Assembling the Good Neighbours Greenhouse

On a cold damp Friday morning in March (08-03-13) the Chorlton Good Neighbours gardening group made a start on assembling the newly purchased B&Q 10' x 8' greenhouse 

John, our resident DIY supremo had already made a wooden template for the base, so today was about levelling the ground, digging a trench, ramming the earth flat, putting coarse grit and sand down and then laying & mortaring the breeze blocks. Finally the aluminium base was assembled and put on top of the breeze blocks

The next day, Saturday 9th March 2013, saw us start on the next stage of assembling the greenhouse . It was another cold and damp day. The base had been constructed the day before. The ground had been levelled and a trench had been dug out for the breeze block base.  We had pummeled the earth solid and flat using a rammer, then we laid a load of sandy gravel. John then put the breeze blocks in position and mortared in between the joints. Meanwhile the aluminium base had been assembled and we put in place on top of the breeze blocks and left it overnight to set.

On Saturday morning we started assembling the aluminium greenhouse frame, starting with the rear gable. Again, John took the lead and after finding the relevant struts and nuts, bolts and fixing plates we eventually managed to complete the rear side of the greenhouse. By then we were all so cold (especially our fingers from working with nuts and bolts on the cold aluminium) , that we called it a day. Next step, the front panel and door!

Primroses, seedlings and spent hops

Primroses, seedlings and spent hops

Another lovely Friday morning on Feb 15th 2013 in the Chorlton Good Neighbours garden plot.

The seedlings are coming on, the potatoes are chitting and we planted some primroses which give a bit of colour to the garden. The previous day we picked up some spent hops from the Dunham Massey brewery and we have spread them on the rather claggy soil near the raised beds. The 10x8 greenhouse has now been ordered so hopefull that will arrive in the next few weeks

Gardening Club on Ice

At a time when most animals are hibernating and most plants lying dormant we have had an unusually productive time at the Gardening Club.

In our first week back after Christmas we received a large consignment of manure - a very rich if odorous present! This is a good time to feed the soil for the growing season to come and this mix of chicken and horse manure will help do the job. As usual we had to use our combined strength and smarts to get the massive bag of manure through the narrow gate way!

The next week, snow and ice fell on the garden like a white sparkling cloak and outdoor work was put on ice.

However these quiet times are perfect for taking time to reflect and plan so we had a meeting to discuss what we would like to grow on the plot this year and fuelled ourselves with plenty of tea and cake. A fan of colours and visuals I brought a large piece of paper to roughly draw out our plot and write down our ideas, concerns and favoured fruit, flowers and veggies. As ever I was impressed by the wealth of knowledge and the enthusiasm that we have in this group of ours.

The next week the ground was still rock solid and the temperatures bitter cold so we got on with some indoor preparations; chitting potatoes, making plant labels out of old milk cartons and making seed pots from newspaper (see video below for Paul's tutorial). Again we discussed our plans for the garden, especially what type of greenhouse we want to install and where.

Our Gardening Sessions are 10-12.30 every Friday. If you would like to find out more contact us on 0161-881-2925 or come along to one of our sessions at St Ninian's Church, Egerton Road South and have a look for yourself. 

Carolyn O'Hanlon

Older Men Development Worker

2012 Garden Produce for Sale

Even at our first attempt the Chorlton Good Neighbours garden was productive.
Here Carolyn is arranging potatoes and collecting Kale and other goods for sale at one of the Thursday Coffee Mornings.

Gardening Club Christmas update

The Chorlton Good Neighbours garden club was closed for Christmas and New Year but we've had a busy few weeks as you will see.

To begin with things got very physical down at the garden when we decided to tackle the foundations of the old scout hut. There had been all sorts of plans to utilise the existing bricks and mortar for a path or work round it but our new volunteer John had some confidence in this area and he went to get his pick axe so we could just get rid of it! This created a real buzz and everyone worked really hard to get the foundations up in just a couple of hours. Well done everybody!



We also managed to get hold of large chest to lock up our tools on site. This will be of massive benefit because we currently use a church cupboard to store our tools - now we will be more self sufficient. The tool shed was a real bargain as it was bought on gumtree but this meant that it had to be taken down by our head volunteer Bernard from someone's garden and then put back again from memory during our gardening session. This created a few interesting "conversations" and more than a little head scratching as we worked out which bits went where. It was a nice job to do indoors though as we hit our first rained out session of the year. The only problem was once we've created this massive chest was how we were going to get it into the garden. Fortunately creativity and group work won the day and our tool chest is now fully installed

[youtube=http://youtu.be/PETfUMq2wzY].

