Canons Community Garden - Volunteer Update

I look at the green paste pouring out of my counter-top blender and think about the last few months. It's a blitz of carrots tops, coriander, garlic, pine nuts, salt, glugs of olive oil and nutritional yeast. Yes, I have just made pesto- but using carrot tops as opposed to the traditional herb basil. It tastes fantastic. This could be because of the copious amounts of garlic I have used or the fact that these carrot tops came from carrots sown by myself, and few others, in a garden 10 minutes walk from my house.

Yes, that is The Canons House Community Garden that I started volunteering for sometime in April. We all know so much has been changing in that part of the town for the last few months. For most of 2020 the park in front was closed off, which was bothersome for the daily jogs. However I looked around and saw a large restoration project was in the works. First the obelisk was revealed and then the path was opened up, a new children’s playground and a few raised beds. I saw a contact email address and wrote to them expressing interest in volunteering. Since then, we have had very covid-safe Zoom meetings to design the space, set a vision and then finally get our hands dirty.

As the group of Lead Garden Volunteers, we all agreed that the space should “A community-led food growing project that is open to children and adults to enhance our relationship with nature, the food we eat and how its grown.”

Now, since June that is what we have strived for. By planting vegetables, and sharing time and laughter with fellow volunteers every Wednesday after work. In the short span between June and September we have grown: chard, runner beans, carrots, radishes and broccoli. We had also planted tomatoes, that unfortunately got attacked by blight and we are extremely proud of our one aubergine pushing through. Let’s hope we had it before the frosts comes.

At the garden, sticking true to the vision, we have practiced some eco-friendly growing techniques such as: complimentary planting, using wildflowers and sacrificial planting. All the produce grown is without chemicals and we are hoping to have an excellent compost pile up and running by next year! Just last week we were able to have our bumper harvest and share the food grown around. We hope that for the next growing season more of you can get involved, come ask us questions while you wait for swim classes and also share our lovely harvest!

Pesto recipe adapted from: https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/carrot-top-pesto (swapping coriander for basil)

- Muneezay