Welcome to Golden Hill Community Garden

Welcome to our website!  We are a community garden in Horfield, Bristol (map here).  We are open every Wednesday 10-4 and welcome anyone and everyone to come and get involved, get growing, drink tea and share the harvest.  Our site is accessible including our toilet.

If you’d like to come for a look around  and maybe get involved please come at either 12 or 2:30 on your first session on ANY Wednesday and after that you can drop in when you like. Or just come when you can, there’s no need  to let us know you are coming – come in by the second gate down the lane behind Horfield prison wallls.

We also run a toddler group, kids’ playscheme, an afterschool club, community events, rent out raised beds to community groups and more!  Have a read of our latest news below.

Our booking site is HERE to book on to any of our kids’ sessions or events. Next up is Wreath making on the 30th Nov/1st Dec – more info  below

See you in the garden!

Wreath making

November 4, 2024

Hi folks

The leaves change colour and the seasons change and now on to the next thing!  Wreath making!  We are taking booking now It’s a fun and informal session and you’ll be shown how to weave a hoop out of willow and then decorate it with glorious winter foliage.  The booking site is HERE. The creative process usually takes about an hour though it’s fine to take your time as long as you are done by the time we close!

These days are always lovely and full of good cheer and lovely people all enjoying the process of making something beautiful and chatting and chirping along the way! It’s £30 per wreath and you’re welcome to make one together as a family or with pals and children are welcome.  If you are low waged/in receipt of benefits then we have a lower cost option lower cost option and free places if money is a barrier.

HARVEST FAIR AND CROWD FUNDER FOR OUR NEW KITCHEN

September 20, 2024

Hi everyone

Right our first ever crowd funder has just gone live!  We’ve had amazing help from some amazing volunteers and we’ve made the t-shirts!  They’ve made a video!  We are looking to find the last bit of money we need to build our new shelter and outdoor kitchen so please help if you can!  Our current shelter is too crowded and we just don’t fit in and our current kitchen is in a corner in a polytunnel and it’s a nightmare to keep clean and it gets far too hot in the sun and too loud in the rain. On Monday one of our playworkers Sarah nearly passed out cooking apples with the kids at the after school club!

Check out our crowdfunder website HERE.  And I’ll put it on our Facebook and Instagram so  if you do those please share it with anyone you think might be interested!

There are loads of lovely rewards for folks who pledge some money including tote bags,  postcards,  bunches of flowers, trips to an exclusive private cinema AND best of all these fab t-shirts!  Available in all kids, babies and adult sizes. We’ve been talking about building a proper kitchen for 5 or so years but we’ve been talking about getting t-shirts made for at least a decade and we couldn’t be more chuffed with how they turned out.

Also the Harvest Fair!  IT’S ON SATURDAY! If you can’t make it please tell your pals or if you could ping the poster around your local street or  parent Whatsapp group that’d be amazing!

If you can make it there’ll be some or Bristol’s finest samosa to munch on, drumming, morris dancing from the fab Kittiwake Morris at 2pm, and loads of free kids’ activities  including vegetable sculptures, and pond dipping and a quieter indoor space with a play worker leading sensory play.  We’ll have the big apple press out for making juice as well as the amazing little apple machine for everyone to get involved in.  Please being any along spare apples to add to the pile especially if you know a heavily laden tree where ones they might be apples going to waste – cookers or eaters, bruised or blemish free are all welcome.  It’ll be a lovely day and we’d love to see you!

We’ll also have a stand at the fair where you can come for a chat about the kitchen project and find out more about the crowdfunder so please come and say hello!

And I’ll leave you with two tales of unexpected triumph.  Firstly here’s a pic of the only runner beans we manged to grow this year – which is of course rubbish – but hats off to this plucky little bean plant that despite being eaten repeatedly down to a nub kept on growing! What a champ! And it means we have achieved beans when we thought all was lost. And here’s picture of a pumpkin that’s happily romping away across the mouse safe propagation shelves in the polytunnel – we didn’t plant it there on purpose but a seed must have dropped been back in spring and now it’s the best looking squash we’ve got!

