Kennington Gardens Society - 12th August - Guerrilla Gardening Talk

Just a quick post to note that on Thursday 12th August (this week) at 7:30pm, Kennington Gardens Society are hosting a talk from Richard Reynolds, who is a local founder of the Guerrilla Gardening movement.  There's a £2 fee on the door and the venue is Roots and Shoots on Walnut Tree Walk (see poster below)

I've been to KGS talks in the past, and they usually prove fascinating, even if your garden is only as extensive as a patio.  I'm definitely attending this one, since I'd be interested in hearing whether there might be local sites that could benefit from beautification.

Spring is nearly sprung (hopefully) so it's time for gardening

Careful readers of the blog will know that I'm interested in cultivating rooftops and areas in which others might not have thought about gardening. I'm very interested in planting veg (and fruit?) in areas that aren't overly exposed to traffic fumes. I'm quite excited by an idea for growing tomatoes in old plastic bottles that I found on a website this weekend. I also sent off for a book on container gardening, since not actually having a garden can be something of a constraint and I want to branch out into vegetables! It must be said though, that the beautiful chilli plant, bought for £2 on Camberwell New Road is sprouting new chillies happily in the bathroom! I'm sure I'll still find some space for strawberries and tomatoes on the balcony though (which has the advantage that squirrels, birds and slugs don't have easy access).

Inspired by the enthusiasm of residents in Lambeth Walk / Old Paradise Street, who, according to the Prince's Ward Councillor blog (Labour administration), are attempting to investigate the possibility of a community garden, a weekend visit to the Museum of Garden history cafe (next to Lambeth Palace) and finally a quick wander down from the museum past a potential allotment site for the Museum staff, I've decided it's time to expand the gardening efforts from inside the flat (whose balcony is still beautifully decorated with winter flowering pansies and viola) to the wider area.

Since the weather is getting warmer and the evenings are getting longer (well, slightly), I've joined the Guerrilla Gardeners forum in a bid to attempt to enlist some willing guerrilla gardeners for the SE11 patch (and its surroundings). Plants don't much care about postcodes so it would be great to hear from any readers who would be happy to explore the area and venture a little further out to make the Kennington/Vauxhall/Riverside area a little more attractive...

C'mon, you know you want to do gardening in the middle of the night! :-)

Rooftop gardening of fruit or vegetables or Purloining other peoples' roof space

It was only the other day that I was gazing down from my luxury Kennington palace, wondering whether I could purloin roof space from my and neighbours' rooves, in order to grow some flowers or vegetables. Everything looks very grey when gazing over rooftops, and some of the roof spaces get a lot of sun...

But it seems that somebody else has been thinking the same way. A Telegraph article tells of roof space to be converted to vegetable gardens for feeding Olympic athletes. I suspect we might be too far away to participate, but I really like this idea.

I think there may be issues re. accessing rooves. Our roof is communal, and requires a ladder to reach it. Not sure who I'd need to get permission from (not that that would stop me). Also, to access my neighbours' rooves (some of these are light commercial enterprises) would need permission, as well as odd access, and I don't know whether some of the roof space could support the weight of soil and pots, but it is a thought that I don't want to entirely dismiss. In the meantime, I should really get in touch with the local Guerilla gardeners.

Does anybody know whether there are any types of vegetables that can be grown through the winter?