coordinator services for Edible Landscapes London CIC.

Deadline for applications: 8pm Sunday 20 June 2021

Post commences: Mid July 2021

Mushroom beds and tree nurseries  – May 2021

 

This month we had the pleasure to remove the tree guards from the new Tree Nursery Project in Wray Crescent Park. It was created by the wonderful Friends of Wray, who have now reopened their doors. It will provide a three-year home for native saplings with abundant fruits.  Robust trees edible for the benefit of both wildlife and humans, including crab apple, rowan, hazel, dog rose and blackthorn.

At the end of the month, we’ll be creating a king stropharia (aka wine cap) mushroom bed, in a shady forest area of the park. In coming months, volunteers are transforming a South-facing area of the park for heat-loving spices, and exotic edibles. Also creating an area for medicinal herbs. Friends of Wray host a vibrant community garden with an established orchard, mini forest garden and growing area.

Breathmark –  April 2021

 

Our love of forest gardening has been transformed into an interactive recorded artwork. In April, we were visited by a group of sound artists, from the MA Curating Contemporary Art Programme, RCA. They are curating an exhibition at Furtherfield gallery in Finsbury Park this summer, part of the People’s Plinth project. We are thrilled to be heard on this platform within a range of community voices. If you’d like to hear it, you can access using a mobile phone from outside the gallery, or from a computer. You can visit the People’s Plinth directly, through the gallery link, and a short list of artworks is available here. Among others, it includes a great interview with Jo, with subjects ranging from nepal pepper pesto, to an introduction to forest gardening. Kevin’s delicious nettles risotto recipe, using five fresh ingredients from Edible Landscapes, features: nettles, babington’s leek, saltbush, three-cornered leek, topped off with alkanet flowers.

Somerset Adventures –  March 2021

 

Field trips are in the Spring winds. We are delighted to be working with Osprey Outdoors, who are designing a large new forest garden space, having taken on eight disused allotment plots from the council. How could anyone resist? this open yet sheltered, sunlit site, with two ponds, an orchard hosting plentiful wild areas. A wide range of creative projects are in the brew.  Workshops will be offered in permaculture and forest gardening. These will happen alongside the traditional crafts  and a variety of nature-based skills, which are already in full flow. Osprey create inspiring projects, recognising the benefits of nature immersion for mental health and wellbeing. We look forward to learning together over the next growing seasons, swapping stories, ideas, unusual plants.

One True Voice  –  February 2022

 

Forest gardens can allow empowering and symbiotic places for meeting, especially in times of isolation. In February we were honoured to welcome a wonderful group of new friends. ‘One True Voice’  is a local Somali community group supporting women and girls of all ages. We immersed in nature, connecting ourselves and our roots, building our skills, painting the bird houses created using reclaimed wood and bark. The journey was an exploration of what brings us alive, engaging our creative channels in recognition of the ecology of which we are a part. The result was many artistic homes and nooks for our feathered friends at the garden. These will be mounted around Finsbury Park, finding their place within the wild spaces.

Winter blooms  –  January 2021

 

This month we’ve been looking around the garden, listening to birds, sitting in meditation. In silent awe of what’s here, noticing so much evergreen. As a result we decided to dedicate this to flowering beauties inspiring us during a snowy winter lockdown. Quietly providing sustenance for winter pollinators. Much-needed vibrancy!

The top photos show loquat and climbing Szechuan pepper, while underneath is a pineapple guava bud and fuchsia, a common garden favourite.

Did you know all fuchsias have edible flowers and berries? Depending on variety, the flavour of the berries ranges greatly. From very sweet, to peppery, to tart like lemons. Similar to kiwi or fig. Some varieties don’t taste of anything. However, we were fortunate enough to have two anonymous varieties donated to us, both delicious. Many cuttings have been born of these plants. This year, we are keen to try Fuchsia procumbens, a trailing species. It has otherworldly flowers and large pink berries.

Wattle Load of Fun  –  December 2020

 

To celebrate the lifting of lockdown restrictions and a beautiful and abundant local resource – the clay beneath our feet, ELL hosted a wattle and daub weekend. Children learned  how to weave (wattle) using an assortment of hazel, willow and ivy. They also learned how to work with cob (clay, sand and straw) and how to put this all together to make a bird house.

In sessions less than two hours each, our young participants created some amazing structures, some sculpted into birds. We learned about the different birds they might find in their parks and gardens and which ones they wanted to attract into their bird house.

