Transition Town Tooting

Author: Transition Town Tooting

  • Pollinator Paths workshops and the Community Garden’s 6th Birthday: Sunday 21st May 12 – 4pm

    On Sunday the Tooting participants in the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth project are collecting their plants to grow on during 2017. 
    Come to the Community Garden at 5 North Road, SW16 1RN between 12:00 midday and 4:00 pm.

    Some of the beautiful plants that project participants can grow on at home

    We’ll advise you on how to plant and look after them, and you can enjoy them all year as well as looking out for the beneficial insects that should be attracted to your balcony, patio or garden. For more info, click here – and everyone can follow progress and join in on facebook.

    We’ve had our first card!

    Plus, on the same afternoon everyone is welcome to the Tooting Community Garden’s 6th Birthday!
    We’ll start celebrating at 3:00 with the caterpillar race (find your food plant!) and
    we’ll cut the birthday cake at 3:30.

    Caterpillar costumes – choose your style
    Food plants our caterpillars race for

    Some caterpillars are very camouflaged, and some are very conspicuous – which kind will you be?

    All welcome on Sunday!

  • Three diverse events in Tooting celebrating refugees and migration

    We’re continuing our 2017 Gardens of Refuge project with local refugees and asylum-seekers with workshops during May and into June.
    Alongside that long-term project, we want to share three diverse and fascinating events in Tooting which celebrate refugees and migration:

    To celebrate Refugee Week in June:

    1. Queens of Syria – free film Sunday 18th June

    We’re showing this thrilling and absorbing film about 50 Syrian refugee women joining together to prepare to perform an ancient Greek play about women and their families in war. It’s definitely NOT simply a ‘film of the play’ – it’s all about how the women explore telling their shared stories with passion and creativity. It’s a moving and positive film. Click here to see the flier, and save the date!

    • Date: Sunday 18th June
    • Timings: Doors open 4:00 pm for tea and samosas, film at 5:00.
    • Venue: Mushkil Aasaan, 220 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW

    2. Midsummer Merriment with CARAS on Thursday 22nd June 22nd
    Book now for CARAS’ comedy night in Tooting Market. The host will be Arthur Smith – the Night Mayor of Balham.
    A third of the tickets have been sold already, here’s the link.

    • Date: Thursday 22nd June
    • Timings: 7:30 to 10:30
    • Venue: Tooting Market, 21-23 Tooting High Street, SW17 0SN 


      Refugee Week is the annual festival which celebrates the contribution of refugees to the UK and encourages a better understanding between communities. We’ll share more & there’s online info here.

      Plus: this New Union Flag event has already happened but it worth looking up the project online 

      3. The New Union Flag project at Tooting Market
      Imagine what a British flag could look like if it reflected today’s multi-cultural society…
      Artist Gil Mualem-Doron brought this participative project to Tooting Market as part of the Wandsworth Fringe. Here is the link to the project on facebook.
      Gil is also took the project to Tara Arts on Sat May 20th.

    • It’s International Compost Awareness Week! Here’s lots of ways to get involved for 52 weeks & more

      Over seventy years ago the 
      organic agriculture pioneer 
      Sir Albert Howard stated :
       “The health of soil, plant, 

      animal and man 
      is one and indivisible”

      Taking care of the soil where we grow our food, making compost, reducing waste, healthy eating, exploring the ‘circular economy’ of growing plants, beginning to understand the web of beneficial organisms that exists below and above ground:  

      our gardens, kitchens, eating and shopping preferences are the forums for all of these.
      We can all learn more and make our own contributions even more valuable, right here in Tooting.


      Wandsworth Borough Council has published a post in its website about food waste and composting, and we’re copying some of the links here because they are accessible and practical ways being offered this spring and summer to learn more and share experience.

      • Firstly, there’s the Wandsworth Composting Project – all the details are here in this flier. TTT and other partners are contributing too.
      • Secondly there’s a practical workshop on composting skills on June 4th at Bramford Community Garden – here’s the flier.
      • Thirdly, there’s the Grow Your Own at Home! gardening classes sponsored by Be Enriched, taking place near Tooting Broadway and starting on June 10th. Here’s the flier.

      In June and early July there are further public compost advice sessions planned – when the dates are fixed we’ll share them.

      Home composting may look like a dark art: 
      these events will share the skills to demistify it for local residents.

      The Wildlife Gardening Forum has a website that’s a treasure house of experience, including a good web page on soil and fertility: click here to read it.

      Home composters provide a community service as well as benefiting our own gardens by returning organic material to the soil. We remove kilos of kitchen waste per household every week from the borough’s waste transport and processing. That borough service has a carbon cost as well as a financial cost – we can reduce both costs by working with our waste to recognise it as a valuable resource.