See you at the fair –  and please check out the crowdfunder –  donate if you can or spread the word if you know anyone that might 🙂  The website again is HERE

Lucy

Lucy Mitchell
Community Project Worker
07506 905 394
www.thegoldenhillcommunitygarden.com
@ghcommunitygarden

Harvest fair and a big new project

September 6, 2024

Hi everyone

And suddenly it’s autumn!  Pumpkins are turning orange, the kids’ are back to school and the rain has been hammering down… here’s hoping it clears up in time for our little Harvest Fair!  Please come along on Saturday 21st September and enjoy delicious food, drumming, morris dancing from the fab Kittiwake Morris, and loads of free kids’ activities  including vegetable sculptures, and pond dipping and a quieter indoor space.  We’ll be apple pressing so please being any along especially if you know a heavily laden tree where ones they might be apples  going to waste…

We are currently short of a choir to sing so if you are in one that you could ask please do! And if you’d like to help on the day please let me know or if you could bake us a cake that’s be grand or please please ping our poster around you local Whatsapp group… or just come along on the day, enjoy the loveliness and bring along everyone you know!

We just don’t fit!

AND I’ve got an exciting new project to tell  you about.  We’ve been dreaming and scheming,    plotting and planning, and (importantly) fundraising with the aim of building ourselves a new outdoor shelter and kitchen. Our current shelter can’t fit us in and our current kitchen is a little gas hob in the corner of the polytunnel. It’s a bit of a trek to the sink which means it’s a real challenge and constant work keeping things hygienic and it’s unbearably hot on sunny days and too loud on rainy days. Anyone who’s been along on a Wednesday volunteer day knows we’ve talking about this for at least 6 years or more.   So we’re doing it!  We’re going to build a new one with a sink!  We’ve raised the funds we need for the actual structure from Awards for All from the National Lottery (whooop!) and now we need to get the money together for the groundworks, the canvas sides and fitting out the kitchen. 

So hold on to your hats because on the 17th September we’ll be launching our first ever Crowdfunder to hep us raise the f

inal £6000 and we hope that you’ll support us if you can, or help us spread the word!  For you’ve not seen these before it’s an online way of fundraising and for any amount you donate there’s a reward! And for folks that can chip in we’ve got some great treats in store from our gorgeous new funky t-shirts, beautiful prints, postcards, bunches of flower, exclusive nights out a Bristol’s smallest and coolest cinema AND MORE! Here’s a sneak pic at one of our the brand new super cool new t-shirts that will up for grabs!

 

 

We’ll have a stand at the fair where you can come for a chat and find out more and donate so please come and have a chat!

See you at the fair!

Lucy

Lucy Mitchell 
Community Project Worker
ghcgarden@gmail.com
@ghcommunitygarden

 

SPRING FAIR!

April 11, 2024

Hi folks

Spring is definitely springing in the garden.  I love this time of year and on a sunny Wednesday with a fab team of volunteers anything seems possible.  We’ve had a great winter of fixing, sorting, building and tidying and springing into the 2024 growing season and the garden is looking great and our sheds are (currently) glorious beacons of organisation and order.   And if the tadpoles are wriggling, the birds are singing and the polytunnels are filling up with seedlings then it must be nearly time for our…

BIG SPRING FAIR 1pm-4pm Saturday 11th May!
They’ll be gorgeous songs and harmonies from our pals the fabulous Break Out Choir and trad bangers from garden stalwarts What the Folk?! and debuting this year and filling the air with music- the wonderful Gasworks Singers!  Our fabulous storyteller MIke is back and we have loads FREE activities for kids and the young at heart like drumming, pond dipping, May Crown making, face painting, art and crafts and MORE. The garden is wheelchair accessible including the compost loo and we’ll have a quiet sensory space indoors. There’ll also be loads of lovely cake and delicious pizza fresh from the clay oven.  Entrance is £4 for adults of £2 for children or just pay what you can because money shouldn’t be a barrier and everyone is welcome regardless of funds.  And if you like to bake and donate a cake to us that’d be very gratefully received!

We’ve been very busy sowing and propagating and pricking out and potting on so we’ve got loads of lovely heritage vegetable seedlings and a load drought proof, slug proof, very easy to grow flowering perennials that will be available to buy – all grown chemical free and in peat free compost right on your doorstep.  So  please come along and tell all  your friends and leave with some of lovely plants.

