See what's happening in Penge this week....

Penge Green Gym Newsletter      Dear Penge Green Gym Supporters        All Hands on Deck!!!   We have a very exciting and hectic couple of weeks ahead of us and we feel like we're racing to the finish line.  On Saturday 14th June we will be holding our annual open day in conjunction with The Open Garden Squares Weekend.   We have been preparing since the early spring, sowing seeds for our plant sale and making bird boxes for children to decorate.  We are now reaching the final stages and the plants are looking great.  We took cuttings from the roses and they are also doing well.  Our task now is to make the garden looks its best for our guests on the 14th. If you would like to help publicise our open day just download the poster and print it off to hand round to your friends and anyone you think might want to come and enjoy a day out hopefully in the sun.    http://gallery.mailchimp.com/c38f2e78a16f1d2815386437e/images/5a3fabaf-3a78-4a6f-b8e9-e4a7ad2b2797.jpg     Ready, Steady, Go Bog Garden! Our exciting new project is well under way and we spent last Wednesday moving tons of sand, gravel and top soil over to the old pond/ new bog garden area.  With a lot of effort we got it all in place and this week we await another delivery of topsoil to fill it up completely so that we can start planting before our open day.  We hope to get some large plants in and then leave the smaller peripheral planting to anybody that would like to help on the open day. Here is how it is taking shape - The pond area was first cleared of overhanging plants then a layer of sand was added.  An underlay and then a plastic membrane was put over the top. We put a soaker hose on top of the sand which has holes in it and will water the garden from underneath.  We then buried it in gravel and added the first layer of topsoil. We had a great day doing this and hopefully we can get this finished next week.     Award from Metropolitan Public Gardens Assiation Thanks to our chairperson Brenda's hard work we have been awarded funding from the MPGA for buying plants to populate the Croydon Road end of Winsford Gardens borders with Shrubs and perennials which will hopefully create a colourful and established look to the border.  We had a fun morning looking around The Secret Garden nursery in Crystal Palace picking out what we wanted.  It should bring some real colour to that area in time for the open day.   Support Dave's big walk to raise funds for Winsford Gardens     Dave, a long time volunteer at Winsford  Gardens (on the right) will be walking the  Pennine Way from 24th June to help raise  funds for our many future projects (and to  get fit too!). If you would like to sponsor him  follow this  link  www.gogetfunding.com/project/daveswalk where you can also follow his progress as he prepares for his big trip.  Pass on to all your friends too. He is also an avid Tweeter and you can follow him @fergussonfamily.        Other ways to help Winsford Gardens You can also help raise funds by doing your online shopping via easyfunding.  Sign up to easyfunding and when you shop at places like Amazon or John Lewis online, easyfunding will donate and small percentage to the Penge Green Gym.  To sign up follow this link  - www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/pengegreengym     .

Open Garden Squares 14th June 2014

Newsletter Early May 2014

Penge Green Gym Newsletter

 

  

Dear Penge Green Gym Supporters

 

 

 

 Happy Birthday

Penge Green Gym!
 

At the beginning of April Penge Green Gym celebrated it's first whole year as an independent community group, looking after Winsford gardens for the community and the environment.  Some very tasty cakes were brought as a special treat for our tea break.  Lizzy Kaimakamis and Julie Royce from TCV joined us for the day, with some rose bed weeding and cake eating!  We were also joined by some members of 'Men in sheds' who were interested to see our work at Winsford Gardens.  We hope to collaborate with them in the future.

 

 
The gardens are blooming and the recently planted seedlings are busting out all over!



We've already planted carrots, leeks, radish, potatoes and lettuce.  We hope to have a lovely display for our open day on 14th June.  The greenhouse is also overflowing with seedlings, many who have now graduated to the cold frame.  We have a continuing battle with the slugs and snails who love the tender plants so we are ever vigilante!  

  

 

Support Dave's big walk to raise funds

for Winsford Gardens
 

  Dave, a long time volunteer at Winsford  Gardens (on the right) will be walking the  Pennine Way from 24th June to help raise  funds for our many future projects (and to  get fit too!). If you would like to sponsor him  follow this  link  www.gogetfunding.com/project/daveswalk where you can also follow his progress as he prepares for his big trip.  Pass on to all your friends too. He is also an avid Tweeter and you can follow him @fergussonfamily.     
 

