{"id":699,"date":"2012-08-25T13:51:37","date_gmt":"2012-08-25T13:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/?p=699"},"modified":"2026-07-21T18:01:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:01:19","slug":"august-progression-in-the-community-allotment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/2012\/08\/25\/august-progression-in-the-community-allotment\/","title":{"rendered":"August Progression in the Community Allotment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our community garden at the Avery Hill campus continues to progress and expand! We now have a beautiful shed where we keep our tools:<\/p>\n

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painting the shed!<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the course of the last few week some of the Brassicas crops were badly attacked by nasty cabbage caterpillars. These are often found in large clusters and are easily spotted thanks to their distinctive yellow and black patterns (they can grow up to 2 inches!). Plants should be examinated regularly to prevent the damage or gown under fine mesh netting to stop butterflies laying eggs. Beneficial wasps are particularly effective at controlling these pests, or else they can be picked off by hand. Unfortunately we had to remove some badly damaged plants, such as cabbage and radishes.<\/p>\n

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leaf damage from cabbage caterpillars<\/p><\/div>\n

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radishes were cleared - because damaged by caterpillars<\/p><\/div>\n

In the meantime, all of the cucurbits are growing particularly vigorous, they require a lot of space and therefore are expanding out of the bed:<\/p>\n

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cucurbitaceae family bed<\/p><\/div>\n

The resuts are some delicious courgettes, pumpkins and squashes coming in different varieties and shapes:<\/p>\n

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growing courgette<\/p><\/div>\n

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discovering a massive squash hidden among the leaves!<\/p><\/div>\n

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very heavy!!<\/p><\/div>\n

This summer the weather has been particularly wet and tomatoes and peppers have struggled but are now slowly ripening:<\/p>\n

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ripening tomatoes<\/p><\/div>\n

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shiny pepper<\/p><\/div>\n

We also harvested our first carrot!<\/p>\n

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very long carrot (though a little bit pale!)<\/p><\/div>\n

We also decided to experiment a bit and sow some peas where potatos and tomatoes used to be. In a rotation system, leguminosae plants (such as peas) follow the “heavy feeders” plants (such as tomatos) which use up a lot of the nutrients in the soil: peas roots in fact will fix nitrogen, promoting soil fertility. August is probably not ideal time to sow peas because they often struggle in cold wet soil – we might have to grow them under cloches. However we hope the weather will be relatively mild until October – just like last year – and even if the plants will not produce many pea pods, they will still function as green manure that improve soil fertility.<\/p>\n

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sowing peas<\/p><\/div>\n

We also transplanted some young tiny leeks into another bed:<\/p>\n

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lifting the leeks cluster - they were closely spaced in this patch of soil<\/p><\/div>\n

As a general rule, when transplanting young plants it is important to minimize root damage: for this reason we should always handle them by the leaves and try to keep as much soil on the roots as possible.<\/p>\n

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Pam transplanting the leeks<\/p><\/div>\n

Before transplanting, we first made 6 inches deep holes, 8 inches apart in the bed; we watered well the group of leeks, these were then divided one by one with the help of a fork; each leek was dropped into a hole and watered in order for the soil to gently settle around the roots.<\/p>\n

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job done! after transplanting, wilting is common but plants will eventually recover<\/p><\/div>\n

