Hi everyone,

It’s a bit of a whirlwind down at the Golden Hill Community Garden at the moment as we leap into spring mode and start planting our first seeds and carrying on our building projects. The new beds are popping up like mushrooms! The raised bed building workshop was a great success, we had a lovely day and 9 happy participants got four fab beds built, increased their power tool confidence, left ready to build beds for themselves and we got a bit of money to cover the costs – Everyone’s a winner!

So now I can announce our next workshop.

Published author, excellent workshop leader and all round nice guy Dave Hamilton will be teaching people how bring an overgrown plot into production without breaking the bank or too much back backing work. We’ve upped our prices but it’s still a bargain! It’d be great to get this poster up far and wide and if the workshop gets booked up we’ll run it again. So please print it out and put it up where you can – garden centres, notice boards at work or in cafes, allotment gates, etc. I’m happy to post you a poster if you don’t have a colour printer, or send one laminated if it’s going up outdoors. And if know anyone taking on a new allotment or struggling with an overgrown one then let them know. This would be a HUGE help.

A reminder that this Wednesday is our first Volunteers Annual General Gathering (V.A.G.G!) at 3pm. Please come along and have your say about last year and give your ideas and opinions on plans for the year ahead.

And finally another call out for plant fosterers – we need you! For tomatoes, chillies and aubergines. The big seed order is arriving this week and I’m happy to drop round with everything you need to get some little green guys growing at home. This is so vital – not just so we have fabulous veggies to eat this year but we need things to sell at our spring fair and planned market stalls. To take the pressure off no one person gets all of one variety or one vegetable so if yours don’t make it then it’s okay. All you need is a sunny windowsill and a little bit of love. So don’t worry if you’ve killed plants before or never had a go -if you’re worried about the planting bit I can talk you through it or even drop off ready planted trays. Then you get the joys of green shoots inside as the weather warms up outside as well as volunteering for the garden from the comfort of your own home.

Thanks everyone and see you in the garden,

Lucy