Communities in Nature – the social role of botanic gardens

Some weeks ago I mentioned that we received some funding through the Botanic Garden Conservation International (BGCI) and their Communities in Nature project.

Communities in Nature is an innovative project initiated and coordinated by BGCI and generously funded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The idea for this project was inspired by a groundbreaking research report into the social role and relevance of UK botanic gardens conducted by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, University of Leicester. Last year BGCI supported three UK botanic gardens to develop their social roles through a programme of workshops and funded small-scale community engagement projects. In 2012 Communities in Nature will involve four gardens in a similar process but will also result in the publication of a how-to-manual, a practical step-by-step guide for botanic gardens on how to grow their role in and for society.

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is one of the four gardens and is taking part in this project with our Edible Gardening for All project. We have recruited two groups of young people from the local area to take part. The young people are in a demographic currently under represented by our visitors. The groups will be attending on a weekly basis over the growing season and will be tending their own vegetable plots in the garden.

The project started in earnest this week with our groups attending their first sessions. The young people involved got stuck into work on their plots and have dug them over, put up plant supports, planted potatoes and sown some seeds. In fact they were so involved they didn’t want to stop for a break. They’ve made great progress already and we are really looking forward to working with them over the next few months. As well as growing, the participants will have the opportunity to cook and of course eat the produce from their plots.

Follow the blog for updates on the progress of the project over the coming weeks but for more detailed information, and to see how the other gardens are getting on go to: http://communitiesinnature.wordpress.com/

Student plots and apprentices potager at the Botanics

The demonstration garden at the Botanics is a veritable frenzy of activity at this time of year. It is not just the Edible Gardening Project team at work in the area; schools, apprentices, community groups and students are all putting in plenty of gardening hours.

The student plots have been located in the demonstration garden for about 5 years. They are a real draw for our visitors as they are pretty spectacular once they are in full swing. They are designed, planted and maintained by our first year Horticulture with Plantmanship students. To find out more about the students and their experiences take a look at student Kasia’s blog. It is well worth a look, but be warned – it will make you want to get out in the garden and get growing! http://kasia.no-ip.org/

This year the Botanics’ horticultural apprentices are getting in on the act too. They have started work on their plot and are creating a potager garden. Horticultural technician Robyn Macdonald explains just what this is below.

The term ‘potager’ is French and means ‘an ornamental kitchen garden’. The aim of a potager is to make food production more attractive by growing vegetables and fruit interspersed with other plants such as annuals, herbs, and grasses. They can have a very formal style, with the plants arranged in bold geometric shapes and straight lines. Or it may be more relaxed and informal.

There are a number of advantages to growing your vegetables and fruit in this way, including:

• Camouflage from pests – It’s harder for a pigeon to spot a cabbage when it’s surrounded by a riot of colour!

• Increased biodiversity – The range of flowers surrounding your crops will attract a whole host of beneficial insects and other wildlife

Fresh and seasonal vegetables on the menu

Our visitors always ask what we do with the vegetables from the edible garden. We are proud to tell them that the produce goes to our very own Gateway restaurant (after the volunteers have taken their share of course!).

We’ve been making weekly deliveries of garden produce to the restaurant since Christmas. We are thrilled that our lovely vegetables are being used by Ben the chef and that the garden visitors can sample our fare. Here is a picture of Ben sorting through the goodies. This week the delivery consisted of; radish, spring onions, winter cress, sweet cicely, rhubarb, spinach, rainbow chard, beetroot tops, purple sprouting broccoli, rocket and parsley.

This week’s tasks in the garden;

• Planting out the peas sown in guttering a few weeks ago. We simply slid the contents gently off the guttering into a prepared trench. Loosen the compost at the sides of the guttering, place the end in the trench and then walk slowly backwards… simple!
• We sowed main crop peas and chose Lincoln for their high yield. They only reach 2ft high so are great for a small garden and grow well in northern areas of Britain.
• Sowed a second batch of early peas (Kelvedon Wonder). We are sowing peas successionally so that we have a good consistent supply throughout the season. Two sowings of both varieties a few weeks apart will ensure we have a long harvesting period.

Plot to Plate

We’ve been out of the garden and in the kitchen more than usual this week. The Science on a Plate events held during the Edinburgh International Science Festival have been keeping us busy.

Scotland’s top chef Neil Forbes cooked up some of Edible Gardening Project produce at four demonstrations held on Easter Monday. Neil used our fresh, seasonal and very local vegetables to create several delicious dishes. He talked about using recipes as a guide when cooking and letting seasonal produce dictate what specific ingredients you use. Reducing food miles and eating vegetables when they are at their tastiest are just two advantages of following this advice.

The Edible Gardening team were on hand at the demonstrations answering questions and helping people who were interested in edible gardening, but were not too sure where to start. Our top tips for new growers are;

Be brave and give it a go. Ask advice from local gardeners but don’t be put off when you get lots of different advice!

Keep it simple, try not to take on too much at once.

Spend a little time planning – think about a few crops you’d like to try and then work out when and where to plant them. Seed catalogues are a great source of detailed information.

First and foremost pay attention to the soil – a good source of organic matter such as compost or well-rotted manure is essential to help your crops flourish.

Have fun and don’t worry if everything doesn’t work first time. Even the most seasoned gardeners make mistakes (they just might not admit it!).

