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Welcome to our Summer Newsletter We hope you've had a great Summer of gardening and growing. It has certainly been a very busy and rewarding few months for everyone involved with Grow Blackpool. We were delighted that everyone's hard work at Chepstow Garden was recently recognised and rewarded by it being named Best Community Garden prize in the Blackpool in Bloom Awards. (see page 5 for more details) Preparations for the new Community Farm at the City Learning Centre are going well and we're really looking forward to moving to our new site soon. You can read more about this on page 6. Having recently attending the Blackpool Coastal Housing Volunteer Fair, we'll be at the World Mental Health Event at the Winter Gardens on 10th October. It promises to be a great event, with lots of information on local provision and activities for people. You'll find more information about this event on our Facebook and Twitter pages We're really pleased that we continue to have lots of volunteers attending at our sessions at Chepstow Community Garden and Cherry Tree Allotment. But we always have room for more people. So if you're not coming along already, please feel free to pop in and say hello. You'll be very welcome. We've managed to harvest lots of fruit and vegetables so far this year and use this produce in our regular Cook and Eat session at Chepstow each Thursday. So you can even join us for something to eat. Until next time - enjoy the autumn sunshine and keep gardening! Best Wishes, The Grow Blackpool Team 2
Autumn Gardening Jobs With Autumn now upon us, here are a few suggestions of things you can be doing around your garden or allotment. Collect leaves into a compost bin to make leaf mould compost and use next year. Allow bolted crops to flower and collect their seeds; also collect seeds from sunflowers. Continue to harvest berries and either use them straight away or freeze for a winter crumble. Collect horse chestnuts and acorns and try your hand at growing your own sapling. Now is the time to plant your spring bulbs. Protect cauliflower heads from frost by folding over the leaves on top of the heads. Move tender plants into a greenhouse. Keep harvesting your plot. Onions can be stored, tomatoes and courgettes can either be eaten immediately or made into a pasta sauce and frozen for a later time. Why not take a mint cutting and pot up in the kitchen to use through the winter months. Onions plant now for early crops next spring Broad beans and peas can be sown and over wintered just make sure they get some protection during the winter months. Don t over tidy debris provides home for beneficial insects. Allow roots of French beans, runner beans, broad beans and peas to remain in the soil. Their roots release nitrogen into the soil. Store away wooden stakes, bamboo sticks and supports so don t rot. 3
Local Garden Gets Bags of Help The parish of St John Vianney held a Celebration Event in September. St John Vianney were successful in gaining Tesco Bags of Help money to create their gardening space. The September Event was an opportunity to show the wider community what they had been growing during their gardening sessions, recruit new members and eat some home grown homemade soup. We wish them well in the future. Chepstow Gardens Wins Award Chepstow Gardens was recently named 'Best Community Garden' at the Blackpool In Bloom Awards. We were delighted with this result. with this result. The garden looked great during the summer due to the hard work of staff and volunteers a real achievement. 4
Unusual Gardening Words Ever heard an unusual word or gardening term and wondered what it meant? Here are a few that might help: Cotyledon is the first leaf to appear when a seed has germinated; it will look completely different to the true plant leaves, which arrive a little later. Friable describes soil that has just the right consistency for growing. Truss is a stalk that ends in a cluster of flowers or fruit; usually used to describe tomato plants. SAVE THE DATE The Grow Blackpool Team will be at the World Mental Health Event, which takes place at the Winter Gardens on 10th October. It promises to be a great event and a great opportunity to get information on local provision and activities for people. Mexican Why not come Salad along? We'd love to see you there. Community Farm Update The 'Friends of' Group now meets regularly. If you know of anyone who would like to get involved, please let us know. Once completed, the redevelopment of the City Learning Centre will provide a great community space for local residents and people across Blackpool. In preparation for this new start we are working alongside colleagues from the Fairness Commission and are in consultation with local residents to rename the CLC. A number of local consultation events are taking place at the moment, with plans to host a larger event at Chepstow Garden on Thursday 28 September. Try and call in if you can. We are also working alongside Better Start and staff at Grange Children Centre on the Early Years Consultation for The Community Farm. From this we will be able to deliver a great space for younger children and their families to engage with activities on The Farm. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to be updated on The Farm development. 5
Thank you for all the entries we've received for our Photo Competition. If you haven't entered yet, there's still time to send us your photograph. We'll soon be picking the winners and creating our 2018 Grow Blackpool Calendar, which will be on sale later this year. 6
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