The Onion Shed

Brockwell Bake's heritage wheat in Made-of-London bags

Here's a photo taken in that really hot spell in July of Paragon, one of the seven heritage varieties of wheat, looking gorgeous in the low afternoon sun with the ladybirds.

The wheat should be ready for harvest soon for the Feast on the Bridge celebrations on Saturday 11th Sept where Nicola from the marvellous Cottingham Community Gardens will be gathering a merry band of north Lambeth revellers to join in the celebrations , whilst carrying wheat to be milled on the bridge with the Brockwell Bake crew .

This free event sees Southwark Bridge closed for the day to play host for this spectacular harvest gathering as part of the Thames Festival. Watch this space for wheat harvesting dates.

http://www.brockwell-bake.org.uk/#events

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Made of London produce
July 2010

Bag 3 is still doing really well - I don't know how I missed it but this Courgette is just ever-so slightly oversized ! Good for gorgeous pots of tamarind and courgette pickle. Lovely looking Chard, but I always think it looks more lovely than tastes, but welcome any chard lovers to convert me otherwise. Beans seem pretty weedy though.

............................................................................................................................................................ 'Made of London' bag-a-bag
June 2010
Bag 3 continues to excite - 75% local waste + 25% commercially produced compost . All the plants show the same vigorous healthy growth as the plants in the bags with the higher % of commercially produced compost, which is the control (as we know it works). The next couple of weeks will be interesting to see how all the energy and nutrients work hard to produce the gorgeous flowers or vegetables. Each bag contains Courgette, Chard, Dwarf French Bean, Nasturtium (2 types), Runner Bean, Sunflower, Brockwell Bake's Wheat (7 types) for September's Feast on The Bridge

Bag 1 100% local waste - 70% fruit + veg compost,15% Aardvark Recycling Compost, 15% Monmouth Coffee + Costa Coffee chaff mix

Bag 2 100% local waste - 60% fruit + veg compost, 20% Aardvark Recycling Compost, 20% Monmouth Coffee chaff

Bag 3 75% local waste + 25% commercially produced compost - 25% fruit + veg compost, 25% Aardvark Recycling Compost, 25% Costa Coffee chaff, 25% Arthur Bower's multi-purpose compost

Bag 4 30% local waste + 70% commercially produced compost - 15% Aardvark Recycling Compost, 15% Monmouth Coffee + Costa Coffee chaff mix, 70% Arthur Bower's multi-purpose compost

Bag 5 The Control 100% Arthur Bower's multi-purpose compost
................................................................................................................................................................ 'Up on the Roof' Repowering Lambeth
June 2010
This was a Fantastic weekend project with a great group contribution by the Onion Shedders. Special thanks to Dusty Gedge for inspiring us with his Living Roof passion. The construction of the green roof on top of the £100 B + Q bike shed is based on the DIY guide by Dusty and John Little. www.livingroofs.org/diy-guide-green-roofs.html

Delighted to share a few photos of The Onion Shed's first Onion Shed.

Dusty sharing his Living Roof passions

Strawberries, sedums and native grasses

Chives (Onion family)

Elf-dens and holey bricks for bugs

Shed reinforced with internal roof and upright struts and bracing to take extra load. Doors have been left off for clarity.

Walls waiting to be painted with water based low VOC external paint

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'Up on the Roof' Repowering Lambeth

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'Made of London' at Roots and Shoots
May 2010

The builder's bags full of weeds was a sight for sore eyes. I have never been so excited about weeds. Made of London is an experiment in growing food using a range of local waste materials in re-used builder's merchants bags. Each bag has a different soil ranging from 100% commercial produced soil ( the control) to 100% local waste, with the ratio of different mixes between.

The pre-weeding photos show Bag 3 to be the most vigorous- interesting as this contains the highest content of costa coffee's coffee chaff, which Greg - horticultural guru at Roots and Shoots - suggested might have helped with retaining moisture, as well as the largest ratio of Aardvark Recycling's compost. Bag 1 ( 100% commercial ) was totally weed free, with the other bags a range inbetween.
Having cleared the weeds out , each bag has been planted with :
Runner Beans ( seed beans donated by a lovely lady at the Roots and Shoots Spring Science Open Day)
Sunflowers
French Dwarf Beans
Courgettes
Two types of Nasturtiums
Chard

Watch out for taste test later in the year

Have a look at the photos .
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40617641@N05/sets/72157624065525758/

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Brockwell Bake's Spring Wheat growing in Made of London
April 2010

All the wheat is doing well, and so they should with such delightful names e.g. Red Fife and Bearded April varieties.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40617641@N05/sets/72157623590004447/

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Beautify The Beaufoy visuals
March 2010

In response to the Unloved Lambeth project and struck by the passion for food and compost production at the recent Onion Shed's gathering, Melanie has proposed 'Beautify the Beaufoy'. Be inspired.
Beautify the Beaufoy.pdf
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Thanks to Lambeth Council's 'Make the Big Difference Funding' March 2010 The Onion Shed are delighted to invite you to participate in three local activities: Seedball making workshop; Invisible Food Forage; Cycle Tour of Guerilla and Community Gardens

'Over the Fence' led cycle tour of Guerilla and Community Gardens
Saturday 27th March 2010 10.15 meet at Garden History Museum, SE11

Photos

Seed Ball Making Workshop
as part of the Roots and Shoots Spring Science Day on Sunday 21st March 2010

Photos

Invisible Food Forage
as part of the Roots and Shoots Spring Science Day on Sunday 21st March 2010

Forage thanks to Invisible Food
Photos
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Onion Shed Meeting notes Autumn 2009
November 2009
Onion Shed Meeting 02 191109.pdf