May Newsletter: Rain and Rhubarb…

This May’s weather has been a mixed bag- the rain has got us damp on several occasions, but it has also meant that the vegetables in the community garden are practically bursting out of the ground. It’s a great time of year to get your hands dirty and see things grow- come and volunteer with us Wednesdays and Fridays 11-4pm. Learn skills, meet cool people, take home some rhubarb!

Read on to find out about this summer’s exciting events. Forest Farm Peace Garden will be at Redbridge Green Fair, which we encourage everyone to visit, and we will be holding our next Open Day at the Garden for a World Music Celebration on 17th June.

Redbridge Green Fair 2012: “a community festival with a green theme”
4 June 2012, 11.30am – 7pm
It’s BACK. After a two year break, put Redbridge Green Fair 2012 in your calendar on Monday 4th June 2012- a bank holiday Monday.
This year promises to be an exciting time to be in London, but whatever your plans, the Summer starts right here in Valentines Park, Ilford.
Forest Farm Peace Garden will have a presence at the Green Fair with organic seedlings and produce, woodworking and felt-making demonstrations and herbal medicine info, so come and say hello!
The Green Fair is featuring over 100 stalls with food, fashion, cinema and entertainment. Entry is £1 adults and free for children & concessions.

World Music Day at Forest Farm Peace Garden
Sunday 17th June, 12-4pm
Forest Farm Peace Garden, Hazelbrouck Gardens, Hainault
Free Entry, no booking required
To celebrate Refugee Week, Forest Farm Peace Garden is hosting a World Music Day celebration of the diversity in the North East London community. Featuring music and dance from around the world, organic seedlings and produce for sale, and delicious global food, this will be a fun and family-friendly event not to be missed! The event is being held in partnership with the Refugee and Migrant Forum of East London and the North East London NHS Foundation Trust.
For more information: info[at]forestfarmpeacegarden.org, 07913 089 979 / 07587 244 459

World Music Day Poster

Yoga at Forest Farm Peace Garden
A Forest Farm Peace Garden volunteer is offering yoga classes at Forest Farm Peace Garden to anyone who would like to come along. Yoga is great for the body and mind, so it fits in well with the ethos of Forest Farm Peace Garden!
Classes will start at 10:00 and finish at 11:15.  All classes will be suitable for beginners. Places are limited to 10 people and will be free to regular garden volunteers.  For non garden volunteers, a charitable donation (suggested £5) to the project would be appreciated.

Each class will be subject to weather conditions- whether the class is going ahead will be confirmed the previous day. The planned dates are 10 June 2012, 15 July 2012, 12 Aug 2012 and 15 Sept 2012.

Most Sundays the volunteers at the project share lunch together so after your class you will be very welcome to join them and/or indulge in a spot of gardening if the mood takes you.

If you are interested in attending, please let Amy know by email: amybrambleyoga [at] gmail.com, and check out Amy’s website for updates http://amybrambleyoga.blogspot.co.uk

World Music Day at Forest Farm Peace Garden

17th June, 12-4pm

Forest Farm Peace Garden, Hazelbrouck Gardens, Hainault

To celebrate Refugee Week, Forest Farm Peace Garden is hosting a World Music Day celebration of the diversity in the northeast London community. Featuring music and dance from around the world, and delicious global food, this will be a fun and family-friendly event not to be missed! The event is being held in partnership with the Refugee and Migrant Forum of East London and Waltham Forest NHS’s Refugee support.

Open day at Forest Farm Peace Garden a success for the community and environment

The Orchard Open Day at Forest Farm Peace Garden in Hainault on Sunday 11th March welcomed over one hundred people to the community garden. Members of the public planted over 80 trees for the new community orchard, tried out traditional woodworking techniques, learned about sustainable gardening and got their hands muddy making seed balls for urban gardening. The event involved the public in planting the community orchard, educating participants about the importance of trees and raising awareness about volunteering opportunities at Forest Farm Peace Garden.

Mark Santos, Chair of the Forest Farm Peace Garden Board of Trustees, said

“We’re very pleased with the open day- it was wonderful to see so many people from the local community help plant the new community orchard. Forest Farm Peace Garden aims to be a community resource for environment, health, fun and learning, and it is great that there is so much interest in the project.”

The event was organised in conjunction with Trees for Cities, a charity which plants trees in urban areas around the world. The open day is part of a year-long programme based on activities and education about trees, including tree planting at schools and a series of workshops on tree skills. Forest Farm Peace Garden is welcoming the public back to the garden on the 25th March for a workshop about the medicinal properties of trees.

