Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Deal Gardening Question Time

We had our first Gardening Question Time tonight here in Deal with about 25 attending.


 A very lively and wide ranging question and answer session with some very useful tips and knowledge being shared.

Many thanks for our panel of Colin Coulsdon & Trevor Burton from Eastry Horiculture Society, Imogen Kitching from Kitching Trees & Gardens / DWI Landmark Community Garden Project and Adrian and Sue Sullivan from Deal With It'Grow Deal initiative.

We will look at another QT later in the year.

Many thanks to Adrian and Sue for organising

Friday, April 25, 2014

Beach Cleans in Deal in the next week

As part of the Marine Conservation Society's 'Big Beach Clean Up' around the UK there are three beach cleans happening in the Deal Area

Saturday 26th April - Kingsdown Beach : 10.30am until 1pm - just come along to the Zetland Arms car park wearing suitable clothing, footwear and gloves, and help us spring clean the beach for the season. Details from Jane Banks on 373774 or Helen Williams at hmjwilliams@hotmail.co.uk


Wednesday 30th April - Deal Beach: 9:30am meet at Deal Pier. Part of M&S National campaign to support the MCS. All welcome but can register in advance at www.mcsuk.org/foreverfish 

Sunday 4th May - Deal Beach: 9am meet at Deal Pier. Next in the DWI/MCS regular Cleans. Beach Warden: Wendy/Sue beachclean@dealwithit.org.uk

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Victoria's Green Matters - 17th April 2014




Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent MercuryThe latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has pulled no punches in relating its findings this time.

It has always warned us about the effects of climate change but they all seemed to relate to someone else, in some other part of the world, didn’t they? Well, not any more. The report states that there is not a single region in the whole world that will not be affected by even 2⁰C of warming. This will bring heat waves and other weather related disasters. A 3⁰- 4⁰C temperature rise will see even the wealthy countries, with advanced agricultural systems, start to suffer. There has been three times the number of natural disasters during the period 2000 to 2009 than occurred in the 1980s.

But when are we going to do anything about it? The powers that be must read the reports but what then? We lag behind all our European neighbours in investment in renewable energy and despite what most people believe the USA and China are surging ahead.

We already have a well developed ‘green’ economy but it must be invested in much more. We need to cut our energy waste, to make our homes warmer and cheaper to run – the two things go hand in hand. Investment in renewable energy must be encouraged – not only wind power but solar technologies, which have developed dramatically over the last few years, power from water and waves and geothermal energy but conservation is the most important.

Victoria Nicholls. 
Deal With It - Transition Deal

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Gleaning in Kent 26th Kent

Greetings fellow gleaners!
We're really excited for 2014! In 2013, we already gleaned approximately 48 tonnes of produce, equal to over 200,000 meals, with over 200 volunteers across 18 gleaning days. We launched gleaning hubs in Kent, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, Bristol, London and Manchester, and we hope over the coming year to expand to other regions like Lincolnshire and Scotland, and around Europe! We also achieved extensive media coverage, including Channel 4's River Cottagethe GuardianBBC Radio 4's Food Programme and Al Jazeera. And we've recently become one of the finalists for the BBC Food and Farming Awards, in the category of Best Initiative in British Food!
We've got another glean coming up, and we need your help! We've found thousands of leeks going to waste, ready for gleaning. It's an organic farm we've never gleaned from before near Wye, and our first leek glean in Kent! Last month, we managed to salvage nearly 2 tonnes of cabbages and cauliflowers that would otherwise have been wasted, and we hope to do the same again! Join us in the fields of Kent!
Leek gleaning day on Saturday 26th April 10am-5pm (TBC):
Join the Arable Spring! Join us for an idyllic day on a farm near Wye in the Kent countryside, saving literally tonnes of delicious leeks that would otherwise have been wasted for charity. All the food will be going to charities dealing with food poverty via our good friends Community Food Enterprise, FareShare and Food For All in London. Travel expenses are covered for those travelling from Kent – just check with us first! There may also be a few London places available, with priority to Kent gleaners.

Please join us in the fields! If you can make it, please contact me at mailto:ren@feeding5k.org to confirm whether you can make the whole day, and send me your phone number and where you’ll be travelling from (e.g. London, Kent, etc.) so we can group you with fellow travel companions. We’ll then send you finalized details closer to the time. Please get in touch asap so we have an idea of numbers – the more people we have, the more leeks we can save! Also, please do check whether you can make it, as lots of drop outs at the last minute can jeopardise the gleaning day going ahead!

Please spread the word to your friends and networks
, and do recommend any groups you think we should get in touch with! Here's a sharable facebook link for the event. If you're receiving this you're already on our gleaning list, but if your friends want to receive emails about future gleaning days, get them to sign up to our gleaning list here.
If you can't join us this time, watch this space – we’ll have more gleaning days coming up over the coming year!
See you in the fields!
Many thanks,
Martin Bowman
UK Gleaning Co-ordinator
We are BBC Food and Farming Awards finalists!
See photos from our most recent Feeding the 5000 in Brussels.

