Britannia Village Community Garden Update

By Nida Zakaria | July 15, 2024

Like every year, July is a very exciting time to be outside. The warming sun of summer makes it a great time to be in the Community Garden at Britannia Village.

Let’s hear from Pietro about the community garden’s latest updates!

Last Year, July was exceptionally wet and cold which made it quite difficult for our growers to keep up with sowing and growing (some figs from our tree were ripe by the end of June already and then with a wet July and August many veggies and fruits struggled to ripe!).

Thankfully, this July has been more predictable and we were able to go out and start working on our small seedlings. We mostly planted beans, tomatoes, radishes and a lot of flowers that pollinators love so much! With the addition of the Polytunnel, we were able to start growing tomatoes very early in the season (The Polytunnel makes the plants feel like they are in Spain).

Thanks to the participation of the regular gardeners (adults and children) and some new volunteers, recent weeks turned into a very productive time for BV garden and open space near the Hall in general.

The old pallets that were sitting in the middle of the community garden were moved to the side and are now just waiting a bulky waste removal that will hopefully free up even more space. The Polytunnel got cleaned by one of our volunteers with a mop and rope self-built machinery (very ingenious).

A big thank you to the team of volunteers from GLA

With the help of GLA volunteers, the side garden at BV was cleared of all overgrown weeds and all the litter that ends up there from the nearby street was removed. In the side garden (it is quite hidden so you might have never even seen it), an elder tree was full of Aphids and had to be looked after. Aphids are very small ugly looking insects who suck glucose (sugar) out of young plants and blossoms. When they take over, it is quite tricky to get rid of them but a good pruning seems to have done the job. The side garden is now more accessible and it can at least allow for different plants and flower to grow and diversify the urban flora in BV.

Summer is here! BV community garden and its caretakers and volunteers are ready for it!

Come join us every Tuesday 3-4.30pm at BV community garden (unless it’s raining). You do not need any experience, there is space for everybody!

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