Operation Deep Freeze at the Wonky Prong

Wonky Prong garden (by the ballcourt)
Saturday 14th June, 1.30-4pm

Volunteers at Crossfields gardening project The Wonky Prong are teaming up with Avant Gardening to bring uniquely flavoured ice cream to the estate.

Operation Deep Freeze is an Avant Gardening project where a mobile ice
cream maker is pedalled to various gardens, to take flavours from the garden and make interesting ice creams. They recently piloted this fun workshop at the old Tidemill School with Assembly. Read more at operationdeepfreeze.com.

Unfortunately the Wonky Prong garden has suffered an invasion of slugs, so if you want to take part in the ice cream making experiment, you'll need to bring along something to put in the mix! Would you try a beetroot and ginger ice? Have a think and bring something down to try out...fruits and veg in season, tasty herbs and spices, nuts and chocolate – the choice is yours! Numbers are limited to 10 people, so get in early...

Ping Pong table ARRIVING THIS WEEK!

The Crossfields Outdoor Ping Pong table is being delivered this week, and will hopefully fit into the space marked out for it here, near the ballcourt. Get yourself some bats and balls and be ready for some fun on Sunday (if not before) when there'll be some gardening activities going on in and around the Sue Godfrey Community Garden next to the Farrer House bikesheds.

By then, a new tap for the Wonky Prong Food Growing Project should have been connected (no thanks to Thames Water who charged a fortune and took an age to install the pipework!). Plants are arriving at the end of the week, ready to be planted on Sunday. If you want to join in the gardening, come along on Sunday 23rd at midday from 2pm. Afterwards there'll be a BBQ...

Whoops, earlier we posted that there would be graffiti workshops and a bug safari for kids, but unfortunately they're cancelled due to illness...sorry!

Update 20th June 2013: The table has arrived!!! Thanks to Tim for organising.

 

Plastic bottle greenhouse for The Wonky Prong

The Crossfields Food Growing Project is hoping to build a greenhouse out of recycled plastic bottles – and needs your help!

A notice went up around the estate before Christmas, and so far around 200 bottles have been collected, but five or six times that many are required to build the greenhouse, so please keep collecting!

The greenhouse will be used to grow seeds for the community garden and also for growing free plants to put in your window boxes.

Please drop off used bottles to Tim at no.8 Castell House – just leave in a bag outside his front door. Only clear or green plastic (large or small) is required, please no opaque white bottles!

The greenhouse might look like this once completed (though Prince Charles may not visit us!). If you'd like to find out more about The Wonky Prong, or get involved, check out the Wonky Prong blog for contact details.

Wonky Prong blog

Tim has now set up a blog for news about Crossfields food growing project. If you want to get involved, take a look at thewonkyprong.blogspot.co.uk – we've added it the Local Blogs list (left hand column).

The project has developed out of the Crossfields Green Spaces gardening group started by John, who was spurred into action when his allotment was threatened by a plan to run a cycle path through it. His garden was subsequently spared, and John began working with other allotment gardeners on the estate to raise funds to make more of our green spaces. He has since been seriously ill in hospital and fellow gardeners have been looking after his garden whilst Tim has taken over the development of the green spaces. We wish John a full return to health, hopefully in time this year to see – and taste – the fruits of the work being done in his absence. Get well soon, John!

In the meantime, if you want to help Tim grow some food, or are interested in gardening on the estate, contact him at squaregardener@gmail.com.

The Wonky Prong

The WONKY PRONG, otherwise known as the Crossfield Estate Food Project, made a great leap forward yesterday despite the rain, as a small army of enthusiastic children helped to shovel several tonnes of soil into the raised beds. Runner beans, mangetout peas and tomatoes were also planted along the fence around the community garden. Next step is to mix in some compost and then start planting! If anyone would like to get involved and help grow and eat food contact Tim at squaregardener@gmail.com