Yet another chilly but dry start to the day. The full skip was due to be removed today and once this had happened we could see the full effects of the site clearance that had taken place over the previous two weeks. The car parking area looks so much larger and the new flower beds with their sleeper surrounds look very attractive.

We reckoned that 8 tons of topsoil remained where Bury Hill had tipped it the week before. We had estimated that we needed between 17 and 20 tons of topsoil to fill the beds but had only been able to bring 10 tons to site at any one time. So our plan for this week was to clear all of the topsoil to the beds and firm up on the estimate for the next load. As we shoveled the soil to wheelbarrow we reflected how much harder this would be if we hadn’t covered the soil with tarpaulin the week before – and we had been tempted not to do this because we were so tired!!

Whilst this was going on we carried out a quick check on the beds to make sure that they were sufficiently clear of rubble. You may recall last week the end bed could only be cleared by using a pick axe. In turning it over it was obvious that a substantial amount of rubble remained under the surface, so the pick axe was put to work once again! An hour and several heavy pieces of brick wall later the bed was declared clear. The clay is quite clumpy in this bed, so we have decided its first crop will be potatoes.

Back at the mound of topsoil we had been joined by a Ruth and her son, Owen. Ruth runs B@titude in Kingston Road Leatherhead with a colleague. Established in 2005, the shop sells and donates babies and children's clothes and has a small cafe area, where refreshments are sold at very reasonable prices. At the back of the shop is a play area for young children and a garden with a Wendy house and seating area. The shop is a focal point for local Mums and provides an invaluable range of services and help. If you have any surplus babies and children’s clothes B@titude will find new homes for them in the local community. For more information visit their website on www.beatitude.org.uk or telephone 01372 374666.

The soil to barrow to bed conveyor belt worked methodically for several hours. To make it more exciting we tested different ways of filling the barrows – was it easier from the right or the left (the consensus was that for all of us right handed persons it is easier on the right …. no real surprises there but it killed the time!). We talked about which vegetables we’d like to grow most – carrots and broccoli were high on the agenda. And Owen had the fun job of collapsing the mound when we needed more soil to work with.

One of our team concentrated on raking over the beds as the three barrows deposited earth continually. Raking is one of those tasks which always looks easy but when you try it for any length of time you realise how tiring it is on your arms and upper torso! Well that’s what “the raker” declared – and the rest of us weren’t minded to test his declaration!

By 1.30pm the mound had disappeared and all but two beds had been mostly filled. We estimate another 6 to 7 tons of soil is needed for next week. Some beds are to be increased to about waist height for ease of access for those that cannot bend. Finishing the bed surrounds is on the list for next week.

As usual there was a very tired but content group of individuals that left the site today

Another day and another milestone to attain! A team from Rotaract had said they’d join us so we started off with some high expectations for the day. To cap it all there was no snow, no rain and the chill even abated every so often!

At 9.00am we took delivery of some beautiful black organic top soil from Bury Hill in Westcott (check out www.buryhilltopsoilandlogs.co.uk). The driver, who is an accomplished vegetable grower himself, explained that the dark colour is due to the mushroom based organic matter that is added to local fertile loam. Known as “Bury Hill Black” apparently this very fine topsoil is the only certified organic topsoil produced in Surrey and is used for school vegetable gardens and more throughout the county.

We mused how little we knew about the skills and resources in our community before we had started this project – and what an eye-opener this project is. Recycling seems to be a common theme with many of our partners: Bury Hill loam is a bi-product of the de-silting work that took place at Bury Hill fishery some 15 years ago, Compost Works promotes the re-use of pallets and that wonderful website Freecycle has resulted in many gardening and kitchen items.

But enough of musing – let’s get back to work. The plan for the day was twofold – clear the rest of the excavated soil and rubble and complete some of the beds. With 3 wheelbarrows in action, work commenced with gusto on re-locating material from the patio area to the skip. Wow, this was arduous work. Taking it out of the ground with the digger was so, so easy in comparison! We needed extra hands…and right on cue Rob and his team from the Epsom Rotoract turned up. After a quick introduction some of the team set to work on the skip filling. Three beds were ready to be filled with top soil but three on the south side of the site hadn’t been touched and needed to be dug over. The beds on the north side of the site had been full of building rubble so we were very pleasantly surprised to discover that two of the beds on the south side were pretty much rubble free and moreover the soil is beautiful crumbly clay. This clay has obviously been worked a lot in the past so perhaps this is confirmation that this area had been allotments previously. In stark contrast one of the beds on the north side – the very last one of the twelve to be worked was so full of rubble – and frosted lumps of clay – that the only way to work it was by using a pick axe. A quick phone call to the Leatherhead Horticultural Society concluded with a decision to add some gypsum to the bed with solid clay.
A quick and excellent lunch from Chimes (those olives were gorgeous) allowed us to learn more about Rotaract. Rotaract is an organisation aimed at 18-30 year olds with clubs throughout the world. It enables members to meet people, try new activities, and make a difference in their local community. The Epsom club covers a very wide area. Each year they select a charity to support through fundraising events such as Race Nights, Raffles, Sponsored Walks and stalls at local fairs. Their selected charity for 2009/10 is the Firefighters Charity. You can find out more from their website www.epsomtoract.org.uk.
As part of their community involvement they have agreed to help us out and will join us again later in February. Their help was invaluable. We achieved so much. We reclaimed most of our grandly named “Patio Area”, the skip was filled, the beds are now all dug over and two beds were filled with topsoil. Thank you so much, guys, we look forward to you joining us again. Very dirty, very tired but also very elated we shut up shop ….and headed for a shower!

