Cristina Crossingham

All of us at Easton Community Garden are terribly shocked and sad at the loss of our Co-ordinator, Cristina Crossingham, who died last week. Not only have we lost an inspirational woman and dear friend, but also her wealth of knowledge and experience of gardening. Wherever we look in the garden, we see her hand, her intelligence and her kindness.
Cristina welcomed and guided everyone who came to the garden, and always knew who to call in for larger projects. After the fire in June, the Good Gym did brilliant work, directed by her.
Cristina led us in understanding that a garden goes through many phases and changes. This will be a new and different phase for Easton Community Garden, the latest since its creation in 2001. Volunteers old and new, of any experience level, are welcome as always to drop in and join us every Thursday from 11am. Thanks to Cristina, the garden is in fantastic shape, and all her fellow volunteers are as dedicated to it as ever.
 
Thank you Cristina, from all of us.

Dates for spring / summer 2015

City wide ‘Get Growing Trail’ Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th June. We will be open from 11am till 4pm both days. Come for a look around or an explanatory garden tour. Refreshments, seedlings, small plants and comfrey juice for sale.

Saturday 27th June. Community Gardening Day Course. We will look at the design of garden systems which encourage participation, learning, mutual support and enjoyment. Discussions will cover approaches to finding a site, management, funding and publicity. The day will not cover cultivation skills.

Cost £40 For details and booking please email <criztina@me.com>

Woops! Date mistake.

Our Get Growing Garden Trail OPEN DAY will be on Sunday 8th June – not Saturday 7th as it says below. The garden will be open from 11am till 3pm ish. Do come and wander around our hidden green paradise, find out what we do and how we do it, eat cake, drink tea and meet some of the gardening group. If it rains we will keep dry in our uniquely beautiful shelter. More information about us and all Bristol’s other open gardens at www.bristolfoodnetwork.org

Essential dates for Spring 2014

Events for gardeners in Bristol:
Saturday 8th March Seed Swap and interesting talks at Feed Bristol 12 till 5pm.

Sunday 16th March. Bristol Seed Fair at Create Centre with a talk by Charles Dowding at 12.30

May 10th Golden Hill Community Garden Spring Fair and Plant sale – unmissable! Not far away, in Horfield behind the prison.

Our very own Open Day on Saturday 7th June as part of the city wide ‘Get Growing Trail’. Come for a tour of the garden, meet the volunteers and enjoy tea and cake in our legendary shelter.

AND every Thursday, drop in any time after 11am to get your hands dirty and grow delicious veg with a friendly gang of volunteer growers.

Come and join us

The potatoes are in, seeds are coming up, leaves are unfurling on the fruit bushes and it’s that busy time of year again in the vegetable patch. How about joining us for days in the fresh air and a share of the harvest. If you are waiting for an allotment of your own you can green your fingers and gain confidence by volunteering with us. If you would just like to try a bit of gardening to see if you like it, Commallot is the best place to begin. Or if you have some experience of urban co-operative growing and would like to help co-ordinate at Commallot come over and meet us. We will have a stall at the Anarchist Book Fair next Saturday where you can find out more and get a few books or plants.

Spring 2013 Events

COMMALLOT needs to have stalls during spring to make money for rent, seeds and sundries so that we can continue to be ‘no cost’ to volunteers. The events below should be good fun so do please help in any way you can.

Saturday 16th March Bristol’s annual SEED SWAP

12pm till 4pm The Seed Swap will be at Feed Bristol with Sims Hill Shared Harvest for The Big Dig. Confused? So was I. The big dig is a nationwide campaign to encourage people to visit their local growing projects. www.thebigdig.org.uk Sims Hill CSA produces fresh local vegetable shares to subscribers, have a look at their website.http://simshillsharedharvest.wordpress.com

The Commallot stall will have plants to sell but it will mostly be letting people know that we exist and encouraging them to visit or better still volunteer. Must remember to take our own table and chairs.

Saturday 20th April The 20th Anarchist Book Fair 11am till 6pm Our stall will sell any gardening, food, cooking books and magazines you can donate so have a good clear out, plus plants again and anything else loosely related to gardening or books you can think of. The gates are open at 10am for setting up. Table provided.   www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org

Sunday 9th June Get Growing Trail  Commallot will be open  11am till 3pm smiling in the glorious sunshine as a magnet for interested visitors and new volunteers. We will sell plants, cakes and tea.

We could do more… lets see how the first three events go.

Big Green Week 15th -23rd June and Festival of Nature on 15th and 16th clash with Easton Arts Trail on 15th/16th

www.biggreenweek.com

www.forumforthefuture.org

www.eastonartstrail.co.uk

Christmas / New Year opening times

Slightly different opening times over the holiday.
Thursday 13th. Lucy opening at 12.30 until 3.30 ish
Thursday 20th Cristina opening at 12.30 until 3.30 ish
Thursday Dec 27th CLOSED sorry!
Thursday 3rd Jan 1012 Back to normal. 11.00 until 3.30

Don’t worry if it seems too cold to be out. The rocket stove will boil the kettle for tea and a bit of gentle work helps and there is always lunch in the shelter if it snows. You could just come for lunch and a chat.

Winter opening times

Aside

During the winter we are opening earlier at 11am and closing at 4.30. It gets so cold and dark at the end of the day! We are also occasionally working on a Sunday for people who are busy during the week. If we are going to be there on a Sunday I will post the time on our Facebook page ‘Easton Community Allotment’ early on the Sunday morning as it will be weather dependent. Thursday’s still go ahead rain or shine.

East Side Roots are having to downsize and we have been the happy recipients of a beautiful early fruiting cherry tree. It has been growing in a large barrel and is now waiting in a tub till we are ready to plant it in the woodland area at Commallot. We were also given lots of Thyme plants which we put into the herb garden last Sunday.

Most of our work currently is repairing bed edges, maintaining paths and mulching beds for winter with cardboard. Soon we will plant a new bed of Autumn Raspberries and broad beans for the Spring crop. So although it is almost winter there is still lot’s to do so do come and join us if you have time.