Tatnam Organic Patch

Too snowy for a workday, but Ken and Ruth did pop down, and took some good pictures.

After much negotiation over dates, Tatnam Organic Patch held our AGM on 26 Sept 2010, followed by the annual barbacue. There was a good turnout, and a great spread of food, as always, far too much to eat.

The AGM apparently saw two new posts created;

Brendan was voted Head of composting, and Gary as primary contact for the LAND project, passing his wider secretarial duties to Kate.

Given Kate is just taking possession of an old house in need of much repair, not sure where she’ll find the time, but isnt that always the way ?

Tat and Brendan had visitors from New Zealand. Not sure what they made of the patch, or whether it will colour their view of how folks in the Old Country are living.

A little work was done, mostly cropping. We had some fantastic maincrop potatoes – individually big enough to bake one to share between two, and a vast array of squashes, including Sharks Fin Melon, which apparently makes good soup.

Aside from various meaty things cooked in the kitchen sink over the local Dorset charcoal, there was  Mark’s famous bean stew, a variety of appetising salads, and dazzling sweets, including an apple cake, a ginger and fruit cake (I’m going to be corrected on that one), and Jan’s summer pudding and crumble.

Looking back in my folder, I chanced across an email from 2003, from Kirsten Robb, who was involved in the patch in the early days. Writing from home in East Kilbride, having spent a while volunteering in Africa, she wrote “Is there a good crop of blackberries this year? And more importantly,  is Jan going to make her crumble ?” – and that’s how far back the tradition goes. It wouldn’t be a workday, or even an AGM without Jan’s famous crumble !

And having turned up a day early, Andy did eventually make the BBQ, if not the AGM.

The herb group gathered on this lovely Sunday afternoon to create the first of two herb beds in front of the greenhouse, and planted rosemary, hyssop, savoury, thyme, feverfew and lemonbalm.

caterpillar on mullein leaf

Gary debating while making tea...

gooseberries ripening

irises growing by the pond

Jan with broccoli leaves



sweet cicely's very tasty & edible seed pods


Gary and Brendan exploring...

Squashes were being planted


and much weeding being done...

cow parsley...

and elderflower in bloom

Ken protecting beans from pigeons


the tomatoes are coming on really well

Tat...

and Kate on their way home...

Another busy workday down the patch, with a good turnout, and plenty of sun.

Busy preparing the site for upcoming school visits, planting potatoes, and redigging the new beds -bindweed has a nasty habit of re-sprouting from the tinyest root, so you have to dig deep, and pick out all the bits carefully to minimise the regrowth.

Brendan has a new bike, dutch variety, so he had to park it in the middle of the site, looking very fetching near the daffodils. And Gary was either busy making tea, or coming to/from making tea. Again.

A few of us had to disappear, to go and litterpick at Turners Field. Maybe our experience on TOP will help to inspire and support a community allotment/garden on that site.

If only we could find a recipe for eating bindweed. Another busy Workday today down at the patch, mostly deep digging to clear the patch to the north of the greenhouse. A permaculture design has been roughly sketched out, and the team are keen to get beyond – well, digging. The prize archaelogical find was, I’m afraid something I remember being installed, a plastic bucket placed as a pond alongside the herb spiral.

Otherwise, Tat was busy with higher maths, and how to stretch the available pieces of wood to make a new lid for one water tank that would serve to extend the high water storage that irrigates the greenhouse from 2 x 40 gallon tanks to 3.

Mark worked his way once more along the far side of the fence, tending the brambles which maintains the security of the fence for us, and offers our neighbours a good crop of blackberries.

And Andy was tapping glass for most of the day. He thought he’d fixed all the main holes in the greenhouse until he sat down for a cup of tea and noticed more to do, for another day.

We had to stop for a great Venison curry (more cardamons than ever), grand sausage hotpot, homebaked bread rolls and dainty cherry and almond cakes, and the sun was kind.

Despite the weather. We started today by going to Stanley Green First School, to help them renovate a wildlife pond in the school grounds. I had a sneaky feeling that we’d actually been involved in getting the original pond put in, because we had a grant for our own pond liner, and I think 3 others, and Mark remembered being involved in the original dig just at the end.

Then back to the patch to do a workday. Well, rain and possibilities of Mark’s stew meant mostly sheltering in the greenhouse and talking.

Then folk arrived for the planting of a Cox’s apple tree – part of a national campaign by Greenpeace against the third runway at Heathrow. Annette Brooke, MP for North Poole and Mid Dorset came to plant the tree.

hi,
another fantastic bbq at TOP today. lots of good local and home processed food, too much to eat, the vino flowed thanks to Bernard and much merriment was had by all there. For those that couldn’t make it or didn’t know it was going on, TOP is there for groups to use for community action bas wellas being an example of uraban food growing along very strict organic guidelines. If you would like to make use of the site for meetings or socials then please just ask. It is also a great place to see what can be done with a small patch of land, some time and some enthusiasm to show that Transition is more than a concept.

Regards Gary,

Aside from the Firepit construction, we had a good turnout for the Third Saturday of the month Workday in August.

Mark cleared the pond. Harriet, Ken and Ruth did sterling weeding and cropping, and whilst Tat, Brendan and Andy worked the firepit, Suzanne was busy clearing space in the wildlife garden. Gary made lots of tea.

In the process, Suzanne uncovered a nearly fully developed Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar, soon to make a cocoon and pupate

As part of the workday on 15th August 2009, we set up a base to contain the fires we have (either for excess woody waste when dealing with Bramble pruning annually, for the November Bonfire meetings, and perhaps for cooking over an open fire at some of the workdays).

The old pavement risers that we had previously reclaimed and used as the base of the first greenhouse on site now have a new lease of life, as the surrounds to the Firepit.

After approximate measurements, and much digging of memories for far distant geometry  lessons searching for the dimensions of a perfect octagon,  Andy popped home to get the Ancient Egyptian technology, and progress got much faster.