And finally, some beneficial wildlife: a hoverfly<\/p>\n

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tiny hoverfly checking on the pumpkins<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our community garden at the Avery Hill campus continues to progress and expand! We now have a beautiful shed where we keep our tools: Over the course of the last few week some of the Brassicas crops were badly attacked by nasty cabbage caterpillars. These are often found in large… Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[66,101,295,324],"class_list":["post-699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edible-garden","tag-biodiversity","tag-community-garden","tag-sustainability","tag-university-of-greenwich"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":367,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/2012\/04\/23\/community-garden-at-avery-hill-campus\/","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":0},"title":"Community Garden at Avery Hill Campus","author":"","date":"23 April 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been an exciting past few weeks at the Avery Hill Campus as the community garden allotment has started to take shape. The garden now has eleven raised beds built, four of them filled with compost, a line of compost bins ready for our waste and a huge pile\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Edible Garden"","block_context":{"text":"Edible Garden","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/category\/biodiversity\/edible-garden\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/04\/Photo-19-03-2012-09-35-03.jpg","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"\/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/04\/Photo-19-03-2012-09-35-03.jpg 1x, \/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/04\/Photo-19-03-2012-09-35-03.jpg 1.5x, \/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/04\/Photo-19-03-2012-09-35-03.jpg 2x, \/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/04\/Photo-19-03-2012-09-35-03.jpg 3x, \/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/04\/Photo-19-03-2012-09-35-03.jpg 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":826,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/2012\/11\/06\/exciting-times-at-the-community-garden\/","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":1},"title":"Exciting times at the community garden!","author":"Simon Goldsmith","date":"6 November 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been a little bit of a roller coaster constructing the polytunnel for the community garden. We have battled digging through concrete, less than helpful weather and more than a few missing pieces. Last week, however, we managed to prep the frame ready for the polythene covering and despite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Edible Garden"","block_context":{"text":"Edible Garden","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/category\/biodiversity\/edible-garden\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/11\/SA1_09721.jpg","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"\/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/11\/SA1_09721.jpg 1x, \/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/11\/SA1_09721.jpg 1.5x, \/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/11\/SA1_09721.jpg 2x, \/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/11\/SA1_09721.jpg 3x, \/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2012\/11\/SA1_09721.jpg 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/2011\/09\/30\/community-food-garden-plans-afoot-at-avery-hill\/","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":2},"title":"Community Food Garden Plans Afoot at Avery Hill","author":"","date":"30 September 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Today the Sustainability Team ventured up to the Mansion Site of Avery Hill to meet with Robert Holden and the Garden and Landscape Design staff at the School of Architecture and Construction. The topic under discussion was the plans for building a University community food garden. The project will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Edible Garden"","block_context":{"text":"Edible Garden","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/category\/biodiversity\/edible-garden\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-IRbUCw-rJe0\/ToXprPk3mdI\/AAAAAAAAAQI\/3VU7rcyaYeM\/s320\/Gnome_plus_grapes1.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/2011\/10\/28\/breaking-ground-at-our-community-garden-and-gearing-up-for-the-orchard-planting\/","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":3},"title":"Breaking Ground at our Community Garden and Gearing up for the Orchard Planting","author":"","date":"28 October 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Today the Sustainability Team joined forces with the School of Architecture, James Hallybone and Tom Barnsley from Roundfield and Michael Unsworth from the Grounds team to break ground at the site for our new community garden. We haven\u2019t quite started to dig to plant yet but we have dug one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Edible Garden"","block_context":{"text":"Edible Garden","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/category\/biodiversity\/edible-garden\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-3vY2fVnMb_M\/TqrT2lQsaqI\/AAAAAAAAARk\/2rXNI-5AQeg\/s320\/photo%2B8.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1030,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/2013\/06\/20\/chelsea-fringe-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":4},"title":"Chelsea Fringe 2013","author":"Simon Goldsmith","date":"20 June 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The University of Greenwich held its first community event at the Avery Hill Community Garden as part of the Chelsea Fringe festival. Dragos Buharu, a 2nd year\u00a0Business\u00a0School student studying\u00a0BA Business with Marketing was in attendance and here he gives you his perspective of the day. Chelsea Fringe 2013 \u2013Even the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Community Engagement"","block_context":{"text":"Community Engagement","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/category\/partnerships-and-engagement\/community-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2013\/06\/chelsea-fringe-logo-no-date.png","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"\/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2013\/06\/chelsea-fringe-logo-no-date.png 1x, \/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2013\/06\/chelsea-fringe-logo-no-date.png 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":880,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/2013\/01\/11\/forest-garden-plans\/","url_meta":{"origin":699,"position":5},"title":"Forest Garden Plans","author":"","date":"11 January 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"As the cold weather persists across London we are waiting for the sun and warmth before we get planting in the community garden again. Volunteers, members of the Sustainability Team and James Hallybone from Roundfield have been discussing what to do for when the\u00a0springtime\u00a0arrives. With the addition of a polytunnel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Edible Garden"","block_context":{"text":"Edible Garden","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/category\/biodiversity\/edible-garden\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Forest garden Plans","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2013\/01\/forestgarden1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2013\/01\/forestgarden1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2013\/01\/forestgarden1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2013\/01\/forestgarden1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7458,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions\/7458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gre.ac.uk\/greengreenwich\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}