      Wandsworth Food Partnership  is complementary to these topics. It’s been developing over the past year as a network of people and organisations interested in food in Wandsworth. That means community groups, enterprises, charities, churches, gardens, schools, the health sector…

      Taking part is not restricted and maybe in time there will be thousands of members including families and individuals: all contributing to developing the local food culture in diverse ways.
      There’s a WFP facebook page, please get in contact for more detail.

        You’ll see our priorities on the WFP shopping bag:
        > Working together
        > Reducing food waste
        > Sustainability
        > Cultural aspects of food
        > Healthy eating
        > Physical activity

        Over the next twelve months the partnership is going to act as a hub: inspiring, celebrating, sharing, linking and reaching out to as many local groups and people as possible in each of these priority areas.

        These food priorities can all interrelate locally to inspire a positive food culture in Wandsworth. 
        In a similar way, soil organisms combine to create good compost in our gardens….

      • Tooting Green Drinks! On the menu: Foodival and the Election 17th May, Selkirk Pub

        Two timely and exciting conversations for Green Drinks next Wednesday – Foodival 2017 and the General Election! 7.30pm – 9.30pm at The Selkirk Pub, Selkirk Road

        Have you ever been interested in our annual Food Festival – Foodival!?! Perhaps you’ve participated? Grown chillies on a balcony or visited Tooting Community Garden one Sunday lunchtime? Perhaps you have an allotment…

        We’ll be having an open Foodival discussion on the evening of with 8 Tooting folks who have brought energy and ideas to the table for Foodival 2017 – our tenth one!

        Connecting with local food businesses, cooking with Be Enriched Bike kitchen? Taking part in Top Tooting Cook anyone??? How about a soup disco? Sounds mad? it did happen last year and was a hoot!

        Foodival can be lots of different things to lots of different people, but at its heart is a celebration of the food culture of Tooting which brings together all the communities living in this Town we call home.

        Do come if you’d like to hear more! And check out our blog for previous Foodival stories HERE

        In the second part of Green Drinks, we’ll look at what the political parties are saying about sustainability, perhaps loads? perhaps nothing? A useful document to help us is the Greener Jobs Alliance top 10 demands for out new Government, you can read them HERE

        Those of all political persuasions are welcome, this is about discussion and understanding of issues that matter, to plant seeds for the future…

      • Tooting Pollinator Party Sunday 21st May!

        We’d like to welcome everyone to the Tooting Community Garden on Sunday 21st May from 12:00 to 4:00 for our free Pollinator Party!
        Find us at 5 North Drive, SW16 1RN.

        What’s a Pollinator Party?
        It’s a lovely afternoon in the garden. We’re mixing together fun and instructive activities that focus on planting, beneficial insects and sharing our own growing experience of city gardening, Tooting style. 

         
        What’s good for our gardens and insects is also good for us!

        What can you come and do on the 21st?

        • We’ll celebrate the Community Garden’s 6th birthday with games, volcano kettle tea – and a cake. 
        • We’ll offer practical do-it-yourself making opportunities – creating cloches from plastic bottles and inventing wall planters from textile and plywood for strawberries or herbs.
        • We’ll have quizzes and activities about insects and pollination – and Lola Godoy’s geodesic dome to enjoy as a special habitat during the afternoon.
        • We’ll have a rolling workshop to distribute plants to the local people who have already signed up to join in with the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth project. Developed with London Sustainability Exchange, in this project 4 borough community gardens are each involving local gardeners (novices too) who will grow insect-friendly plants throughout 2017 on balconies, patios, at school, in the street and in back gardens. Over 60 local gardeners will share what they see, learn, enjoy and taste.
        • Feel free to relax, bring a picnic (we’re an alcohol-free site) – and of course do some gardening if you like.

         

         

        Timetable:
        We’ll run all the activities throughout the afternoon – and we’ll stop for tea together and blow out the candles on the cake at 3:30 pm.

        We’re very pleased that the day is part of both the Wandsworth Arts Fringe and the Chelsea Fringe: both full of other great events.

        We want this project, and all our community garden sessions, to help inspire new links, share skills and spark growing in lots of diverse settings across the whole borough.

        Lola and her dome will be with us on the 21st!
        Where are the Pollinator Paths project plants coming from?
        Almost all of them have been grown in Tooting by our friends at Share in their lovely garden tucked away in Springfield Hospital. Perennial plants and bulbs have been ordered in. The result is high quality and very low ‘plant miles’, a great sustainability feature of the project.
        Nasturtium & lemon lavender
        Bare-rooted red currants
        Please email us if you have any queries about the Pollinator Party or the ‘PPW’ project.

        Join in the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth facebook page to keep in touch with the project, and read the project description here.
        And finally, here’s the first post (for April) in the series that will continue telling the project story throughout 2017.

        How to carry a planter home

      • Update from the first two meetings in TTT’s current series of local Carbon Conversations

        TTT’s tenth series of local Carbon Conversations began in April with a group of 8 local people. Thanks to all, the sessions have been lively and informative.
         
