2nd Meeting Minutes
March 25th 2023
Minutes of the Lynsted Community Kitchen Garden Meeting held on Saturday 25th March 2023 at 1.00pm
Those Present: Neil, Vanessa, Jacqui, Jess, Sylvie, Cass, Linda, John, Sue S, Ray, Sue E, Dave, Callum, Kelly, Alison H, Delia, Anniki, Zoe, Lizzie, Marta, Sally, Claire C, Claire W, Natalie
Apologies: Clare S, Robert S, Hilary, Janina, Clive, Raquel, Freya, Oskar, Alison R, Toby, Louise, Amber, Grace, Lloyd, Noah, Amy, Jo, Christina
Neil welcomed everyone to the meeting including all the new members who had recently joined.
There were no matters arising from the minutes of the last meeting held on 14th January 2023.
Open Morning Format – the Group felt that the Open Morning went really well. Even though we did not have many visitors. The new chalk boards were a great asset and worked really well on the main elements of the garden: Rain harvesting, compost, Bees, Weather Station and Herb Garden. The QR codes on the chalk boards enabled visitors to use their smart phone to access information from the LCKG website. There was also another QR code that members/guests could give feedback on what they learnt at the Open Morning and whether their habits would be changing from what they had learnt.
Finance – the balance as at 25/3/23 is £7,436.54. Forthcoming purchases included approximately £150 needed for the Bees including food and a nuc. Sprinklers and hose for the rain harvesting system would also need to be purchased.
Events at Lynsted Park: Vanessa explained that access to the garden would unfortunately be restricted on the following dates: Saturday 27th May, Saturday 3rd June (no access after 11:00) and Saturday 10th June (no access after 15:00).
The Good Food Movement – Kent Food Partnership. We have been approached by Bore Place near Sevenoaks which is an organic market garden, dairy farm and education centre with an estate open to the public, to ask if we would be interested in joining a sub group ‘The Good Food Movement’. The remit of this group will be to engage the public in food, cooking and/or growing across Kent. The objective is to share best practice, connect people across the county to create a network and engage the wider community by inspiring people about the importance and joy of good food. Vanessa and Jess have kindly agreed to represent us at these meetings, so we look forward to feedback from them in due course.
Plant Labels – We saw a local company on Instagram who have a workshop in Painters Forstal that make wooden plant labels from off cuts of chestnut. We thought they would be ideal for our vegetable beds. Vanessa has approached them and they are in the process of costing out our order. Everyone seemed to be in favour of more permanent labels in wood rather than the plastic versions.
Hedgerow – The delivery of approximately 122 hedge saplings arrived and were duly planted with the help of the local primary school. The hedge has been planted at the rear of the newly erected poly tunnel and greenhouse so that hopefully it will eventually shield them from the wind. Dave suggested that once they are grown to a certain height we will be able to landscape the hedge by ‘hedge laying’ although this could be a few years yet! This is so important for the environment as it provides an excellent habitat for wildlife.
Herb Garden – The drawings from the herb garden were shared recently on the Members email. We received a small grant from MySociety of £2,000 towards the Herb Garden, we are still waiting to hear whether our bid to the NGS Community Garden Grant has been successful before we proceed with the building of the Herb Garden. Vanessa has approached a company called Wood BlocX which is a modular way of building raised beds without the need for carpentry skills. If we don’t receive the NGS grant we will obviously still build the Herb Garden but adapt it with the money we have available
Forthcoming Jobs – The whiteboard in the shed and the WhatsApp group remain the primary sources of communication with the Members. We will have to hoop most of the vegetable beds due to the rabbit/pigeon/pheasant problems. There are two different types of hoops and two different size of metal pins. Please ensure that the big blue hoops are pinned with the larger pins and the grey smaller hoops with the smaller pins (there are two buckets in the shed with large and small pins). This is important as the hoops are more stable with the correct hoop/pin ratio. There is always weeding to do, even in beds that are planted with produce and Dave has kindly given us a brilliant supply of chipping to replace the paths. When we remove bricks from an area can they please be stacked neatly on the corners of the vegetable beds for future use, if the bricks are left along the paths where they are not needed they can be a trip hazard. Ray asked if we could reinstall the perimeter fence around the vegetable beds but it was felt that we would still need to hoop the beds so therefore not needed and also it is harder to mow the grass with the fence in situ.
Vineyard/Community wine – 1ha site in the community garden field. Neil explained that he and Vanessa had recently visited Elvis and Kresse’s regenerative Vineyard in Painters Forstal as part of ongoing research for this project. The field where the Kitchen Garden resides, had the soil tested for its suitability for vines 3yrs ago – it proved to be good. Neil is looking at a number of models for how best to structure the project, and suggested a Vine Leasing Scheme might work best - offered to those community kitchen garden members who were interested. Any lease agreement would not have a monetary cost but would require time and labour in return for wine. The labour would involve, weeding, pruning, canopy management and eventually picking. Neil said that Lynsted Park would need to sell some of the wine to recoup the initial set up cost - perhaps best done over a period of time, allowing some wine to be sold and the rest given to those who had signed up to the project.
