General

Are you a confident composter? Maybe you want to know where in your garden is the best place for your compost bin or how to long it will take to produce compost. Essex residents can take the Garden Organic composting course for free thanks to our friends at Love Essex. If you complete the course …

In Anton Rosenfeld shares advice about how to spot blight on your vegetable crops – and what to do about it. Blight is a virulent fungus that mainly attacks tomatoes and potatoes – and can destroy plants very quickly. It’s prevelant from June onwards, and tends to get worse later in the growing season. Most …

For all the wannabe home composters out there… Feel guilty that you’re not doing more, knowing we have a climate and nature crisis? Are you fed up with continually having to purchase bin bags? Cheesed off with all the costly trips to the “tip”?? Fed up to find your chosen “waste collector” has dumped your …

World Soil Day is an international observance dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of soil as a critical component of the natural environment. It highlights the need for sustainable soil management practices to protect and preserve this valuable resource for future generations. It’s an annual event that serves as a platform to promote the …

On a very wet day, a micro-orchard was planted in Bournes Green Park, Southend-on-Sea. Considering the weather, a large crowd of local residents joined us to help plant the mixture of apple and pear trees. Also on hand to help was the Mayor of Southend, Cllr Stephen Habermel, and Cllrs Daniel Nelson and Darryl Jones. …

Pesticide-Free Towns’ Campaigner Catch-up: Calling for a national ban   Wednesday 27 March, 7-8pm. Register at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcsdeivqzwjGtx53_FOCH_oVZwevrBLkGuk#/registration Join us for the first Campaigner Catch-up of 2024 – we will hear from the Pesticide Collaboration on the exciting launch of their new campaign.  

Saturday 16th March 10-3 at St Peter’s Church, Eastbourne Grove, near Southend Hospital, SS0 0QF, to plant hedging to replace a brick wall, a collaboration of FoE Southend, Prittlewell Green Streets Project and the Church. Open for help on the day?

Rettendon Horticultural Society have invited us to their talk on Tuesday 12 March, 7.30 at Rettendon Memorial Hall, Main Road, Rettendon, CM3 8DP. Sandra Lawrence, author of “Miss Wilmott’s Ghost”, will be talking about this amazing plants-woman who owned nearby Warley Place. During the Spring the meadows and garden are ablaze with daffodils and well …

This classic book was originally published in 1988. Now with a new introduction by Olivia Laing, ‘The Allotment’ is a story that is just as relevant today and an essential read for those interested in social history, land ownership and gardening in twenty-first century Britain. Allotmenteering started with The Diggers in seventeenth-century Surrey, in response to the Enclosure Acts …