        The series facilitator Ben has shared a short report of the first two sessions:
         
        “For our first session we had several interesting and far-ranging discussions.
        One of them was about what a low-carbon future would look like. 
        Several people suggested that everything would be conducted at a much more local level. But this left us thinking: does this mean we will have to unravel everything that globalisation has delivered? Is it possible (and desirable) to dismantle globalisation, or should we aim to retain aspects of it and go local only in certain ways?  
         
        For our discussion about a low carbon future we spoke about the importance of having more regulation from government to control carbon emissions, fossil fuel extraction, etc. But the issue of regulating ourselves was also raised. How will we regulate our own behaviour? Several people suggested education and how important that would be in the process.

        Ben continues his report:
        “For session two we discussed carbon reduction in our home energy consumption.

        Everyone agreed that the whole process of overhauling your house can feel very complex and overwhelming. There are so many things one can do, and most people don’t have the technical expertise to understand all the options thoroughly.
        We discussed the problems of the current housing market and how the energy rating of a home is often not very important to the people purchasing it. This is especially true in a housing market like London where people are just desperate to get on the housing ladder and probably aren’t too concerned about the energy efficiency of a home.
        The issue of being a tenant came up – we noted how there is little incentive for landlords to renovate their homes if their tenants are paying the bills.
        We also talked about communicating these issues and how to point out someone is overfilling the kettle without appearing a nag! You can tip-toe, or you can just tell someone they’re being daft…. (we will return to the issue of how to communicate climate change in session 6).
        Finally, the question came up of how to make carbon reduction at home glamorous. Loft conversions are glamorous. But carbon reduction isn’t. Or at least, at the moment. That could change….
        There were some positive notes as well.
        One potentially fun way of tackling the issue is by engaging children. If engaged they could be enthusiastic supporters of carbon reduction, if it is made fun, and if they have the chance to receive education on the issue – linking with what we discussed in week one.”
        Heat loss in a simplified detached house travels in all directions…would you have guessed those percentages?
        We’ll continue the coverage of this series of meetings, and more information about Carbon Conversations can be found by clicking here.
        Get in touch with TTT if you would like notice of when we are offering the 11th series – or get the core of a group together yourself, and we’ll find more people and maybe run it in your home!

      • Sowing the seeds in TTT’s ACE goody bags

        If you took home one of our TTT goodie bags and are wondering what to do with the packet of seeds in it, here are some simple planting instructions.

        Radish 

        You can grow these in the ground or in containers or window boxes.
        Sow thinly in soil and cover with 1.5cm fine soil. Firm down gently and keep moist.
        Seedlings should appear within 2-3 weeks.
        Thin out the plants if necessary and keep soil moist. Radishes should be ready to harvest in 4-6 weeks.

        Lettuce
        You can grow these in the ground, containers or even hanging baskets (good for evading snails!)

        Sow thinly in soil and cover with 1.5cm fine soil.

        Firm down gently and keep moist.
        Seedlings should appear in 7-14 days.
        Thin out seedlings if necessary and keep moist and weed-free.
        Pick and use when needed
        Peas 
        Grow these in the ground of a large pot. You will need to support the plants with netting or bamboo canes and string.
        Plant seeds 5cm apart and cover with 5cm of fine soil. Firm down gently and keep moist. Seedlings should appear within 10-14 days.

        Protect young plants from birds with twigs or netting and remember to support the plants. Keep moist and weed-free. Pick when ready.
        Send us some photos of your vegetable-growing successes!


      • Come to our Annual Celebratory Extravaganza Friday 28th April

        On Friday 28th April we are hosting our  

        Annual Celebratory Extravaganza!


        Everyone is welcome to join us at:   
        Derinton Community Centre
        101a/b Derinton Road
        Tooting, SW17 8HZ

        From 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm

        If you’re on our mailing list, like or follow our Facebook or Twitter accounts, have been to any of our events, or are just interested to find out what we do in Tooting – come along. And share with your friends!

        Celebrating and sharing at TTT’s 2016 ACE

        We will be celebrating all of the past year’s achievements and the partnerships that have developed to help deliver those projects.

        We will also be signposting the exciting projects we have planned for the future and inviting people to get involved in their own way.

        It’s a place to meet other local people who share our goals:

        Making Change in How We Live, Where We Live, 
        in Light of Climate Change.