Approx 25 people attended our 7 workshops, over two days. Some went over for a fantastic talk given by our local bee keeper Zhivko. People said the space was ‘magical’ the workshops ‘better than computer games! Despite the cold, waddle load of fun!! Thank you to Cob in the Community for your partnership in this adventure.

New shoots in times of Covid  –  November 2020

 

We remain open on Sundays, powering on! Limiting numbers to 6 per session. Please bring your own gloves if you have them, sturdy boots and warm clothes. We’ll be creating a ‘step over’ fence with eight young apple trees, planted around one of our beds, learning propagation techniques with hardwood cuttings, potting up some favourites, and introducing some new species to the garden. These will include colourful wonders like purple tree collards and variagated Taunton Deane kale, propagated in Spring.

We’ll also be following up the soil testing from March, (photo below), starting to look at natural techniques to improve London’s soil quality, by means of mycoremediation and phytoremediation.

Creating a deadwood hedge  –  October 2020

 

Thank you to all our wonderful regular volunteers, for creating this beautiful new deadwood hedge at the site. This will become a ‘minibeast metropolis’ of abundant biodiversty, which will in turn feed larger species like hedgehogs and birds. Deadhedges provide shelter for small mammals and birds during bad weather, a place to live and nest. They are sometimes known as ‘windrows’ in the woodland coppice trade,  a method to recycle spare branches into functional and beautiful structures onsite. Lots of good information about dead hedges here. We think every forest garden should have one!

Autumn Family Fun –  September 2020

 

What a beautiful event, deep gratitude to all who joined us. An extraordinary session of lively artists getting stuck into nature. We had a lot of fun! The group made natural prints with leaves and flowers, in an process called Hapa Zome. This is the Japanese art of pounding wet leaves with hammers, which allows the natural dye to seep into cloth and form a print. Meanwhile both kids and adults got stuck into creating some beautiful miniature landscapes, using woven hazel sticks, clay and found objects.

Forest garden oils and medicinal vinegars  – August 2020

 

We’ve been creating delicious concoctions of herb vinegars and oils from the garden, and getting experimental with spice. So far we have introduced these as relaxed drop in sessions and conversations for visitors to the garden, and will be doing more outreach around this in Spring. Why not come by and collect some ingredients from the garden to make your own? You can even add flowers like nasturtium or chives. We will be experimenting further with vinegars, tinctures and herbal infusions in months to come. For culinary purposes, we found one favourite ingredient is Nepalese pepper. Once added, the colour of the vinegar turns pink, deeply infusing the flavour of this electric spice. It tastes like grapefruit. We like to use apple cider vinegar with the mother, for the natural health benefits of this loving elixir.

Pergola build  –  July 2020

 

We are celebrating the completion of our new pergola entrance! Thank you to all the lovely crew, joining us this month to finish off the build with some roundwood beds, for climbers and shrubs. (A photo of the fully finished entrance can be seen in the ‘Finding Us’ section.) This construction was designed from scratch, by one of our talented volunteers. Most of the wood was cut and measured by hand, by the members who came to the sessions. We think it’s looking rather splendid…

Glorious Cardoon  –  June 2020

This is the ELL Community bed in Finsbury Park, post cardoon haircut. Who doesn’t love a manificent cardoon? Despite their striking appearance, few people realise how tastey they can be. What to do with a cardoon? Well the list is long. These giant creatures lend themselves to many culinary treats: bagna cauda (a traditional Piedmont dish of barely blanched cardoon stalks served with a garlicky dipping sauce), stews, casseroles, stir fries. Unlike artichokes, it’s not the blossoms we’re after, but the stalks. Their delicate artichoke-like flavor is as refined as it is addictive.

ELL Spring tour  –  April 2020

 

Take a look at our beautiful site this spring. There are flowers, fruitlets, young leaves and even some relaxed ducks. An introduction to around 30 of our 200 edible, medicinal and dye plants.

Worm counts at 3 locations – January 2020

 

Exciting video showing the results of worm counts we started to carry out at Edible Landscapes London in Finsbury Park, January 2020. Worms are excellent indicators of soil health. We aim to do more next winter, when the plants are dormant, and don’t mind new neighbours being planted (with holes dug to do this). But for now, we feel this confirms how much worms dislike compaction. And have taken a great warmth to our raspberry patch…