For now, Neil asked if those who are interested could simply register their interest by emailing lynstedkitchengarden@gmail.com then it would help with the planning steps. The vineyard would be linked to the community kitchen garden but operate separately. There was a good show of hands from the members at the meeting who would like to be involved in this. The planting time for vines is April so we would be looking to start in April 2024. Neil pointed out, that there is a lot more analysis to be done and a consultant would need to be found to recommend what vines would be suitable. Whilst questions are welcomed, it may not be possible to provide full answers at this stage.Any Other Business
Clare S asked to raise if anyone was interested in a Biodversity working sub group within the Kitchen Garden to focus on projects to actively encourage more wildlife. Fun elements for the school, Open Day for families and younger members of the Kitchen Garden. Some ideas to think about: Hedgehogs – encourage by creating habitat/house (rehoming?) Dead wood from the plum trees for insects and fungi. Bug hotels – using recycled bamboo, roof tiles, moss, cardboard. Slow worms using roof felt/old slabs. Wildlife survey (data handling exercise). If you interested please email lynstedkitchengarden@gmail.com about this.
Dave asked whether we could approach Luddenham Primary School to visit the Garden. In principle, we want to support and welcome any interested schools, but our time is a factor and with Lynsted Primary here weekly, and the open mornings to run, we need to be sure that we can meet our existing education commitments effectively, and keep up with the day to day requirements of running the garden. (As an after thought, if someone wanted to be take responsibility for school liaison, then we could look to expand school involvement further).
John asked if more vegetable beds were needed as our Members list has grown, it was thought to leave it as it is at present but review in the future.
John asked if we could site a couple of Owl boxes in the trees surrounding the Kitchen Garden to see if we could encourage some owls to be residents of the Kitchen Garden, they would hopefully deter rodents from our produce. This was agreed and Vanessa kindly donated a box. Dave said he would be happy to install the boxes.
Vanessa wondered if anyone would be interested in attending any courses at Dilston Physic Garden in Northumberland (there is one on 28th April 2023), it highlights the medicinal benefits of herbs. She appreciated that it was a long way to go but if anyone was interested please let her know.
Jess asked if there was any way that the onus could be taken off Vanessa & Jacqui for the Open Day preparation, as it was a lot of work. We will all work together for the next Open Day on 8th July 2023 to try and relieve the pressure.
Ray was thanked for all his hard work with the rain water harvesting system by the compost shed, a really good job!!
We are just awaiting the team from Sarah Neave’s to arrive so that the poly tunnel can be completed.
The meeting ended at 2pm.
The next scheduled meeting will be on Saturday 8th July 1pm after the Open Morning.
1st Meeting Minutes
Jan 14th 2023
Minutes of the Lynsted Community Kitchen Garden Meeting held on Saturday 14th January 2023 at 10.30am
Those Present: Neil, Vanessa, Clive, Jacqui, Ray, Sue E, John, Sue S, Clare S, Lizzie, Hilary, Linda, Delia, Amy, Christina, Alison
Apologies: Dave, Raquel, Freya, Oskar, Annikki, Claire W, Janina, Jess, Callum, Kelly, Robert, Zoe, Toby, Louise, Amber, Grace
There were no matters arising from the last minutes on 2nd October 2022
Weather station – Vanessa explained that we were successful with the MySociety bid and we were granted £5,000. Our bid incorporated a weather station for the Kitchen Garden, which we have now purchased for £1,700 from Davis Weather Link. It has been set up. You can follow updates on the LCKG Instagram page. The weather station measures Air temperature, Air Humidity and Wind Direction & Speed plus soil temperature and moisture. We will be writing a weekly blog (goes out late on Sunday night). In the blog there will be a photo each week and a brief forecast for our local area, with suggested gardening tips in light of the predicted weather. There will be a leaning towards info on climate tech and climate adaption as these elements were requested by My Society. Sue S asked if the live Davis Weather App information from Lynsted Kitchen Garden could be available for all to access. Vanessa will look into this. The discussion then went on with how we capture water and evaluate how much water we are using to water our vegetables etc. Alison suggested a comparison bed of no dig versus a dig bed to establish whether no dig uses less water. Amy suggested a perennial plot also such as beans/asparagus/kale/broccoli to see if these beds will need less water.
Rain Harvesting - Our main goal is to be self sufficient with the rainwater that we are harvesting from the two tanks that we have at present. Ray updated us on the rain harvesting tanks on the compost shed and the main shed. The Compost Shed tank can harvest 3,00 litres of water when it is full, the old metal tank about 1200 litres. Ray is just waiting for information from the supplier regarding sprinklers for the beds and drip feed lines for the polytunnel and fruit cage. Lizzie commented that drip feed is good as there is less evaporation. A discussion was held within the meeting as to whether or not we can monitor the water used on a daily basis. The group felt that this would be too much, but a level indicator tank will be installed on the compost shed tank so that we can check how much water is in the tank at a given time.
Finance – Vanessa and Ray explained that the finance is looking pretty healthy with a balance of £9,032.27.