        What to expect:

        • TTT sustenance: a.k.a tea, cake, samosas, Turkish bread & hummus
        • Energy and participation: a Tooting-themed quiz & more
        • A celebration of past successes
        • Information about TTT’s projects
        • Sharing ideas you might have to improve our neighbourhood
        • Looking ahead and an invitation to get involved
        • Conversations with friends new and old
        • A TTT goody bag
        • Please note: so we can open the door and celebrate with our whole community and all the local people and partners who support us, the celebration will be alcohol free

          Eleanor writes about last year’s ACE: 

          “I attended for the first time last year and it was a fantastic event. The presentation of the successes really opened my eyes to what can be achieved when like-minded people get together on a common theme and don’t give up. 
          Even though I was already involved and getting the regular newsletter, there were lots of activities going on under the radar that were ready to shared by the enthusiastic people leading the charge. All of the activities presented together showed an incredible achievement.

          The activities included things like: workshops inspiring beginner gardeners, carbon conversations, helping to create a neighbourhood plan, running a community garden, sustainable art projects and restart parties.

          The main theme that stood out to me on the night was partnerships. It was clear that it wasn’t just TTT working on their own. The strength comes from the partnerships that TTT has developed and nurtured. These partnerships were not all with other environmental themed groups either. They cross a variety of sections of society and combine the interests of both parties to create amazing results.

          Last year’s event inspired me to get involved in more TTT projects.
          I hope I have inspired you to come along and see what is going on.”

          See you there on Friday 28th!

          Facebook invitation to share: https://goo.gl/lviVH1

        • Gardens of Refuge project. April ’17 update on vertical strawberries and a watery ceiling mural

          We’re continuing to facilitate workshops as part of the Gardens of Refuge project with refugees and asylum-seekers who use the local services of CARAS in Tooting.

          This is the project for which our partnership won funding from Aviva – via the public voting so many people joined last autumn.

          The emphasis of Gardens of Refuge is on creating therapeutic experiences where participants feel happy and safe to explore imaginative activities together.

          We’re working alongide the CARAS team and volunteers with two groups:

          • with the Saturday Youth Club (mostly unaccompanied teenagers) 
          • and with Family Activity Days (adults and children in half terms and school holidays)

          Here’s the story from Gardens of Refuge in March and April:


          Saturday Youth Club: our sessions take place alongside a whole range of other social and learning activities at the youth club. Success is when groups and individuals come and join in for some or all of the time, because they want to, and try out new things as well as building on what we all did together in ’15 & ’16 in ‘Rooting in Tooting’.
           

          In the 24th March and 1st April sessions the Club has built two pallet-planters and painted them ready for planting up.

          Below right, one of last year’s flourishing planters.

          We’ve also made a new vertical strawberry planter of textile (a theatre blackout curtain from the Scrapstore). Young people problem-solved how to make the planter, folding, tucking and stapling the heavy cloth onto a big piece of plywood (part of the old Community Garden fence…). 

          They planted it up with strawberries (these same plants were growing at CARAS in 2016 and overwintered in the Community Garden). The pallet planters and this strawberry wall are all at the entrance to the CARAS office, and the idea is for the benefits to be enjoyed by passers-by and visitors alike – a real Garden of Refuge in busy urban Tooting.

          April Family Activity Day: After our growing-based Day in February, we’re continuing to link family activities with our plans to offer sessions later in ’17 in the Community Garden.

          Our idea is to create a collaborative mural for the ‘ceiling’ of the rainwater harvesting roof in the Community Garden.
           It’s an exciting open-air space and the mural’s theme will be ‘Water’.

          That gives huge scope for decoration, pictures, ideas, celebration, story telling and sharing.  
          Water is life-giving for us all and for what we grow. Water is rich with diverse meanings worldwide.

          The rainwater harvesting roof built with Gatton School in ’13. Soon to have a ceiling mural!

          On Tuesday 11 April we made a start by immersing ourselves in ideas and images and different materials – there are so many threads to follow up.

          Thanks for these FAD photos, Nikki!

          The next session is in May, and we can’t wait…

          Another benefit is that the project is attracting new volunteers who have added their energy and diverse experience – so our whole group is learning together en route. Thanks to all the volunteer team & for your co-ordination, Dermot and Jeni! 

          We welcome contacts from others who would like to be involved, or who have ideas and resources to contribute.
          Please contact us by emailing TTT here.

          Yum! The crop in 2016’s textile planter

           – Charles

        • Our tenth series of Carbon Conversations postponed to start on 20th April

          TTT’s tenth series of local Carbon Conversations is going to start on Thursday April 20th
          We promise you will enjoy and also find a lot of practical value in this exploration of your own ‘low-carbon living’ choices and opportunities. 

          The outcome of the series is an action plan for reducing your own carbon footprint by understanding the impact of what’s in your own control – home energy, travel, food and purchases.

          An active game about the carbon footprint of food

          You’ll find it friendly, fun & surprising
          – and there’s just two places left!

          For all the details, please click here.
          And for our recent blog post (including the new dates) – click here.
          Don’t hesitate to get in touch with Ben at bencuddon@gmail.com even if you can’t make every date over the series of 6 meetings. 
          We look forward to seeing you!