We are starting back our lovely toddler group next week and WE HAVE SPACES!  It’s a lovely relaxed session of digging, playing, harvesting, crafting, exploring nature, climbing, chatting, riding around in small cars, pond dipping and coming together for singing and a story.  We’re a friendly bunch, there’s hot drink available and there’s always something exciting happening on a tiny level – a new caterpillar, a worm ball, a new tasty thing to try. We run term time Tuesdays or Fridays 10-11:30 and we’re starting 16th/19th April and we’re aimed at  18 months to pre-schoolers. We take bookings by the term and it’s £8 or lower price £6 session and £3/£2.50 for extra siblings, babies are free and there are some free places if money is a barrier to you joining. There’s more info on our website at HERE  You can book the spot HERE or get in touch at ghcgarden@gmail.com to join the waiting list for September.

This winter has been the wettest we’ve ever had in the garden with more flooding then ever.  We had to put off sowing seeds outdoors as things were just too cold and soggy, and we delayed planting out seedlings because of cold, harsh winds but today it finally feels like weather that plants would like to grow in but who know what comes next??

Right now our beds are mulched, our secateurs are sharpened, we’ve got newly built shelves, tidy sheds, some lovely new signage and loads of seedlings and we’ve ready for whatever the 2024 growing season throws at us!  If you’d like to join us please come along any Wednesday.  We’re here 10-4 and new folks are welcome along at 12 or 2:30 for a tour or just come when you can. No need to come every week or stay all day, no experience necessary and we’ve always got a range of jobs to suit different energy levels. Come! We’re a friendly bunch and we’d love to have you along 🙂

AND finally we’re on Instagram! A friendly young person has even taught me how me make reels. We’re @ghcommunitygarden so if you like this sort of thing please come give us a follow and validate my efforts! 🙂

 

See you in the garden!

Lucy

 

Lucy Mitchell 
(she/her)Community Project Worker
07506 905 394
e: ghcgarden@gmail.com
i: @ghccommunitygarden

 

 

Happy soggy new year!

January 15, 2024

Hi folk

Happy soggy new year! The current garden status as I write this is… it’s a bog!  The river of rain may have stopped flowing down (and washing away) the hardstanding paths and the waters are receding for now but much of the garden is still very waterlogged.  It’s times like these that we remember how this project came to be –  if it didn’t get so wet then this soggy patch of land would never have been left ungardened for long and would never have been given over to us to become our beautiful productive community garden! Here’s a pic of the pond with not just the path but the path edging as well deep underwater! Sharp eyed readers will spot Harry the cat who is a regular and cheerful attendee at garden (though the way he was cheerfully dipping his paws in the pond makes me fear for the frogs who’ll be along next month…)
I’ve got more news of our glorious new shed.  A massive thanks to David and Patrick and Mike and everyone else involved in getting it built and ready to use.  The amazing set of sturdy shelves were finished in December and were all built our of foraged wood from skips and what not.  We had our grand opening at our Christmas party and now joy of joys all the kids’ stuff has been carefully sorted and organised into labeled boxes and the shed is now a treasure trove. It’s always the way when you do a big tidy we found so much long lost stuff, scissors and tools and toys and useful bits and bobs that it’s like going shopping. And now we can clear all the cooking stuff out of the tunnels and welcome in a new ear of tidiness.  Great stuff
We started back our Wednesday volunteer days this week and new volunteers are very welcome along!  It’s great to get out and get some outdoor time when the days are so short and also to pick some delicious winter greens fro a vitamin boost after the season of biscuits and booze.  We’re here every week 10-3 in January and then back to 10-4 from Feb and new folks are welcome along at 12 or 2:30 for a tour or just come when you can.  Our afterschool club also started back yesterday and they had a great time in the dark playing in the pouring rain and getting absolutely soaked paddling in the floods.  They are a hardy bunch and luckily we have the cosy balehouse, hot squash and hot water bottles for when the cold really kicks in!

We also started back our lovely toddler group today and were lucky to have a morning in the sun for digging, paddling, exploring, singing and  making flappy sticks to celebrate the catkins that are just starting to  drop and release their seeds.  We’ve still got a couple of spaces in our Tuesday group starting next week and there’s more info and the booking link HERE
People are often surprised when I tell them we stay open all winter and we’re still busy and still harvesting and sure we can’t quite match the tasty summer treats of just picked tomato and basil or juicy strawberries but let me leave you with some pictures of some of our fab winter veg – our best sprouts yet AND our biggest celeriac getting prepped for the soup pot!

And stay tuned to hear about some exciting plans we have brewing for 2024!
See you in the garden!

Lucy

Lucy Mitchell
Community Project Worker
07506 905 394
ghcgarden@gmail.com