Mature forest garden

It may be hard to make out but we have a mature forest garden running through the site. There is a diverse range of fruit trees (apple, pear, cherry and plum) which form part of an old orchard. Through the winter we will be restoring the trees back to good health with lots of pruning and ivy clearance. Some trees we will leave as the ivy creates a great habitat for bees and insects which is food for our resident wood pecker plus other bird life.

 

Closer to the ground there are raspberries, black berries and wild strawberries. Lower down a herb layer for our teas with lots of chamomile, yarrow and mint. The mixed herbs and flowers have attracted lots of different variety of bee and several varieties of hover fly which are essential for keeping down green fly and aphids.

 

In Spring this area makes a fantastic habitat for the birds and in winter a good wind break to shelter the site from cold winds. The lovely access for all path was put in by a community payback team and is maintained by different community groups. This allows full access across the site by people with different mobility needs and handy for picking out fruity harvest.

The BIG green house

On our 7 acre site we were fortunate enough to inherit lots of different resources. One of them is a 40 by 30meter square green house. This has amazing potential but this year as we have so much to get going on the rest of the site we have given it over to Simms Hill Shared Harvest. So if you receive a veg box from them your veg would probably of been grown in here. This has made a huge difference to Simms Hill as the weather outside has been so bad for growing.

At Feed Bristol we host a range of different groups. Last week eight young people from Otesha camped over for five days. Otesha are a groups that organise cycle tours around the country with groups that promote environmental sustainability and peace. We were very grateful for their support in helping on the land. http://www.otesha.org.uk/

Thanks to some hard work by a corporate volunteer day by Savils we managed to finish of the building work in front of our teaching barn. We laid hard standing and put in 4 raised beds on a very hot day. We now have access for all to our kitchen and barn so more different groups can access the project. The raised beds will also help those groups that come with limited mobility.

Whilst we do grow vegetables we also spend a lot of time poking around looking at wildlife on the site. One of aims of Feed Bristol is to connect people with nature through food growing. One day we discovered a real monster lurking in the corner of the green house. This is a giant edible puff ball found by James.

A share of the harvest

Despite one of the worst growing seasons in the past 100 years we have had a very good first season.  This shows why grade 1 agricultural soil is so important for the security of local food production. As a result we have been able to share our harvest with  many different community groups including local nursing homes, Easton community centre cafe, Wild Goose, Bristol Refugee Rights and Fare Share. If you are a community group that wants to get involved and share the harvest please get in touch.