Other ways to help
Winsford Gardens

You can also help raise funds by doing your online shopping via easyfunding.  Sign up to easyfunding and when you shop at places like Amazon or John Lewis online, easyfunding will donate and small percentage to the Penge Green Gym.  To sign up follow this link  - www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/pengegreengym. 

#DavesWalk

Wow! I've now raised £300 for @GreenGymPenge Please could YOU help me reach my target http://t.co/o0bvoZf9UX #DaveWalk
— David Fergusson (@fergussonfamily) April 28, 2014

Penge Green Gym Newsletter April 2014

See what's happening in Penge this week....

Penge Green Gym Newsletter      Dear Penge Green Gym Supporters         Happy Easter From Winsford Gardens!     There were no easter eggs growing on our tress but with spring in full swing and with all wet then mild weather, the tree blossom and spring flowers have been particularly spectacular this year.        We were also very happy to find a Slow- worm in our leaf litter.  Apparently neither a worm nor a snake, it is a limbless lizard who loves compost heaps.  Hopfully he wasn't too disturbed by our activities and will go back to hunting insects in the leaf mulch. Support Dave's big walk to raise funds for Winsford Gardens     Dave, a long time volunteer at Winsford  Gardens (on the right) will be walking the  Pennine Way from 24th June to help raise  funds for our many future projects (and to  get fit too!). If you would like to sponsor him  follow this  link  www.gogetfunding.com/project/daveswalk where you can also follow his progress as he prepares for his big trip.  Pass on to all your friends too. He is also an avid Tweeter and you can follow him @fergussonfamily.        Other ways to help Winsford Gardens You can also help raise funds by doing your online shopping via easyfunding.  Sign up to easyfunding and when you shop at places like Amazon or John Lewis online, easyfunding will donate and small percentage to the Penge Green Gym.  To sign up follow this link  - www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/pengegreengym. Capitol Clean-up Grant   Thanks to Keith's hard work and with the help of Lizzie we have been awarded a grant from the Capitol Clean-up.  This means that we can now move forward with our bog garden and hopefully get it ready for our open day on 14th June.  Well done all involved.   A bit more bad news...   Sadly, over the last couple of weeks the vandalism has become worse.  What was left of the willow dome has now been completely destroyed.  We also suffered a break in to the greenhouse and our lawnmower was taken.  And finally the dead hedge next to the compost bins was burnt to the ground one night. This kind of destruction is very demoralising but we will continue to improve the gardens for the local community.

Penge Green Gym Newsletter Late March 2014

Penge Green Gym Newsletter

 

  

Dear Penge Green Gym Supporters

 

 

 

This week -

a volunteer success story,
a tale of renewal and destruction
and lots of spring flowers!


 Brenda and Dave spoke about the success of Penge Green Gym at the TCV's Volunteering Impacts conference on 27 March 2014 held at Waterlow Park, North London ...and two of our volunteers, Gavin and Lewis took part in practical gardening sessions in the park itself. TCV's report on volunteering impacts, highlighting recent work undertaken by TCV to better understand the full impact of volunteering was presented at the conference - our own Penge Green Gym gets special mention in the report. During the conference, Brenda was delighted to receive a 'Volunteering Impacts Award' on behalf of Penge Green Gym for our contribution to the local community (along with Jeremy from Watford Green Gym)..so well done everyone! For more information about the report you can go to www.tcv.org.uk/volunteeringimpacts ...
 

   

 

Sadly, more bad news about the living willow area

After the destruction of the willow dome and arch we decided that we wouldn't be cowed by the vandals and this week we replaced the dome with a low living willow hedge.  Unfortunately having checked the garden this weekend we have found that the hedge has also been destroyed the the remaining willow arch is now completely gone.  



We need your eyes and ears!

Anyone who lives locally and regularly goes through the garden, if you see any vandalism going on or hear of anything please let us know, we will not stop trying to improve the gardens but this kind of destruction is very demoralising.

On a brighter note



The construction of the new raised bed in the growing area is nearly complete, it just needs to be sunk into the ground.  (Thanks to our new volunteer Chris for helping out).



The plants in the greenhouse are going great guns, we're actually running out of space and with the warmer weather watering them regularly is becoming a priority.  The rose cuttings have nearly all taken and will hopefully be great sellers at our Open Day 14th June.

Events happening over Easter

Stephen Tinker has sent us details of some events taking place at High Elms over the easter holidays.