As with all things new, you have to sow a seed and that’s what we did at the beginning of March. A number of volunteers and staff members at the Park Royal operation in West London decided to set up a Gardening Club to brighten up the space outside the depot and grow some of our own fruit and veg for our lunches and BBQs. The Felix garden is located in the right spot: outside of the ‘greenhouse’ effect offices, but still attracting full sun and providing an optimal environment to help our garden grow. With generous donations of pots, seeds, a hot compost bin from our lovely volunteers and the arrival of some warmer weather, we were all set to go!
Since mid-March, we have been sowing and growing, throwing snails over the fence, drinking lots of tea and watching the rain, watering, re-using discarded material and taste-testing unknown roots (not advisable!)
To date we are very proud of what we’ve achieved. Whilst the abundant orange Calendula flowers were the stars in June, the Sunflowers are now in flower and we have harvested our first vegetables (at the time of editing we have miniature courgettes and beetroot). The highest growers are the potato plants - all we have to do is wait for the flowers before we can harvest the veg.
A big “we miss you” to the ones we’ve lost along the way: Tomas the tomato plant, Bertie the beetroot, Britten who turned out not to be fern but fennel and all our lovely international interns who helped set up the gardening club.
Our fantastic garden club members provide tender love and care to the plants whenever is convenient. If you want to join in let us know: [email protected].
Written by Bernadette, Hanna and Nick