Tunnel Vision

I'm not happy! Our polytunnel was supposed to have been constructed last Monday but when the team came to build it, the base that had been prepared was too small, and because the weather has been so dreadful, the posts to hold the tunnel couldn't be supported by the land around the base. So the team went home and the garden workers have put on their thinking caps to try and find a fast solution. In the meantime the rain keeps falling, but we can count ourselves lucky compared to all those poor people who have been flooded our troubles are minor ones. We have a new volunteer working in our garden, a young lady from the village who comes on Tuesdays and Thursdays she seems to be enjoying the experience very much to the pint where she's 'advising' the gardener.

Those salad days

Hooray, we have started harvesting our salad crops and potatoes, the boys from the green stuff as opposed to the black stuff (appropriate as we were once a mining community) bagged the first crops and went door to door selling (very cheaply) to the residents. They were met with great enthusiasm and I hope it will encourage more visitors to the allotments to see what else is available.

We are busy preparing our programme of courses for September and have some new and exciting courses including a creative garden design course, taster courses in Spanish and complementary therapies and an enterprise learning by doing course, a business course that encourages young people to pilot business ideas, we have six enthusiastic young men from our community involved and I can't wait to see how much money they can make.

Just for Dean

Dean braved the wet and wild weather in Banwen on Tuesday to participate in the Tidy Wales event, and don't we all know about it! "I'm baaad", he cried when he came into work yesterday, and he was only delivering the sandwiches!

Tidy Wales

I've been slightly busy the past couple of weeks so apologies for not blogging. Lots of progress has been made in our allotments, the polytunnel has arrived, the benches are being delivered today and the vegetables are growing fast, (so much water). We'll soon be able to start supplying the residents with fresh produce.

Yesterday we held a Tidy Wales Week event, volunteers came out to clear the area in front of the allotment fencing and the stream bed and planted some flowers. Thanks to everyone concerned because it was a wet and wild day, that only places like Banwen can produce.

Last Friday we held a Jazz in the Garden evening, the Women in Jazz, Swansea band performed superbly as usual and a great night was had by all concerned. It was also the last night for our three US interns who had been working with DOVE for the past three weeks, we were sad to see them leave and wish them a great future. I'm sure we'll all keep in touch.

everything in the garden is rosy.

Julie and myself walked across to the allotment site on Thursday, it's the first time we've been there for a couple of weeks. What a surprise, it actually looks like a vegetable garden, the kidney beans sticks are in waiting for the plants, onions, potatoes and aparagus are growing well. I can't believe how the area has changed since we began the work, I finally believe the dream will be realised.

Busy doing nothing

It's Sunday, the sun is shining, so although I should be studying I'm going to potter around in my garden. I've promised a friend some lily of the valley for their garden, so that will be my first job, then I'm going to plant some lettuce and peppers that my dad has given me. My dad supplies us with tomato plants every year and it's my husband's responsibility to grow them and mow the lawn, I look after the flowers and shrubs and weed the beds. I don't know if I've got the better deal, the weeding seems to take a lot longer than the mowing! My dad tries to get us to grow runner beans, but I've told him I'll just come and pick his when they are ready. It's not easy maintaining a vegetable plot when you are working full time, so we stick to simple things that don't need much attention, but when we retire we'll expand, perhaps?

They seek him here, they seek him there...

We've just had a new telephone system installed and it's chaotic, I don't know how many have been lost in transition (not to be confused with lost in translation). So if anyone reading this has failed to get through, I apologise, but the lack of calls is quite restful.

Did I say I wanted water?

Isn't the saying, be careful what you wish for. I asked for water and for three days now it's rained. Tonight, we have a presentation evening in the centre and I was hoping to show off the garden in all it's glory. Well it looks like we'll just have to look out through the window. We even bought some solar powered lights for the night, but without the sun to power them up, we'll have to resort to the plug in variety. Anyway, this is a lovely picture of the garden that is for the use of our day nursery.

Summer's on it's way, I can tell by the amount of bedding plants being delivered to the centre on a daily basis. Sue, our garden worker, used to get excited when she saw the new plants, now she let's out a little groan. This is because we haven't errected the poytunnel over on the allotment site yet, and the little greenhouse is fit to burst with tomato, lettuce and cucumber plants. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel (excuse the pun), the base for the polytunnel is near completion and the company that will construct it has been booked to carry out the work, and we are having a plant sale at the end of the month, after which we'll have more space, for, guess what, more plants!

views from my office window

my office window looks out on the car park, beyond that to some lovely shrubs, and a tennis court and in the background there are the majestic Brecon Beacons. When I began working in DOVE, http://www.doveworkshop.org the view was completly different, it was black to start with, (we are situated on an ex coal screening site) and coal lorries passed by the window, then the view changed to that of learners parking their cars and parents bring their children to the nursery and the environment gradually improved. Yesterday, I looked out and there was a gentleman passing the window with tomato plants in a box which he had bought (at a very low cost) from our garden project, the views from my window reminds me of the development of our organisation and our community.

water, water everywhere, except in our garden

We (as in the project team) have been trying to organise a water supply for the allotment site, before Dwr Cymru can make the connection we have to find a contractor to dig out a trench and lay pipes in the garden. Little did we know how time consuming this would be, however after making many telephone calls and getting very frustrated, we have finally found someone and guess what he's starting on Monday - Hooray! All we have to do now is make sure Dwr Cymru is booked to make the connection. This project has been an eye opener for me, so far we've built beds, constructed paths, cleared the overgrowth (well not me personally) and organised water supplies and I'm still waiting to pick a carrot, who thought gardening could be so complicated? Our next challenge is constructing the polytunnel, HELP!

Hi, this is my first attempt at writing a blog so bear with me. I've been working with a group of people from the community of Banwen and the surrounding area to develop the Sarn Helen Community Garden for over two years. The garden project has two sites, one is behind DOVE workshop and is, what I call, a learning garden, it has been designed by learners on a horticulture class and is a lovely area to sit and reflect on life or for the more active amongst us an opportunity to dig in, quite literally. The other site is behind Roman Road and used to be an allotments assocation which we are now turning into a community garden that our community can come to visit, chat, grow vegetables, and generally enjoy ourselves. As I learn how to use this blog more effectively I will be sharing photographs and news and my thoughts on the garden and I hope others involved in the project, volunteers, learners and project staff will add comments, so watch this space!