First harvest of the year at Mill Lane Primary

The curly kale went down so well that not much got home with the gardening club members as they ate it on the way home!!

PEST TALK

On the 18th of April at 6pm I will be doing a talk on Garden Pests - Know Your Enemy at St Andrews Church Hall in Haughton, Darlington. This is free event but can you let us know if you will be attending so we know numbers!

DELIVERY TIME AGAIN

Its that time of year again, all the compost, pots and hanging baskets are going out to the households this week, however due to the horrid spring we've had none of the plants are ready so they will have to be delivered at a later date, probably in about three weeks

DOOR KNOCKING

The second round of door knocking got underway this week.

We're hoping to get as many new people on board before the deliveries of compost and pots start in April and the plants start arriving from the schools in early May.

If you are on any of these streets:

• Cleveland Street and Gladstone Street in Redcar and Cleveland
• Worchester Street and Leven Street in Middlesbrough
• Palmerston Street and Dixon Street in Stockton
• Mitchell Ave and Milbank Road in Hartlepool
• Welbeck Ave and Moulton Way in Darlington

and want information about joining Street Eats let us know, on 01642 815633
or email us on laura.henry@groundwork.org.uk or jay.jackson@groundwork.org.uk

St Andrews Church Hall, Haughton, Darlington 20/2/13

The first event of the half term holidays went well yesterday with approx. 20 adults and children attending.

The most popular section was our mystery vegetable cakes. As you can see from the pictures some thinking was needed to decide what was inside them

The cakes on the table from left to right were - 

• Chocolate Beetroot cake, 
• Lemon and Spinach cake, 
• Leek, Cheese and Broccoli muffins 
• Courgette cake.

We have organised some events over the half term holidays:

• Darlington - Wednesday 20th February 2013- The event will be held at St Andrews Church Hall, Haughton Green - The event will run from 12.30 to 3.30pm.

• Middlesbrough - Thursday 21st February 2013 - The event will be held at Newport Settlement - The event will run from 1pm to 4pm.

• Hartlepool - Thursday 21st February 2013 - The event will be held at St Oswalds Church Hall, Brougham Terrace - The event will run from 12pm to 4pm.

• Stockton-on-Tees - Friday 22nd February 2013 - The event will be held on Stockton High Street - The event will run from 10am to 4pm.

• Redcar and Cleveland - Saturday 23rd February 2013 - The event will be held at Normanby Methodist Church, Cleveland Street, Normanby - The event will run from 10am to 11.30am

All events will have a cake taste test, tips on how to use vegetables in cooking, herb planting and growing tips and advice for all edible plants and much much more!

Some care guides for soft fruit and fruit tree's

Our Street Eats January Newsletter

All the fruit trees and soft fruit bushes are now ordered and will be delivered when the snow finally melts.

Each school is getting:

• 2 eating apple trees (Cox's Orange Pippin and Worcester Pearmain)
• 2 cooking apple trees  (Bramley's Seedling and Annie Elizabeth)
• 2 plum trees (Victoria and Marjorie's Seedling)
• 2 pear trees (Conference and Beurre Hardy)
• 1 cherry tree (English Morrello)
• 1 medlar tree (Nottingham)

They are also getting:

• 1 yellow gooseberry bush
• 1 red gooseberry bush
• 1 green gooseberry bush
• 10 raspberry canes
• 1 loganberry plant
• 10 strawberry plants
• 1 blackcurrant bush
• 1 redcurrant bush

Blackmoors fruit handbook

a very useful handbook from the people we are buying our fruit from.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all our growers out there!!

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!

In the next few weeks we'll be making the lists of fruit plants and trees we'll need for spring planting and getting them ordered for eventual delivery sometime in late Jan/early Feb. 

So if there is anyone who is on our lists who wants anything in particular let us know soon and we can get it ordered!

Plans are also underway for the big spring plant that is going to to start in mid February, keep an eye out for our future posts.

We hope to be back out door knocking in our existing streets (and possibly some new ones) early in the new year in the hope of signing more people up for the project.

mushroom kits

We have been delivering mushroom kits to all our school during the past couple of weeks, however here in the office we didn't want to feel left out (and we had to check that the kits were working!) so we've been growing a box ourselves.