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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Cool .... Pines Calyx as a Giant Camera Obscura this weekend

Pines Calyx as a Giant Camera Obscura

The Pines Clayx as a Giant Camera Obscrua
This Easter, the Pines Calyx is going to be turned into a Giant Camera Obscura. Come along and literally have your world turned upside down. Created by artist Sue Toft. Plus Sue’s Skyscreen installation and amazing light painted photographs by the Pines Calyx’s General Manager, Kevin Francis
Open Easter Weekend 18-21 April, 10.00am16.00pm
FREE with entry by donation to the Pines Garden

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Planting up at the Deal Station Garden ....


The Team were out again today (Sat) at the Deal Station Garden - all nine planters have now had their first planting with a mix of early cropping salad and perennial edibles with some companion flowers.

Our store area has been taken over by tons of strawberrys to go out later in the month.

The crabble apple and poppy areas all look progressing well .... we have a volunteer from one of the houses nr the car park to water the tree. Sarah has done a great job in organising the watering schedule...

for more info contact sarah at station@dealwithit.org.uk




Saturday, April 12, 2014

Victoria's Green Matters - 10th April 2014




Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent MercuryGood news, of sorts, for the badgers this week. Trial culls that have been taking place have been cancelled because they have been shown to be unsuccessful – exactly as the science had forecast. A huge amount of money has been wasted on something that was never going to work and has caused suffering to the badgers that were not killed outright.

In Wales, where it was decided not to go for a cull of badgers, it has been shown that increased bio-security, greater care over cattle movements and a programme of vaccination has been instrumental in reducing cases of bovine TB over the past year.

Surely the question should be asked – from where do badgers get TB? It is pretty obvious that TB has been passed to badgers from cows and an inevitable cycle has continued. Poor health in cattle is caused by continued over production of milk, where cows have a very short and highly industrious life.

Another report this week has told of the unprecedented killing of red kites by the use of poison. These magnificent birds have been successfully re-introduced into the UK after years of persecution made them extinct. The bodies of 16 kites were found in Scotland and the RSPB are at a loss as to why these birds were killed. Birds of prey are often killed by gamekeepers on grouse moors, however unlawfully, but red kites are carrion eaters and do not kill live prey.

Are we a nation of animal lovers?

Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Deal 'Gardening Question Time' Tuesday 29th April

Deal With It are organising a Deal 'Gardening Question Time' on Tuesday 29th April at the Landmark Community Centre doors open 7pm for a 7:30pm start.

The idea of the evening help anyone who wants to grow fruit and veg how to get off to a flying start or those of us who do it but want to improve

The format will be informal one with the emphasis on sharing and swapping ideas and knowledge.

None of us are 'experts' but we been amazed when people come together the richness of the knowledge in our community. Its about passing those skills on

Ignorance is Welcome :)

Monday, April 7, 2014

Suggested planting list for next week...

Deal Station Gardening Group
Spring/Summer Planting Plan 2014
 
We wanted to maximise visual impact as well as illustrate some basic veg planting techniques (drought, companion planting).  Plants have been chosen for colour, hardiness and mixed heights.
 
A common theme in all the planters will be the planting of wild flowers to grow up amongst the veg.  Red poppies, white oxeye daisies and corncockles in remembrance of the start of the Great War. 
 
 
Ramsgate Platform
X2 new long thing planters
Fennel
Red Valerian
Trailing rosemary
Lavender
Purple Sage
Teasels
- will need a water retentive mulch, bark chips or broken sea shells maybe
 
London Platform
Planters 1 & 2 (country end)
Broad Beans  - existing and new sowings
French bean – seedlings, started in greenhouses
Rainbow chard  - planted in blocks
Beetroot – planted in blocks
 
 
Planter 3  (by the gate)
Rhubarb – already in situ
Strawberries – in situ
Cranberries – in situ
Gooseberry -  to purchase, large and spiky
 
Planters 4 & 5
Salad – early spring
Sweetcorn in grid formation                      }
Squash between sweetcorn                     } 3 sisters
Beans (maybe) up the sweetcorn                        }
Trailing nasturtiums

Front of the Station  - Sue and Adrian to source and report back 
Globe artichoke
Chives
Coriander
dill
Parsley
Wild flowers as above

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Busy day at the Deal Community Garden's


Again we got a great response for our volunteers today: with 16 people out this morning

At Deal Station Garden we moved nearly 2 tons of topsoil to the two new planters on the Ramsgate Platform.

We setup two additional planters outside the main Station entrance 
and a team completed our third Pop-up Poppy Meadow dig at the Deal Telephone Exchange and sowed the poppy seed. If any one has any poppy or wildflower seed we could do with some at the two end areas...

