Photos from the Unveiling of the Royal Scarecrows at Cottington Gardens

On Saturday I dropped by the Cottington Gardens community garden to visit their new royal scarecrows and had the opportunity to meet some very small Cottington gardeners!  It's great to see people gardening and growing flowers and vegetables in an urban setting, and the community garden has an immense variety of wildlife, flowers and herbs.  Feel free to visit, as it is open to the public!  The weather was unseasonably warm, and the Cottington Gardens residents enjoyed a barbecue :

Meet the bridge, Kate Middleton, the Royal Scarecrow.  Look carefully and you'll see a chain around her waist.  She's chained to the lamp post with her back to William.  A subtle comment on the state of marriage today or a security precaution?  There's no getting out of it now...

And here's William, not looking terrible comfortable, preparing for the big day.  I do love this subversive SE11 commentary on the Royal Wedding:

Lovely flowers in one of several "allotment" style community boxes:

Pink tulip close-up.  Beauty with a concrete backdrop.  This box belongs to the Little Starz nursery on Whitehart Street:

And here, there's an entire herb garden:

The sparkling, shiny new green house, opened on Saturday will allow the community to cultivate their plants:

This is a willow house (funded by the National Lottery).  The willow will grow up around it, and provide a tiny green space for children to play:

It looks like an load of old crates, but this is actually an upmarket bug hotel.  Diversity is taken seriously in this garden in this thriving haven for bugs...

Celebratory Feast at Oval Famers Market and Royal Scarecrows, Peter Tatchell on Environmental Campaigning, Vauxhall Easter Egg Hunt and more...

A few diary dates... I'm trying to keep up and add them to my Lurking about S11 calendar, but I'm not brilliant so will summarise them here.  As ever, there's a lot going on...

Vauxhall Gardens Estate Residents and Tenants Association AGM
Thursday 31st March, 6:30pm - 9pm at the Carmelita Centre (corner of Jonathan St and Vauxhall Walk)

Celebratory Feast at Oval Farmer's Market
Saturday 2nd April, 10am - 3pm at Oval Farmer's Market (grounds of St Mark's church in Oval)

Unveiling of royal scarecrows at Cottington Community Gardens
Saturday 2nd April, 12 noon at Opal Street, Kennington Lane, SE11 4HZ

Peter Tatchell to be interviewed on human rights work and environmental campaigning
Tuesday 5th April, 7:45pm at Oval House Theatre

KOV Forum
Thursday 7th April, 7pm - 9pm at St Anne's Resettlement Hall, 40-46 Harleyford Road.  (Entrance in Vauxhall Grove, SW8 1TD)

East Egg Hunt in Vauxhall Park (for children aged between 1 and 10)
Saturday 9th April, 10:30am (registration) for 11am start.  The event is for children aged between 1 and 10 only.

Kennington Gardens Society Spring Show
Saturday 16th April, 9am - 3pm at St Anselm's Hall

Royal Wedding Street Party
(This one isn't certain yet, but it looks to be fun if they manage to pull it off...)
Friday 29th April (time TBA) at Tea Hosue Theatre (formerly Queen Anne pub in Spring Gardens)

New scarecrows for Cottington Community Garden

Back in February, there was a furore on Twitter, as Cottington Community Garden Centre declared that it's scarecrow, J-Lo had been stolen.  Despite plenty of folk putting the word around, she was never recovered, so they've had to obtain two new scarecrows. (What's the plural of scarecrow?).

If you wish to attend the unveiling of the two new "royal residents" (that provides a big clue), there will be a scarecrow unveiling and a greenhouse launch on Saturday 2nd April at 12pm at Cottington Community Garden (Opal Street, SE11).  More info here.

Cottington Community Garden open day on 25th September

Cottington Community Garden are holding an open day on 25th September from 11am - 4pm on Cottington Estate, Opal Street (just off of Kennington Lane).  There will be a cake stall, a fire engine and a raffle.  There will also be a chance to try grass head making and lavender bag creation and you'll be able to meet some of Lambeth's Master Gardeners.  Apparently, there are still some spaces available for table top sales, so people are welcome to sell crafts or old bits & bobs, but check first (call 07912 883 970).

Also, you can take a look at their Project Dirt site, which gives more information about their members, and what they're growing.  It sounds like a good way to improve your urban gardening skills or continue cultivating your green fingers.  I didn't know that the Cottington Estate had a community garden, so it was obviously a reasonably well kept secret!

See Rosie Boycott's Evening Standard article on the Gardens here...