Mairead Lineen, Ecotherapy worker at Forest Farm Peace Garden, said

“We hope that people who came to the open day were energised and inspired by what we do at the Garden. We are recruiting new volunteers to get involved with various aspects of the project and Sunday’s open day spread the word about what we do”

Orchard Open Day Schedule

11 March 2012, 11am – 4pm

Garden Tours

11.45am and 2.30 pm, departing from the pergola seating area

Lunch served

12:30 – 1:30, £3 Suggested Donation

Ongoing workshops and activities

• Planting trees for the Forest Farm Community Orchard (by the wind turbine)
• Forest Knights- woodland demonstrations
• Seed bombs- DIY Guerrilla Gardening
• Gardening for Wildlife: bee-friendly seed mixes and mini-beast hotels
• Organic seedlings and cuttings for sale: rosemary, strawberries, chives
• Facepainting
• Woodcarving demonstrations
• Recycling Team info-stall

Hello everyone-

Despite the snow, we’ve been working hard at Forest Farm Peace Garden to get ready for the spring’s exciting events. We’ve had a lot of fun digging holes in the snow to prepare the ground for tree planting, sorting out hundreds of vegetable seeds according to our planting plan, and watching the first seedlings of the year grow! Come along to our first Open Day of the year on the 11th March to celebrate trees with us, or learn essential gardening and tree skills at our workshops. Coming up we have:

1. Orchard Open Day – 11th March
2. Orchard Skills Workshops – 26 Feb / 25 March / 22 April
3. Get involved in Forest Farm Peace Garden

“Like” us on Facebook

1. Orchard Open Day – 11th March 2012 – 11am to 4pm – Forest Farm Peace Garden
Tree planting, entertainment and activities at Forest Farm Peace Garden.

Join us for this year’s first Open Day, where we will be celebrating trees and how they make our cities more healthy, beautiful and sustainable. Forest Farm Peace Garden welcomes you to our community garden to discover how we are bringing people together to enjoy nature, conserve the environment and grow local organic food.

• Tree planting throughout the day
• Delicious food and herbal tea
• Gardening for wildlife activities
• Buy organically grown seedlings for your garden
• Facepainting and other children’s activities

For more information email info [at] forestfarmpeacegarden.org or call 07587 244 459

***We need volunteers to help out at the Open Day- serving food, helping with activities, etc. Would you like to help out? Get in touch with Natalie, natalie [at] forestfarmpeacegarden.org.***

2. Orchard Skills *free* Workshops, 2012 Programme

We are running a programme of workshops and events throughout the year as part of a project to promote learning about trees, conservation and sustainability. Here are the upcoming workshops- they are free, but please RSVP.

26 February – Winter Pruning
Pruning is an essential skill for anyone who wants to maintain trees – whether in an orchard or in your garden. We have a range of trees on which you will learn and try out the theory and practice of pruning to keep trees healthy and productive. The workshop, run by a tree expert, aims to cater for a wide range of abilities- no previous experience necessary.

25 March – Walking under Medicinal Trees
Medicines made from the bark, blossom and leaves of beautiful native trees have been used for hundreds of years to treat heart disease, high blood pressure, circulatory problems and allergies to name just a few. At this workshop we will be looking at identification of a number of important British medicinal trees, what part and when we harvest and what we herbalists use them for. The workshop will be taught by Foprest Farm Peace Garden’s resident Medical Herbalist, Deborah Syrett, BSc (Hons), MCPP.

22 April – Companion planting
An important aspect of permaculture gardening is companion planting, or interplanting, in which different crops are planted alongside each other in a mutually beneficial way. Understanding companion planting strengthens the resilience, nutritional intake and productivity of your crops. We will plant examples of orchard campanion “guilds” in our newly planted orchard to demonstrate and practice companion planting in a forest garden.

Workshops run from 10.30am to 4pm.
We will provide necessary materials and instruction- come prepared for the weather. There will be some hot refreshments, but please bring a packed lunch. RSVP-ing is crucial as places will are limited. Contact info@forestfarmpeacegarden.org or call 07587 244 459 in order to find out more or to RSVP.

3. Get involved in Forest Farm Peace Garden

Would you like to get involved in the development of a dynamic and growing project with a positive track record of building community, working with marginalised communities and creating a sustainable future? Forest Farm Peace Garden is looking for volunteers to get involved in the committees which work on the vision, strategy and management of the project. Get in touch with the Project Coordinator, Natalie, at natalie [at] forestfarmpeacegarden.org to find out how to get involved.