Christmas and New Year - a time of celebration and new beginnings. In aid of this we had a little social down at the site with jacket potatoes cooked in the fire (not particularly christmassy I know but its a more preferred tradition to brussel sprouts), mulled apple juice and minced pies.

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With a nod to the new year we planted a few bulbs and some hardy plants. It is a risky business planting this late in the year but if it works out we will have some colour in spring. It also feels like a nice positive thing to do at the end of the year

Our Gardening Sessions are 10-12.30 every Friday (although we are now closed until the new year). If you would like to find out more contact us on 0161-881-2925 or come along to our office at Wilbraham St Ninian's Church, Egerton Road South and have a look for yourself.

Carolyn O'Hanlon

Older Men's Development Worker

A very rainy day in the garden...

We've been lucky with the Good Neighbours Gardening group sessions on Friday mornings, but today (14-12-12) it decided to pour down. We had purchased a large, second hand Keter garden storage box earlier in the week so we could keep our tools in it. We did this in the church hall and managed to do it eventually even though we had no plans to go on. [youtube=http://youtu.be/PETfUMq2wzY]

We also had a problem taking the box into the garden as it wouldn't go through the gate. We managed to lift it over the fence and now it is in position and another addition to our small garden/allotment

Baking Potatoes and Planting Bulbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Vf83BOaIc

On a lovely crisp and sunny December day (7-12-12) in the Good Neighbours garden, we lit a fire, baked some potatoes cleared up some rubbish and planted some plants and bulbs. We have been really luck with the weather on our Friday morning gardening sessions ....so far

Autumn Leaves and Archeological Digs

The wind swirled the autumn leaves but once again we dodged Manchester's favourite weather; rain and we were able to have another productive session.

Bernard and Peter finished off the compost bays and started it off with our own homemade woodchip.

Paul did a good deed by clearing away the leaves that have gathered around the church. However we weren't just interested in removing the leaves we were interested in cultivating leaf mould for our plot. Autumn leaves aren't just for kicking you know - they can be a useful free resource for gardeners. Simply collect leaves, water if not damp already, store in bin bags with holes punched in them, a compost bay or a your own homemade cage made with chicken wire and leave for a year or two. Once mould has grown on the leaves you can use it as a mulch or soil improver. Leave it even longer and it breaks down into crumbly material that you can use as a potting compost. One of the tips I got from Debdale Eco Centre in Gorton is that putting a weight on the leaves helps to speed up this process so we will be placing some bricks on top of our bags and tucking them away for a year or two.

Meanwhile, Tony and I planned to dig over a patch of soil next to the patio. However it soon became more like an archeological dig when we uncovered the wall and foundations of an old scout hut long demolished. This gives us an interesting dillemma. Do we try to put our greenhouse over these foundations or do we create a raised bed over them? Whilst trying to uncover the extent of the remains we found such "ancient artifacts" as buttons and milk bottles. I say lets call Time Team and get some geophys surveying going!



Our Gardening Sessions are 10-12.30 every Friday. If you would like to find out more contact us on 0161-881-2925 or come along to our office at St Ninian's Church, Egerton Road South and have a look for yourself. 

Carolyn O'Hanlon
Older Men Development Worker

Compost Bays and History

It was another fine and crisp morning on week 4 of our gardening club and time to start thinking about the structures we wanted on our plot. We marked out space for our prospective greenhouse (good thing too as we realised that we'd been a bit over ambitious and the one we were about to order was just going to be a little bit too big!) and our compost bays (again the space was too small because of a pesky drain cover that we'd unearthed when we first dug over the plot). All this proves that however much you plan and map and discuss in the cosy indoors, eventually you just have to get out on the land and see how things are going to work in reality (preferably before you start ordering things!!). I am sure this is just one of many lessons that we will learn whilst creating our garden. 

Now one of the things that I would like to point out is that we don't just get up to gardening and DIY in our gardening club, oh no.. we are a cultured lot. Last week Tony had noticed a plaque in honour of a war hero in the hall next to our garden and whereas many of us have walked past that plaque many times and not given it a thought, Tony decided to do some research and find out about this man's life. See what he managed to find out in the video below:

With lots of sawing and nailing (rather incompetently in my case), we managed to almost finish creating our compost bay and found the perfect location - a shady space under a tree where we would struggle to grow anything. Once we have the finished the bay and dug it in properly the plan is that users of the kitchen at St Ninian's church will put their food waste in there and we'll be able to create our own compost. Any interested worms please book your viewing now - luxiplex accomodation available!

Our Gardening Sessions are 10-12.30 every Friday. If you would like to find out more contact us on 0161-881-2925 or come along to our office at St Ninian's Church, Egerton Road South and have a look for yourself. 