Equipment for the Garden – The group expressed a wish for a small shredder to be purchased so that we can shred as we go. Since the meeting a video was uploaded by Sue E to show a Bosch shredder which can be purchased for under £200. The demonstration showed that even the brussel sprout stems can be shredded along with twigs, so good for green and brown matter for the compost heap. Long handled loppers were also requested. Vanessa will look into this. Signs for the rows and beds. Vanessa has actioned this and sent some information on the WhatsApp group.
Herb Garden – even though we received some funding from MySociety for the ‘dry’ herb garden, the plans that we have drawn up will need significantly more money if we want the raised beds and the ‘wellbeing factor’ to be really good. We are therefore going to bid for a grant from the National Garden Scheme Community Garden Grant (NGS). The herb garden will be situated in front of the fruit cage, alongside the polytunnel with approximate dimensions of 9m x12m. The NGS application encourages uploads of photos/drawings/visions of how we would like the garden to look. We are grateful to Emma Thomson, a friend of someone on our membership, for doing some drawings so that we can forward them with our application. These should be completed and will be circulated towards the end of week beginning 23rd Jan.
Greenhouse – it was discussed at the meeting that a greenhouse was really necessary to start our seeds off in the Kitchen Garden. In the past Vanessa has kindly loaned us use of her greenhouse but the group agreed we have enough money to purchase a greenhouse for the Kitchen Garden. Jacqui approached the Young Ambassadors. They will construct an email that we can send to companies to see if there is any scope for a discount. Whilst we were talking about the greenhouse, Vanessa said that the Polytunnel would eventually need replacing and that perhaps we could purchase a polytunnel with an extension. It would cost £3,895 to replace the polytunnel without the extension. Maybe this is something to look into for the future.
Composting Workshop – everyone agreed that the composting workshop run by Heart and Soil (Jess and Amy) on 10th December 2022 was very informative and our heartfelt thanks to them both. Amy stressed the importance of chunky veg being cut smaller (the shredder will help with this). Egg boxes were also a good addition to the compost, torn up and distributed over the compost heap.
Fruit Cage – Jacqui explained that we had planted 18 new Raspberry plants (3 different varieties). Linda had taken 100 runners off of our existing Strawberry plants and planted two new rows of Strawberries so hopefully they will be plentiful this year. Jacqui asked if there was anything else anyone would like for the fruit cage. Christina said that Wine berries would be good, Lizzie said that she had some runners of Wine berries which she will bring to the garden. John said that some more para cord would need to be purchased as the netting needed securing around the top of the fruit cage. Sue S also asked to purchase some more tension wire for the Raspberries.
Bees – the new area is now ready for the bees to be moved to. John explained that he has two bee hives at home that he will bring up to the garden. Callum has unfortunately lost his bee hive that he was going to bring to the garden. John explained that we may need to buy a nuc or two and we also need to buy some sugar fondant. Approximately £200 will need to be spent for the bee equipment. It is hoped that eventually we will have up to five bee hives up at the garden.
Website development – Vanessa said that the website just needs time to be spent on it. It is hoped that some of the Member’s families may be able to give some time to assist Vanessa with the development. The website Squarespace costs around £120 a year although it may be more if we want to upload videos onto the website.
Young Ambassadors – Jacqui will message the Young Ambassadors regarding writing to Companies regarding the purchase of a Greenhouse for the Garden.
Any other Business –Jess asked Jacqui to raise the possibility of compiling a calendar of events for the year to engage the wider community ie. a Spring Equinox, Seed sowing, Seed swap, Growing in High Summer, Harvest celebration, pumpkins for composting and Christmas tree collecting for chipping. The members thought it was an excellent idea. Vanessa/Jacqui will go back to Jess for more information.
Janina asked if we could have some hedging around the compost toilet area. Members thought it would be good but it would need some thought as it needed flowers that would not attract the bees. It is also important not to obstruct the compost toilet too much to enable it to do its job.
Alison requested that meeting dates be better communicated. Neil agreed to add the meeting dates to the Google Calendar and send to all the members.
John mentioned about a metal structure for the runner beans to cover two beds that would be transportable so that it can be moved for crop rotation.
John asked about a noticeboard of the type he had seen at Sissinghurst Gardens. This is in hand as it was part of the application in the MySociety grant.
Clive mentioned that the weeding sometimes can get a little bit out of hand and that many hands make light work and perhaps ‘Weeding Parties’ are the way forward (apparently there will be cake!) Date to be advised via the WhatsApp group.
Vanessa advised that we have over 122 sapling arriving in March so a ‘Tree planting party’ will also be required. Lynsted Primary School have since our meeting expressed an interest in being part of the tree planting an a provisional date of Fri March 17th 2023 has been pencilled in for this .. but needs confirming.
The wildlife pond was discussed but it was felt that this is a long term plan.
The meeting finished at 12pm.
THE DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE ON SATURDAY 25TH MARCH AND WE HOPE TO INCOPORATE AN OPEN DAY TOO. TIME TO BE ADVISED.