Tree Planting Day

We are pleased to announce that Forest Farm Peace Garden’s Tree Planting Open Day will be Sunday 11th March, 11am – 4pm. We welcome everyone to come along and help us plant new trees in our orchard, as well as enjoy the usual range of Open Day activities- seedlings for sale, facepainting, garden tours and delicious food!

More information here.

FREE accredited course in Environmental Performance

Redbridge Institute are running the Level 2 in Environmental Performance and Best Practice, which is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health,  from 30th January 2012.

www.redbridge-iae.ac.uk/file.php/1/Docs/Environment_L2_Award_term_2.pdf

Anyone interested in attending should contact the Redbridge Institute, Gearies Centre, Gaysham Avenue, Gants Hill, Ilford IG2 6TD or call 020 8550 2398 to book a place on the course.

Winter News from Forest Farm Peace Garden

Hello all-

I hope you are enjoying the bright and wintry weather, and keeping warm! Despite the brisk and windy days, there’s still lots to do in the community garden and our volunteers are still busy harvesting vegetables and maintaining the garden for the winter. We will continue to be open for volunteers on Wednesdays and Fridays from 11am to 4pm through Wednesday 21st December.

Join us for a hot lunchtime Winter Solstice meal around the fire at 1pm, Wednesday 21st December, before we say goodbye to the garden for a few weeks until we open again on Friday the 6th January. There will be lots to do in the new year- make volunteering at your community garden your New Year’s resolution! Contact mairead [at] forestfarmpeacegarden.org to find out about becoming a volunteer or about our Buddy Scheme for supported volunteering.

**Exciting News – 2012 Orchard Skills Programme** Before we break for Winter, we have an exciting announcement about next year: we’ve received funding from Awards for All to run a year-long programme of workshops and open days about trees and orchards at Forest Farm Peace Garden. We will be running a series of workshops, roughly once a month, focussing on activities and skills such as hedgelaying, gardening for wildlife, medicinal properties of British trees, composting, pruning and more. Several of our open days throughout the year will also be themed around orchard skills, like a tree-planting Open Day in March and a return of the popular Abundance Open Day in October.

Upcoming events are:

>>Sunday 29 January, 10.30am – 4pm: Hedgelaying workshop at Forest Farm Peace Garden Learn the theory and practice of laying hedges to create natural and effective borders which protect and support wildlife.

>>Sunday 26th February, 10.30am – 4pm: Winter Pruning workshop at Forest Farm Peace Garden Learn the skills for winter pruning of trees to keep your trees healthy and effectively manage their growth.

Information on further workshops will be forthcoming in the new year. We will provide necessary materials and instruction- come prepared for the weather. There will be some hot refreshments, but please bring a packed lunch. RSVP-ing is crucial as places will are limited. Contact info [at] forestfarmpeacegarden.org in order to find out more or to RSVP to either or both of the workshops

>>Tree Planting Open Day – weekend of 24/25 March (day TBC) Join us for a day of planting trees at Forest Farm Peace Garden as well as the usual open day activities of hot food, plant sales, entertainment and activities.

**Get Involved – join the Orchard Skills organising committee**

In order to organise this exciting project, we need volunteers to help out to plan it and make it happen. You don’t need to know anything about trees- as long as you like them! We need all sorts of input- design and web skills, outreach and publicity, working with schools to organise tree planting activities, running the open days and workshops… but most importantly enthusiasm and commitment. Get in touch with Natalie, the Project Coordinator (natalie [at] forestfarmpeacegarden.org), to find out about getting involved in the Orchard Skills working group.

**For more updates, check us out on Facebook**

For updates about exciting permaculture, gardening, mental health, refugee/asylum seeker events and projects around London watch our Facebook page. Follow this link and “Like” Forest Farm Peace Garden, and we’ll be able to keep in touch with you!

Message from Redbridge Rainbow Community

Come and join us for our birthday celebrations!

Redbridge Rainbow Community is celebrating it’s first bithday on 1st December and we would love you to be there! There’s a chance to hear what we have been doing over the last year and what strides we have made in the borough. As it is World AIDS day we wil have some speakers to talk about thier work and the issue of HIV/AIDS. Food and drink will be provided and there will be a chance to network with other local community groups.

When: Thursday December 1st
Time: 6.30 – 8.30pm
Where: Cardinal Heenan Centre
326 High Rd
Ilford
IG1 1QP

See more info on their website or Facebook

Have your say about recycling in Redbridge

Redbridge Council is working on improving its recycling, reducing and reusing practices across the Borough. Tell the Council what you think should be done to reduce emissions in this survey.