Grow Penistone

The dry stone wall at Springvale is a fine structure. Built by the waterboard many years ago it is a long and tall wall that separates the Springvale site from the woodland above.

Part of the wall was in a collapsed state when the partnership acquired Springvale – it was thought that the roots of a mature Oak tree had dislodged stones. Much of the wall was laying on the bank, and getting in the way of us planting an orchard there, so aside from looking a mess the stone was taking up valuable growing space. Something had to be done.

We contacted Les Young of Hadrian’s Dry Stone Walls, and enlisted him for training and supervising a group of volunteers to rebuild the wall at the same time as learning a new skill. Les is a real dry stone walling enthusiast and we all have thoroughly enjoyed the last couple of of months working under his supervision to build layer after layer of wall. The coping stones that form the top layer have recently gone on, and we have fiddled about with a difficult sloping section that reconnects the old wall with the new section.

The wall is now finished! And I am convinced none of us will ever be able to look at a stone again without thinking how it would sit in a dry stone wall. There is a lot of thinking and planning involved in the skill and all volunteers have commented on how incredibly absorbing it is. We still have a lot of stone remaining, and we can’t wait to get started on something else!

The engineering company Laing O’Rourke has been busy  in Penistone in recent years, building the new Penistone Advanced Learning Centre. The company aims to leave a positive legacy in areas where it has worked and Springvale has been the lucky recipient of advice, materials, and labour from the company.

The front face of the project has been cleared of much of its ugly paving and is ready for a garden to be built. We have also had the benefit of a digger coming onto site to do a lot of the heavy work that is needed. Digging up tree roots and shifting massive stones is a lot easier with something like this…

The digger clearing tree-roots and brambles

It has also been interesting for volunteers and visitors to watch the work progress – especially the work of the digger driver. I never thought I’d use the word ‘elegant’ to describe how a digger is handled but it really was just that!

The company refurbished and decorated the front gate so the view for visitors first approaching Springvale is improving. We also now have some huge piles of topsoil from the former playing field at the school – this is ready to go into new raised beds and help to expand the space we have for growing.

Topsoil from the former playing fields at Penistone Advanced Learning Centre

The staff and contractors at the firm have been incredibly helpful with labour and building advice, and we need to say a great big THANKYOU for all they have done for the project.

It is early days for the Community Garden at Springvale and there is a lot of thought being given to the front area of the site. It is the bit that first greets the visitor, and if first impressions last then we are in trouble. It looks like a prison yard! We have been clearing some of the vegetation growing through the paving cracks which has improved it a bit, but it needs a major overhaul.

What to do with the area… We want to do something that is easy-on-the-eye, and is relevant, interesting and involving of local people. And as the project is currently funded through a lottery ‘local foods’ grant we should do something to promote local growing.

A current idea is to divide the area up into  separate gardens that look like your typical Penistone gardens and demonstrate food growing in each space. I have already heard from people who have gardens that are too small, too shady or too inaccessible to do much with, and I wonder if we could demonstrate growing in such spaces. At Springvale we also have adversities – poor access due to a bridge unsuitable for vehicals meaning we have to cart everything in by hand. And with a site mostly covered in road chippings the growing surface doesn’t get much worse – we have to do much of our growing in raised beds made with a lot of hard graft. We can create shady and sunny if we play around with planting and siting of structures such as garden sheds. So I feel we that we could demonstrate all types of adversity, and perhaps open up a challenge to grow as much food as possible within the separate spaces. And when I say ‘we’ I mean we in the broadest sense. Not just current volunteers who are already very busy growing and tidying at the site. I mean all the local people who could potentially be involved. We could even have team competitions!

One related story is that of Mark Ridsdill Smith of ‘Vertical Veg’ in North London. Growing food on a  9 foot x 6  foot north-west facing foot balcony, five south facing window sills, three north facing window sills, and a small patch of concrete outside the front door of his flat he is challenging himself to grow as much food as possible, and this year his challenge is to grow £1000 worth in accordance with Tescos prices. Each month he records the weight and values of harvests and images of the successes and failures. The ups and downs of his attempts are all recorded on his website. http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/?page_id=1895site

The pictures of his flat are amazing. A little bit mad… but very inspiring. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone’s garden looked like that?

If the current demand for allotments is anything to go by then there is every indication that such a  project would go down well in Penistone. What do you think?

And what does a  typical Penistone garden look like? We need to get an impression of the worst, the best, and the most mediocre so it is all relevant – please send your photos and descriptions.

Nicola

Grow Penistone Project Manager

This Sunday Springvale will be officially opening its gates to the public with guided tours of the Physic Garden, and we’re also letting people take a wander around the site to see how we’re getting on with turning a neglected former nursery into a community garden.

If you’ve ever wandered past the site, you’ll have probably seen something like this:

Not the most welcoming sight, and you probably didn’t feel like nudging the gate to see what lies beyond. The front area used to be a car park and now often gets compared to a prison yard. And it looks a lot lot worse on a dull day! There is much work to be done…

Behind the greenhouses the view gets a whole lot better with beds literally spilling over with fruit and veg. The Physic Garden also lies behind the greenhouses, and this area is lush with colourful plants – ones that can be used to combat all sorts of ailments.

The creator of the Physic garden is a local herbalist called John Hislop, and he will be giving guided tours at various times of the day – 10.00, 11.00, 12.00  —   1.30, 2.30, 3.30. This is a small preview of what is there just to whet appetites…

We’ll also be selling some of our veg on the day. We’re currently enjoying a great harvest of potatoes, with second earlies about to be dug up. There are three different varieties to try – Kestrel; Bonnies and Charlottes. Sadly we’ve just finished the last of the Earlies – our crop of ‘Foremost’ won rave reviews, and we had a few people coming back for repeat visits just to buy them.  Definitely a good candidate for planting next year.

We’ll also have some peas, broad beans; cabbages; carrots, chard and spinach for sale. And a few courgettes and tomatoes if they get a move-on. There are a lot of herbs dotted around the site too, and we’re always willing to pick a few for sale. All money that we make from sales will be used to buy more things for the project or to pay for volunteer expenses, so it all benefits the local area.

Gates are opening at 9.45am on Sunday, and we’ll stay open until about 4.30pm. Hopefully we’ll see you there.