Category: Newsletter

Welcome to Autumn 2020 at the garden

Hello everyone, hope you are keeping well. It has been a challenging summer in many ways, but we hope you have found some solace in the joy of gardening and the healing power of nature. We have finally re opened the community garden to a small working party of volunteers who are in the process of restoring the garden to its former glory and doing everything they can to make it a safe and secure place to work and visit in the future. We will let you know when it is safe to return via email.

We have consulted the government guidelines, and worked with the University’s’ Safety, Health and Environment Unit (SHE) to create a number of procedures to make our space Covid-19 secure. The garden comes under the regulations for educational activities, supporting the university curriculum, and can accommodate small groups of people (we are currently operating at 6 including a facilitator) but can accommodate larger numbers outdoors providing people remain at a safe distance of 2 meters apart, 3 meters if doing strenuous activity like digging.

In the next few weeks, we will open further and invite our community volunteers to return on a Tuesday and students/staff will be welcome on a Wednesday.  All sessions will run from 10am until 2pm, but you can call in at any time during the session and do not have to stay for the full four hours.  Initially, we will be asking volunteers to book onto sessions by emailing kentcog@kent.ac.uk so that we can monitor numbers. More information will follow on this.

Whether you are returning or coming for the first time, you will be fully briefed of our new procedures on arrival. If you have any concerns, your facilitator will be on hand to help answer your questions. Just remember to bring your own lunch and refreshments (hot drinks are available) and wear suitable clothing for outdoor activity.  It would be really helpful if individuals could purchase their own facemasks and gardening gloves in advance, as wearing personal protective equipment is mandatory. We will have a small selection of items if you cannot but this is limited.

The garden, after months of neglect, is in need of some tender love and care. It has now been strimmed but needs a lot of weeding.  We are also lacking in plants, so if anyone has any seeds or plants they would like to donate, please come along once we are fully open and leave any offerings at the plant stand.  We would love to see what you have been growing!

Thank you to our volunteers who have donated produce from their allotments, we have had a splendid collection of tomatoes available for donations, along with cucumbers, apples, onions and a variety of greens (all on our Instagram feed). Please help yourself if you are passing us on the crab and winkle way, and place your donations in the box on the wall behind the plant stand. Every penny helps!

When you are notified, please come to one of our regular KentCOG sessions to find out more about the partnership project between East Kent Mind and the University of Kent:

Every Tuesday 10 – 2pm (Community Session)

Every Wednesday 10 – 2pm (Student Session)

Find the garden here

Please visit https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/kentcog/ for more information about the project or email kentcog@kent.ac.uk if you have any queries. Our Instagram is – kent_community_oasis_garden.

What’s happening this season?

East Kent Mind continues to provide a digital weekly timetable of workshops; here is September’s timetable. October’s timetable will be online very soon. www.eastkentmind.org.uk

Fundraising:

David Palmer, CEO East Kent Mind, is running a marathon to raise money for Mind. Here’s what he has to say:
“Help me get to my target. So here we go. I’m running the London marathon in October for Mind.  Training is very, very hard particularly in this glorious weather.  No booze, healthy food and lots of chocolate and lots of running, cycling, long walks at a fast pace and only 1 week to go. This is a massive, massive challenge for me professionally and personally. I so need the support to do this. Please, please share my page and encourage others to do the same and donate if you can no matter how small. All funds raised will go directly to Mind.  Man,y many thanks in advance. I need all the support I can get. Apologies for cross posting.”

If you would like to support David please visit:

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/18041_7881877_894

Seasonal jobs:

It’s harvest time in the garden and we have recently foraged apples, plums, rosehips and sloe berries from the garden. Check out our blog for our raw rosehip syrup recipe courtesy of the Woodland Trust. https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/kentcog/2020/09/24/rosehip-syrup-workshop/

We are compiling our seed order for next year as we speak; if you have any requests just email us at the address at the bottom of the page.

Last but not least:

If you have spotted a hedgehog on campus, in your garden or around your local area please log your sighting onto the Big Hedgehog Map. https://bighedgehogmap.org/

By logging your sighting you are helping hedgehog conservationists and scientists build a picture of our hedgehog populations, which are in a lot of trouble with populations plummeting 50% since 2000.