Roof gardening at HOL, Hackney

Fresh today, dry tomorrow

This Saturday, in between the shower spells and shed making i finally knocked up a drying frame. During these summer months we are greeted by an abundance of fresh herbs and plants in bloom. So there is no time like the present to dry and preserve them so that they can be enjoyed throughout the winter. The most important feature of any drying mechanism is to ensure there is a good airflow to all parts of the leaves/flowers. At this time of year it is best to harvest leaves and flowers (saving root harvesting till the Autumn).

I made this frame with half of a pallet, some hessian fabric found on the street and some common garden netting. The hessian has been used to catch smaller petals and leaves which can fall through the netting but can be omitted if you are only drying bigger plants. Any other fabric offcuts / scraps can be used in place of hessian too.

Broken half pallet, hessian and garden netting

Step by step...

1. Use tacks (or bent over nails as i didnt have any tacks on me at the time!) to nail down the hessian on the bottom of your wood frame

Tacking down the hessian

2. Measure out the size of netting (you can choose finer holes for smaller flowers) and lay over your frame.

3. Using offcuts of wood or whatever bits you have, place on top of the netting, forming a clamp and nail into place.

Netting clamped in place with wooden edge panels

4. Repeat this on all four sides, making sure to pull the netting taught (a helping friend makes this easier!)

Completed frame

5. And there you have, you very simple drying frame which you can put in a dry well ventilated space, ideally out of direct sunlight.

Frame complete with herb and flowers drying away

And now you are ready to toss onto it whatever you are drying out. Depending on heat and humidity it should take about 3 days to dry most things. Then you can store them in jars of paper bags to keep you well stocked
until next Spring.

Navigating the City

Following discussions at last nights ‘Navigating the Future City’ – the fourth installment from the Urban Research Unit, a project by Futurecity and Grimshaw Architects, i got to thinking about the idea of placemaking in a city like London. A few different ideas were discussed but an underlying theme was centred around developing and creating spaces for people – let’s call it active placemaking versus enabling a space or open area to be experienced and enjoyed at the discretion of the user i.e. passive placemaking. Whilst discussing the development plans for Earls Court featuring 4 villages and a high street the panel digressed into what is key in forming a successful high street which offers more than a bookies, a pound shop and a hairdresser. Kingsland Road in Dalston and Hackney were mentioned as places where the high street has managed to retain its independence in terms of small shops, cafes and local businesses and developed creative outlets without the need for chain stores lacking in personality. When posing the question of how this seemingly organic growth can be reflected in other developments it is hard to compare the two. On the one hand you have a place with a strong history of community and a rising number of socially minded artists in contrast to a developer who has a given site to develop and a brief to be followed. When looking at Earls Court the developments focus is and has to be on the transport hub. It has been seen across London that transport centres are now being regenerated around the city with a large emphasis on creating generous public realm – Kings Cross is one example – the importance still has to be focused on getting people from A to B as efficiently as possible. The public space is an add on. It is also a finite project with a start, an end, and a criteria to fill and a service – in this case transport – to be provided. Therefore, there is not the opportunity for it to grow, develop and be reinvented in the same way that pockets, niches and corners of the city have been regenerated in boroughs like Hackney. So when returning to the question of how new planned developments can mirror the successes of others that have just happened an element of trust has to be given to the end users in dictating how a space can be used. Successful placemaking which is best suited to its end user is achieved by slowly creating spaces which can adapt over time when and as is needed. So in looking at how these new transport hubs can contribute to diverse public areas for the people of the city, perhaps the developer can concentrate on the main transport and infrastructure of the site  and then create a blank canvas for local communities to develop over time. This will encourage local businesses to occupy retail units giving individuality to the site and might encourage people to use the space in a different way. And if you put something there that isn’t as sterile and uninspiring as your average Starbucks and M&S  maybe we can change the ‘get in and get out’ attitude that we have towards travelling in the city.

http://www.urbanresearchunit.com/events/

Spring Sale at Cordwainers Garden

Into the hive

Today we had a big tidy up in the garden and a nice visit from Ian, our mentor bee keeper who talked to us all about our bees and the amazing way in which they work. He explained how if you lose your queen bee, another one will soon be chosen, so its not something to worry about. Another great fact he shared was the way that the bees communicate to each other. They really do perform the bee dance to let their fellow workers know where the best flowers are. They dance around in a figure of eight style and dictate through angles which way to fly on leaving the hive to find lots of tasty pollen. In addition to this they vibrate and wiggle at a certain rate which indicates the distance at which the flowers are located in relation to the hive. That's pretty amazing directional advice and all through the medium of dance!

The garden getting a good tidying. We cut so much grass we could have made hay!

 The queen bee herself Jan, checking the frames for Queenie

Bees working away in a Ian's demonstration glass window frame

Watching and learning

A whole lot of bees, buzz buzz

The Edible Terrace

After a couple of months of hauling soil up 3 storeys, contending with urban pigeons and struggling with windy wet weather the Edible Terrace at my office is finally growing. The idea of the project is to see how much food we can grow on the un-used section of the roof terrace and to inspire my colleagues about urban food growing whilst also creating a nice green space which can be enjoyed throughout the summer. We are trying to source materials for free and make use of items in the local area that would be doomed for the rubbish tip. So far we have made mini-greenhouses out of pallets and plastic sheeting, used cable reels as planting containers and collected thick tubing to harvest rain water. Here is what we have done so far...

How the space looked at the beginning with our first mini-greenhouse on the right

Terrace transformation

The beginning of our climbing wall of beans, peas and edible flowers

 Safe and cosy out of the wind inside mini-greenhouse number 2

 Cable reels recycled from the electrical store across the road making a nice home for courgette plants

Salad bed with rocket, lettuce, mizuna and chard made from old pallets

Blooming beds

So, the two new beds that we set up on our Volunteer Day at Cordwainers Garden back in February have come on leaps and bounds. Here are a few photos to show what we've got growing in them.

 The dye bed with a front border of Calendula Officialis or good old Pot Marigold. We have also got some madder and wode and some other dye-tastic plants popping up now the weather has warmed up.

 Our potager style bed with bean/pea tripods, onions, salads, squashes, beetroot, broccoli to name a few.

Pretty flowers on the sweet peas which had been grown over winter. They had a bit of a slow start, but soon got going and are now happily climbing up the tripods and providing us with an array of beautiful little flowers.