Calling all cake makers!

Calling all cake makers...can you help us?

Whether it is a carrot, fruit, chocolate or fairy cake,

all cakes are welcome!

All proceeds will go to Deen City Farm.

We need your cakes for our cake stall for our

Open Squares Garden day on 8th June 2013.

email louisa.loakes@deencityfarm.co.uk if you can help! THANK YOU

Barn the spoon



Come and learn how to make your own woodern spoon!



Barns spoons - Spitalfields life

We are very very excited to be announcing one of our workshops of the year. On Saturday July 20th we will be welcoming barn to the garden project, who will be running our 
Spoon Carving Workshop. 

On the workshop you will learn how to carve spoons with straight and bent knives. You will be able to take your very own spoon home with you at the end of the day.

The workshop will run from 10am-4pm and is £20 for visitors, £10 concessions and £5 to Deen City Farm Volunteers. Limited spaces are avaliable please book now to avoid dissapointment. All you need to do is call us on 020 8543 5300 and we will happily book you a place.

To find out more information about the man himself please visit his blog at barnthespoon.blogspot.co.uk

There are also a couple of wonderful articles about Barn at

spitalfieldslife barnthespoon

Barn in his shop in Hackney - Spitalfields life

Barn in his shop in Hackney - Spitalfields life





Bee cause

Come on down to the farm this Sunday and support... 

This Sunday 19th May 1-4pm Deen City Farm joining forces with Merton Friends of the Earth and will be celebrating the beautiful bees of Britain with an afternoon of fun bee based activities. Wildflower planting, bee face painting, bee talks and demos, interesting stalls, a bee quiz and more! Come and join us and don't forget to try the honey cake!

..............................................

About The Bee Cause

Our bees are in trouble but Britain's waking up to the buzz.

British bee numbers have fallen dramatically in recent years, affected by disease, chemicals and habitat loss. Suitable food and nesting sites are getting scarcer.

Bees are vital to so much of British life; they pollinate our food, help keep our farms in business and help our gardens, parks and countryside to thrive.

Now Friends of the Earth's Bee Cause campaign is making 2013 the Year of the Bee.

We're asking David Cameron for a Bee Action Plan to:

Help farmers, gardeners and park keepers to reduce use of chemicals that harm bees

Protect all 267 British bee species, not only the ones which make our honey

Ensure bees have enough flowers to feed on and places to nest in our towns and countryside.

For more information please click below

More about The bee cause

..............................................

We are also running a Beginners beekeeping workshop at the farm with the incredibly knowledgeable Peter Bowbrick from the Wimbledon Beekeeping Association. You will discover all you need to know about how to start keeping bees and even get to meet the bees down at the apiary at Morden Hall Park.

http://www.wimbledonbeekeepers.co.uk/

To book your place please just give us a call on 020 8543 5300.

Meet our bracket fungi

Look at our fungi that have magically appeared in the garden over the weekend......

Fairy steps

A bit about the fungi....


Bracket fungi, or shelf fungi, among many groups of the fungi in the phylum Basidiomycota. Characteristically, they produce shelf- or bracket-shaped fruiting bodies called conks that lie in a close planar grouping of separate or interconnected horizontal rows. Brackets can range from only a single row of a few caps, to dozens of rows of caps that can weigh several hundred pounds. They are mainly found on trees (living and dead) and coarse woody debris, and may resemble mushrooms. Some form annual fruiting bodies while others are perennial and grow larger year after year. Bracket fungi are typically tough and sturdy and produce their spores, called basidiospores, within the pores that typically make up the undersurface.

Because bracket fungi are defined by their growth form rather than phylogeny, the group contains members of multiple clades. The term classically was reserved for polypores, however molecular studies have revealed some odd relationships. The beefsteak fungus, a well known bracket fungus, is actually a member of the agarics. Other examples of bracket fungi include the sulphur shelf, birch bracket, dryad's saddle, artist's conk, and turkey tail. The name Polypores is often used for a group that includes many of the hard or leathery fungi, which often lack a stem, growing straight out of wood.

The group includes many different shapes and forms that are common in the tropical forests, including the hard 'cup fungi' and the 'shell', 'plate' and 'bracket' fungus commonly found growing off logs and still standing dead trees.
Bracket fungi often grow in semi-circular shapes, looking like trees or wood. They can be parasitic, saprotrophic, or both. One of the more common genera, Ganoderma, can grow large thick shelves that may contribute to the death of the tree, and then feed off the wood for years after. Their hardiness means they are very resilient and can live for quite a long time, with many species even developing beautiful multi-coloured circles of colour that are actually annual growth rings.

 

Open Squares Gardens 2013

The Growing Gardens Community Project will taking part in Open Gardens Squares Weekend 2013. Pop down and meet the gardeners and volunteers in the garden on Sat 8th June. Various activities will be happening in the garden throughout the day 11am-3pm, just pop on by. 

To find other gardens that will be taking part close to the farm, just click the link below.

www.opensquares.org

Fennel is no fun but chilli chats to basil

 This is an interesting article that was in the papers yesterday about talking plants, just in case you missed it....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2320305/Talking-plants-hold-key-growing-strong-vegetable-crops.html

Wildlife Gardening Workshop

 

 

If you fancy coming along to this workshop please just give us a call on 020 8543 5300 and we will be more than happy to book you a place. Booking early is advisable to avoid disappointment.

World Naked Gardening Day

.................................................................

Just to let you know, incase you didn't already that is! 

It is 
World Naked Gardening Day 
tomorrow.

Sat May 4th 2013

Perfect weather for it!

All info can be found at http://www.wngd.org/


................................................................

Spring meeting

 

Each season we have a garden volunteer get together. We talk about all the things that are happening in the garden and things that are going to happen over the coming months. Obviously we need a good slice of cake and a cup of tea to do this!

 

 

Hello Horton Community Farm

 

 

We were pleased to welcome Horton Community Farm to the garden last week. They are starting up their own project in Yorkshire.

 

Horton Community Farm is run by a group of local people. They are now established as a cooperative organisation, and registered as a limited company. They operate as a social enterprise, and any profit that is generated is invested straight back into the project.

 

The project will renovate the site to provide a safe environment for people in the local community to grow healthy food for local consumption. The site is around 5 acres in total area with 100 plots. Only around 10% of the total site appears cultivated. The remainder is currently derelict, with areas of weeds, brambles, undergrowth and native saplings. There is also a problem with fly-tipping, vandalism, theft and drug abuse.

 

To visit their website just click on this link http://hcf.org.uk

We wish you tonnes of luck for your project

and would love to hear about all its progress over the coming months! Lu and Flo