 

Wind, rain and snow

Gosh! What a week. I was going to try and avoid going on about the weather; there’s been enough of that on the news. Plus I always start my blogs with some mention of the sun, rain or snow. However, as David Knott, our Associate Director of Horticulture (Living Collection) would say – always keep one eye on the weather. His advice to Scottish vegetable gardeners is to watch the forecast and learn to work with the weather. This week is a good example of that. A beady eye on the forecast prompted us to cover the veg with horticultural fleece to protect it from the cold.

I made my notes for this week’s entry while sitting in the polytunnel with the wind and snow battering the sides. Contemplating what is traditionally known as the hungry gap while looking over our little green paradise. The hungry gap is the term used to describe this time of year – when the winter crops are over, the stored vegetables are nearly all used up and the spring vegetables are not yet ready. By manipulating the conditions in your garden you can get over this period. Our polytunnel protects the winter vegetables and helps the newly sown seed along quickly. The polytunnel is full to bursting with radish (only sown a month ago), purple sprouting broccoli, spinach, rainbow chard, carrots, parsley and spring onions all ready for harvest. Hungry gap? What hungry gap? Protected conditions can be achieved in the garden using cloches, horticultural fleece, a greenhouse, cold frame or even an upturned plastic bottle placed over individual plants.

The Garden’s Science on a Plate event is well underway this week. On Monday the 9^th April the Edible Gardening team will be on stage with top chef Neil Forbes. Neil is a keen vegetable grower himself and even has a small plot outside his restaurant in Café St Honore in Edinburgh. He’ll be cooking up all sorts of delights using our produce. You can’t get fresher and more local than that! For more info and to book tickets click here.

Sowing Seed Outdoors

We have been busy little bees in the garden this week and are sowing seed like mad. (Inbetween sunbathing and eating ice creams obviously, it’s all just so lovely and sunny!) This week Community Gardener Ben Dell goes through the basics for sowing seed outside.

Soil

• Seeds require a nice crumbly structured soil, or tilth, in which to germinate.

Creating a tilth

• Choose a fine dry day – the soil should be reasonably dry and not stick to your boots.
• Knock lumps out of the soil with a garden fork and rake backwards and forwards.
• Remove any large stone and debris.

How to sow

Beetroot, peas, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, Chard, kale, kohl rabi, leeks, lettuce, radish, parsnips, spinach, rocket and turnips can all be sown outside now.The best place to look for sowing information is the back of the seed packet. Check how far apart the rows need to be.

Vegetables are sown in straight rows to help distinguish them from weeds that are also germinating.

1. Position a cane or stick at each end of the row.
2. Stretch a string or lay a plank between the canes to mark out a straight line.
3. Create a drill or furrow by drawing a hoe or cane through the soil.
4. The depth of the drill depends on the size of the seed. Seeds need to be buried roughly twice as deep as their size.
5. Put a few seeds in the palm of your hand, take a pinch at a time between your forefinger and thumb and drop the seeds along the drill.
6. Try to sow thinly to prevent the plants becoming congested.
7. For larger seed place the seed out at the required distance.
8. Cover the seeds with well crumbled soil or compost.
9. Water with a fine rose if the weather is dry.
10. Thin the seedlings to their required spacing as soon as they are large enough to handle.

Handy tips:

Avoid windy days – seed will blow away

Label and date the rows – this information is vital for judging successes and failures for planning next years crops.

Filling the Hungry Gap

This week’s blog is by RBGE’s Ian Edwards;

Back in prehistory, before the polytunnel, people would eagerly anticipate the first wild greens of Spring as a way of helping to fill the hungry gap before the main harvest was ready. Modern day foragers are already out scouring the fields, woods and hedgerows for fresh shoots to add seasonal interest to their dishes.

For garlic lovers, hedge garlic and wild garlic (ramsons) are ready for picking now. When the leaves of wild garlic have grown large enough you can wrap them around a piece of salmon before putting it into the oven. The pink and green look great together and the subtle flavour of the wild plant is more suited to the fish than the full-on flavour of cultivated garlic cloves.

The buds and first spring leaves of the hawthorn have a lovely nutty taste. Add them to a salad along with the bright yellow, coconut-scented flowers of the gorse. Blackthorn blossom appears on the bushes before the leaves and holds a wonderful almond aroma than can be used to enhance sweet dishes and cakes. But remember to leave some flowers on the tree if you want to come back later in the year and pick berries for sloe gin!

For me the jury is still out on that spring forager’s staple – the humble stinging nettle. Wildfood gurus enthuse about nettle’s nutritional qualities and reputed cleansing effect on the body. Personally I find nettle soup just a bit too green and wholesome. If you have a patch of nettles that dogs don’t pee on, try making non-alcoholic nettle beer, nettle fritters or (Mrs Grieve’s Modern Herbal recipe) Scottish nettle pudding.

If you are inspired to find out more about wildfoods you can eat at this time of year and how to cook them join us in our forager’s kitchen with acknowledged experts Miles Irving, John Wright and Neil Forbes in the John Hope Gateway on Easter Saturday 7 March. Tickets are selling like hot chestnuts so advanced booking is recommended see http://www.rbge.org.uk/whats-on/scienceonaplate for details.