We decided on the mushroom kits due to the fact that during winter the schools gardening clubs have little to do, plus the mushrooms are growing on used coffee grounds and chopped up old cardboard so its eco-friendly!

Starting the box off on the Friday

Bit of a surprise on Monday when we came in.

By the Friday (1 week later) it was ready for harvest!

Raised beds for Mill Lane Primary, Stockton

The final three raised beds have gone in at Mill Lane Primary, one went in on Friday and was planted up with onions, garlic and winter peas by the year six students. the final two have been put in today ready for planting after the half term holiday.

Part filled beds

Almost filled beds

Growing Guide and Vegetable Planting Calender

Here at groundwork North east we have been working on a downloadable Growing Guide and vegetable planting calender we hope that you find them useful.

If you have any advice or tips that you would like us to add to these documents please E-mail us and we will add anything useful to them.

Possible School Orchards?

As a couple of our Street Eats schools have asked us about fruit trees we are currently looking at the possibility of providing a few orchard trees (and possibly some soft fruit bushes) for the schools.

We will let you know whats happening later on in the winter as planting of those sorts of things usually happen in spring.

Gardening club at Bankfield Primary School, Eston

The final gardening club of the year at Bankfield Primary school on Tuesday went well despite the howling wind and horizontal rain.

The children managed to get the bed in their polytunnel all filled and planted with radishes, lettuces and other winter salad crops, hopefully these will grow throughout the winter providing some fresh leaf vegetables for the school.

The children also helped 'winterise' the polytunnel by fitting plastic covers to the door vents, this should allow the temperature to stay higher inside the polytunnel during the coldest winter weather.

In the outside beds the garlic and onions the children planted earlier in the autumn are starting to peak through the soil giving the children an idea of things starting to grow, even the winter peas are starting to make an appearance!

VISIT TO 'INCREDIBLE EDIBLES' TODMORDEN

The trip to Todmorden to have a look at their 'Incredible Edibles' project happened on Sunday, although we didn't have as many people come on the minibus as we were hoping for, the trip went well and lots was learned. 

There where many things that 'Incredible Edibles' do in Todmorden that could be spread across the Tees Valley including ripping out council shrub beds and replacing them with vegetable and herb beds.

The first place we visited was an area that had been transformed from a rubbish dump and rough ground next to the canal into a growing and propogating area for Todmorden.

Tractor tyres being used as raised beds

Inside one of the growing polytunnels

Once we arrived in Todmorden there were many beds located throughout the town

One on a street corner

In front of the theatre

In front of the police station

In front of the community centre and library

Another one in from of the community centre and library

In a corner of the railway stations car park

Small containers dotted around the railway station

Next to the canal

On top of some re-vetting works near the canal

WORKS AT BROUGHAM PRIMARY, HARTLEPOOL

Yesterday we moved the Brougham Primary school polytunnel to a better site (away from the football pitch), photos below.

We also filled an outside raised bed and planted garlic, white onions, red onions, broad beans and peas to be harvested in spring.

GETTING READY FOR THE BIG AUTUMN PLANT!

Here at Groundwork North East we are in the process of getting ready for a mass mail out of seeds for the big autumn plant.

Over the next week or so we will be delivering some broad bean seeds and some garlic cloves to the households in the project for growing over the winter. These should be ready for harvesting in spring and early summer!

In total we will be delivering to 94 households across the Tees Valley.

Gardening Club at St Johns C of E Primary, Darlington

We've started our gardening club at St Johns C of E Primary this afternoon, the school already had an area set aside for an allotment and had existing raised beds, during the summer we have provided them with a 8 foot by 10 foot polytunnel as well as a paved area.

During today's gardening club we installed a raised bed in the new polytunnel, planted some red and some white onions as well as some garlic ready for harvest next year.

We harvested some peas, runner beans and broad beans. We picked some cabbages that we had planted with the gardening club before the summer holidays and some carrots and lettuces, all the vegetables picked should be on tomorrows lunch menu!

We also potted up lots of little strawberry runners to get new plants for next year!