There was a bit if a chill in the air this morning. Not unexpected as the weathermen had predicted the first overnight frost yesterday. They’d got it wrong this time but the low temperature and cloudless sky suggested it was only a matter of time. As it happened the day developed into a lovely mild and dry one with only a few spots of rain in the afternoon.

Conscious that as Autumn draws in there is an increasing chance of weather which will make it difficult to work in we threw ourselves into work with the intent of making major progress.

We picked up the new sleepers and re-commenced work on the front garden. Much of the soil had been cleared of weeds and grass already so the main task was to cut the soil bed back to 4’ and to reduce the height of the remaining soil. All surplus soil was transferred to a corner of the front plot. The soil is predominantly clay and whilst in most places it is compacted it is in remarkable condition breaking down to a crumble with a few sharp blows from the edge of a fork. We’d dug into the soil in the growing area previously and were ecstatic about the clay there too. We have been told that a large area in this part of Leatherhead was allotments prior to the houses being built, so theoretically the soil should be good.
After many hours of serious digging the area was ready for the sleepers to be laid and bracketed together. They are untreated and at present are a glorious deep ginger/brown. What a stunning difference they make to this part of the site – which undoubtedly was the most unattractive of the entire plot. It shouldn’t be too long before the bed will be ready for planting, which will transform the look and feel of the site for our neighbours as well as ourselves.

Mid morning a new recruit turned up with no obvious intention of helping out. He inspected our work, visiting each of us individually, spoke to us rather loudly and, when he felt ignored, he’d stand on our feet to demand attention. It’s probably fair to say that he slowed proceedings a bit, but this young cat made the day that much more enjoyable and stayed with us until we left.
The compost bins were finished (the 10% left over from last week) and home-made handles made from leftovers and Freecycle bits were added to all compost bin lids. It was essential to clear all possible vegetation into the compost bins with the grass cuttings being layered between shredded material. Three hours of shredding later the task was complete and the 2nd composter was full.

Over the past week we have agreed the garden design. The plot is a strange shape and not symmetrical in the slightest. We agreed that the design should accommodate the maximum number of vegetable beds mostly of a size around 8’ x 4’ with some smaller beds of around 4’ x 4’ for children and for herb-growing. The pathways will generally be 4’ wide for mobility of those in wheelchairs and some beds will be built high enough to be reached by those that have difficulty in bending down. All in all we wanted the design to be interesting – and so that’s what we have laid out on paper. Today we pegged out the first two beds in preparation for them being dug out next weekend. We need to remove the top foot or so of soil as the site contains some rubble, probably from the time the surrounding houses were built.

With all tasks on our list ticked off we bid the little cat farewell and went home for a bath perhaps but definitely a rest!

We were blessed once again by some fabulous weather. This October has been exceptionally mild and sunny. Making up for a rather cool and wet Summer perhaps?

The major building works today are two new composters so off to Travis Perkis in Dorking to pick up the insulating sheets and marine ply. The composters are to be situated next the newly thinned tree area and work started with levelling the ground and securing five strong pallets donated by the business of one of the Project Team. The composter design – courtesy of Compost Works - is fabulous and very effective. We’re getting quite expert at building these now and the two new composters look much better than the first one (largely because we’re using new ply). Maybe we can offer our services elsewhere!!! We managed to shred some of the cut vegetation from last week but our plan to finish both composters AND fill at least one backfired. We ran out of time (and energy?) with the 2nd composter 90% complete. Perhaps we would have finished it if we didn’t have that photo break!

