By the end of July, the plum and damson trees at our community garden are laden with fruit – ready for making jam, chutney or picking for a snack on a hot day. Therefore, we thought it would be good to welcome back Patrick McCabe, to host a follow up session from the pruning workshop…Read more …
On Saturday 4 June we held our first public event of the year, Common People. This free annual event at Clapham Common’s iconic Bandstand began back in 2014, with the aim of bringing people together and celebrating the local community’s talent. The day featured live musical performances on the Bandstand and stalls held by local…Read more …
Back in October 2021 we held an inaugural composting workshop for our newly constructed bays beside our community garden. As follow-up, on Saturday 7 May Dan Priddle facilitated a second workshop for BBA gardeners and members of the local community to come along and learn the art of composting. What is composting? Composting happens when…Read more …
Each year we join community gardens across London and nationwide by joining in Capital Growth’s annual Good to Grow celebration. The aim of this event is to kickstart the growing season, so what better way to do this than with a seed sowing and sharing event? And for this year’s BBA Good to Grow event…Read more …
At this time of year there’s a lot of work going on at the BBA garden with the preparation of our raised beds for seed sowing and planting out. There’s a good deal of heavy lifting , earth moving and sweating involved and at times the task list looks to be a daunting prospect. Yet…Read more …
At Bandstand Beds we’re always looking to widen the range of produce we can cultivate and so on a sunny Saturday last week we gathered learn how to grow oyster mushrooms. What are oyster mushrooms and what’s the challenge? Oyster mushrooms are large fan shaped fungi. In the wild they are usually found in wooded…Read more …
By the children’s playground on Clapham Common, near The Spinney, there are three large plane trees. In the last few years, the area beneath them has been covered in bark and designated for wildlife. As the bark breaks down into a growing medium and seeds blow in on the wind, the area is slowly springing…Read more …
Dreary, drizzly, and destined to rain with a 90% certainty, Saturday morning was not the most inspiring prospect to be outdoors. Nevertheless, a group of hardy and curious Bandstand Beds members assembled in the garden, eager to learn the dos-and-don’ts of pruning. We were greeted by the enchanting New Zealand accent of our facilitator Patrick,…Read more …
Each year when we hold our community feast in September you could easily think our garden is then put to bed, but this is certainly not the case. With the arrival of autumn we begin turning our thoughts to next year’s growing season, planting onions, shallots, garlic and broad beans ready to harvest from around…Read more …
When we throw food waste away, it can be easy to not think about where it goes. Unlike the single-use plastic we’re all wary of, we know that organic waste will decompose. However, if put into landfill this waste will break down anaerobically, as the weight and compression of the other rubbish starves the decomposition…Read more …