Carolyn O'Hanlon

Older Men Development Worker

Taters and Chainsaws - The Gardening Club Returns

The Chorlton Good Neighbours Gardening Club has re-started after a late summer break and as you can imagine there was plenty for us to do.

We continued to harvest our sarpo mira potatoes that we'd planted in late June. The stalks and leaves had grown to triffid like proportions but we didn't hold up much hope of much more than golf ball sized potatoes after the late planting. Fortunately all that rain and lovely compost in the raised beds had produced a lovely crop of whopping great potatoes. So far they have graced a leek and potato soup, delicious wedges and will be offered up for donations at next week's coffee morning (well you have to show off don't you!). And lets not forget our greens! - amongst the weeds we found lots of lovely kale, mizuna, rocket and other oriental salad leaves that have popped up in our raised beds. Another happy yet less delicious find was that there is a healthy population of worms in our raised beds. Always good to see!

But against the backdrop of nature's bountiful creation, came the roar of a chainsaw and the sound of falling timber. A leylandii hedge and the branches of a central tree were throwing shadow onto an area we want to grow in - nature had to be tamed. Ian very bravely took down the offending vegetation and I stayed as far away as possible -  I've seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the images have stayed with me!! Fortunately no limbs were lost at this particular session and the plot is already looking so much more open and light. Great job Ian!

Today we also had the official opening of our patio area - kindly donated by Brammell Construction. Unfortunately with all we'd been up to on the plot our lovely new patio was looking a little bit muddy! Never mind, hopefully the big grins in our photo distracted from the dirt.

Our Gardening Sessions are 10-12 every Friday. If you would like to find out more contact us on 0161-881-2925 or come along to our office at St Ninian's Church, Egerton Road South and have a look for yourself. 

Carolyn O'Hanlon

Development Worker

The Good Neighbours garden project, Jan to Sep 2012

This video summarises the progress to date of the aim to transform the overgrown piece of land at the back of the Church into a garden an allotment. We now have the raised beds in place and thanks to Bramall Construction (www.bramallnw.com), we also have a patio area, which they constructed for free. We aim to get a greenhouse and shed so that we can really start planting for the coming years

At long last - finally planting some potatoes in the raised beds

Putting the Raised Beds in Position

Putting the raised beds in position in the Good Neighbours garden, 25 May 2012. 

On a sweltering hot morning (25-05-12) we dug trenches for our 3 raised beds at the Chorlton Good neighbours  garden and lowered them into position. Next to fill then up with poor soil at the bottom (they are very deep raised beds), better soil in the middle and good soil plus compost in the top layer. Then get planting!

The Raised Beds arrive

Tez & Ian from Trim (Timber recycling in Manchester) deliver the raised beds to the 

Good Neighbours garden plot. Next we have to fill them with soil

Gardening project - digging on a very wet April day

We are no trying to clear one end of the allotment to get rid of all the rubble including the remains of an old scout hut base. We've ordered the raised beds made from old scaffold boards for us by TRIM timber recycling in Manchester. Once we have cleared the rubble they are our next priority

Gardening project - learning about soil testing

The Chorlton Good Neighbours gardening project continues. Several of us are taking a course at Hulme Community Garden. This week was about soil, testing it and composting. We also did some work on the plots, crunching up branches to make compost

Day 2 of the Garden/Allotment project

 Day 2 of working on the Chorlton Good Neighbours plot in Mancheter UK. Digging over the ground and cutting some branches off a tree that is overhanging the plot. Plenty of stops for cups of tea and some of Keith's banana cake

The Gardening Project gets started

On a lovely, sunny but very cold January morning, we got the Chorlton Good Neighbours gardening project under way. The idea is to reclaim a piece of land next to our offices and make it into a garden, sitting place and vegetable growing area. It will be great for all our users and volunteers, but it is especially targeted at getting more older men involved in the project. 

We have done some initial planning, but felt it was time to get out there and actually start clearing the ground. The video and photos are a record of our first go at clearing the plot

There were two views on the brambles - one was to blitz them and get rid of them altogether. The other was to tidy them up and  keep a patch of the brambles in a shady part of the garden to encourage wild life. Keeping some brambles won the day, for the time being, but made it clear that we needed to develop a clear plan on what we wanted to avoid confusion

The brambles, before and after tidying up

 

Clearing the weeds

There was also a discussion about the privet hedge with some thinking that it should be replaced by a fence as it is sometimes decribed as a 'noxious weed'. Others though were keen on keeping a trimmed hedge as providing cover for a number of beneficial insects and birds, so this argument won the day and the hedge stays.

Despite the cold weather, a lot of people turned up and it turned out to be a great day with plenty of breaks for cups of tea and lunch of Yvonne's leek & potato soup, plus bread