There was a very good turn out today with several new faces from the community complete with strong determination and muscles! Taking advantage of this the construction manager actioned various site clearance and reclamation tasks which included transferring large bricks, surplus soil and rubble from the front of the site to the patio at the rear and lifting some recently revealed paving stones from the grass. These will be used in the parking area at a later date as we plan to extend the parking facility to reduce the chance of garden participants adding to the parking in the surrounding roads. Apparently the paving stones were put down by the Leatherhead Children’s Centre when they used the site a few years ago and formed the pathway to a Wendy House.
Early in the day one of the volunteers noted “I haven’t seen one worm on this site yet”. Whilst not intended as a challenge, this proved to be the trigger for a worm collection and relocation exercise (to the full composter) as tens of worms were exposed in the front garden digging. We had mooted buying some composting worms – we’ll probably not bother now!

Work was well underway on the front garden digging out soil to reduce the bed depth to 4’. Before the soil was able to be transferred to the patio we had to clear the weeds, grass and roots, separating the compostable matter from the hundreds of white convolvulus roots which were discarded. The team was under the cosh somewhat as we planned to bring the sleepers to site the following week to build the bed support.
The site was undergoing a transformation which was completed with the pegging out of the 4’ paths either side of the site. What a psychological moment that was. The weekly progress is fantastic and so rewarding for all involved. Roll on next week?!

This second Working Party session started with a check on the compost. Lifting the lid revealed a wonderful steamy heap of decomposing vegetation – a big thank you for the know-how to Compost Works, a Fetcham based organisation promoting composting in Mole Valley. Give it a few months and we’ll be digging this into a vegetable bed or two.

The grass had grown a lot since our last working visit as the weather had been intermittently sunny and rainy in the meantime. We set to work mowing and strimming the grass and thinning the tree area to the rear of the site. All surplus vegetation was put to one side for composting. We wouldn’t have time to shred the shrubs and branches today and we had been eloquently told by Compost Works of the folly of composting grass alone! Off to B&Q (thankfully a quick walk from the site) to get some tarpaulins to keep the cuttings dry.

A mound of pea shingle had been put between the grass and the car parking area several years ago and the more robust weeds and coarse grass had taken up residence. Once cleansed this shingle can be put to good use elsewhere on the site, but meanwhile we have to clear it to a builder’s sack (or two as it happens) in a holding area. We debated whether this was just back-breaking work or good exercise, as it was possible to get a rhythmic routine. The differing opinions probably represented the glass half-full or half-empty rhetoric!

The growing area began to take shape and looks neat and tidy. Such was the effort being extended that some of the tools were giving up! The front of the site had what could loosely be called a flower bed against the wall – a bank of unretained soil with matted weeds. We had started cleaning this at the 1st working session and continued with this today. Our plan is to build a raised flower bed retained by new sleepers. We can picture this but it will take a serious amount of hard labour to achieve it.
Designing the garden including the beds layout is next on the list. So the site was meticulously measured. Oh for a square site! Never mind, if we measure some right angled lengths from the building or the fence this will help us double check our measurements….won’t it? Perhaps we should have done that garden design course first!!
We packed up in mid-afternoon suitably exercised and tired. Much progress had been made. The next working session is the following Saturday, but in between the Project Team will get together for another evening planning meeting.

The Working Party met at 9am and set about clearing the site. It was a beautiful day, albeit a bit hot, but we weren’t complaining, the weatherman had declared the end of the Summer weather all to soon in our opinion.

We split into two groups, one concentrating on the front of the site, the “shop window” to our neighbours and the other focusing on the growing area to the rear. The work at the front was partially meticulous and partially heavy digging. Convolvulus had staked its claim with deep roots secured in impromptu beds and stems and leaves intricately wound in and out of the wire netting fence. So a combination of small scissors and brute force was in order. What a difference clearing the fence and picking up three years of bottles and sweet wrappers made!

After a morning’s work we were in a position to wheel in the Fire Brigade to take out some stumps – that is once they had removed a central fence and posts which we are moving to increase the growing area.

There was a fabulous atmosphere, lots of hard work, lunch from Chimes in Leatherhead and much conversing with neighbours who all were very pleased to see the site being used once again.

By mid afternoon the rear had undergone a transformation. Much vegetation had been cut back, the grass had been mowed and the grass edges strimmed. It was now possible to picture the finished garden……the project had become real!

We cut back an overgrown area to the rear of the site, thinning out self-sown small trees, to make more room for the established trees as keeping the habitat for insects and birds is so important. We are very lucky as there is a wooded area beyond the growing area which has been mostly untouched for many years. Whilst clearly we will have to protect our vegetables from the animals that undoubtedly reside in the woods, the flip-side is that we have an area of substantial biodiversity which has huge educational potential as well as providing the various species of birds, frogs and insects to keep pest insects under control.

The latter part of the day was spent building our first composter from pallets and wood and insulation from Hall & Co (kindly offered at a discount). All cut-back vegetation was shredded and the composter was completely filled with the mown grass, shredded matter and weeds (excepting the convolvulus). By now it was 5pm and everyone was ruddied from the sun and completely exhausted. A very satisfying day and a magnificent start to the site development.