Meanwhile back at the Landmark Garden Imogen and crew are starting plant up veg & salad crops. We also got a nice donation of runner beans for the front bed.

Next Saturday 12th - the Deal Station team are planting up the planters from about 9:30am - the suggested planting list is below - please contact Adrian O if you have any other suggestions or bring plants on Saturday...

We need help to remove the waste bags from the Telephone Exchange - so if you passing en route to the recycling centre please help yourself ...

Big thank you to everyone who turned out on this bright and sunny day in Deal ....



Victoria's Green Matters - 3rd Feb 2014



Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury

At last, our ‘greenest government ever’ is launching the ‘Renewable Heat Incentive’ (RHI) which will encourage the market in domestic renewable heat. Similar to the ‘Feed in Tariff’ (FiT) for solar powered electricity production, this aims to pay the consumer to generate heat for the home. Solar thermal systems are already in use which utilise the sun’s power to heat domestic water supplies.

There are various other systems already in place in much of Europe – here again we are way beyond our European colleagues in using this proven technology. Biomass boilers use wood based fuels e.g. compressed sawdust pellets, sometimes using the waste from saw mills and sometimes from sustainable forests where each felled tree is offset by the planting of another.

Ground source heat pumps are another option. Here, heat is absorbed from the ground by fluid filled pipes sunk into the earth and used to heat water in the home. Another technology is air source heat pumps which act rather as a fridge in reverse by extracting heat from the atmosphere and recycling it into the home. Both systems require a small amount of electrical energy to power the pumps but both use naturally occurring heat which is constantly renewed.

The rising cost of energy has been constantly in the news for the last few months and has provided the politicians with many opportunities for sound bite reactions but little has been done to provide long term solutions but RHI would reduce energy use and therefore cost.

Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Films at Pine Calyx - 9th April Project Wild Thing

Films at the Pines Calyx: Wednesday 9th April, 11am & 7.30pm  Project Wild Thing



Project Wild Thing is a film led movement to get more kids (and their folks!) outside and reconnecting with nature. The film is an ambitious, feature-length documentary that takes a funny and revealing look at a complex issue, the increasingly disparate connection between children and nature.  And Project Wild Thing is much more than a film, this is a growing movement of organisations and individuals who care deeply about the need for nature connected, free-range, roaming and outdoor playing kids in the 21st century. Hundreds of people have already committed huge amounts of time, energy, resources and money to help get the project where it is today. Which is really just the beginning.

Calyx Films by the Sea

The Bay Trust will be screening a series of educational films depicting various aspects of sustainable living, at the Pines Calyx throughout 2014. 

Free Entrance* - Licensed Bar – Popcorn available – Doors open 7pm

Seats are limited so email volunteer1@baytrust.org.uk to reserve a seat
* Donations welcomed to cover license fees

 

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Sussex Community energy response to Fracking

Sussex Community Energy takes on Fracking as 15 community energy schemes launch across Sussex


Balcombe hit the headlines again this week: not because of the Sauron-like threat of evil Cuadrilla, but because plucky locals in the village have started their own community energy scheme: REPOWERBalcombe.


Indeed, REPOWERBalcombe is one of 15 energy coops launched recently across Sussex. Under the mentoring of Community Energy South, these community groups are now being up-skilled by the team at OVESCO in Lewes, ready for launches in the next 12 months or so.


It's surely supremely ironic that the threat of fracking in East and West Sussex - where thousands of wells are required to fulfill frack companies' promises to shareholders - is causing a surge in interest in its alternative.


And while the anti-fracking movement grows in strength, community energy also grows as a positive alternative. Being involved in both camps, it's interesting to see how anti-fracking is seeding this potential:
Resistance to fracking has boosted community spirit in areas affected. It's an old maxim that people tend to unite in the face of a threat; in the towns and village where frackers are intent on drilling, anti-fracking groups are some of the largest (and most active) organisations in each place. This provides fertile ground for similarly aligned groups, such as those supporting renewable energy.
Anti-fracking requires an attention to detail that that - for many of us - would simply be too dull to contemplate a few years back. Comprehending the miasma of technical, regulatory, legal, and financial mechanisms involved in the oil and gas industry have all been fundamental to the fight against fracking - and blocking frackers uses much of this type of this industry-specific knowledge. The devil really is in the detail.
These finely - honed skills are transferable onto something more positive. Community energy schemes require learning about organisational structures (usually Coops), working out how to raise money, dealing with lease agreements as well as the technical bits and pieces to do with generation equipment and grid connection. This kind of attention to detail reaps rewards when applied to this new form of renewable energy development.
The new resistance to government-led programme of unconventional fossil fuels has revealed people power as an effective weapon. And grassroots action cuts both ways: it can resist, but it can also grow. A bottom up movement is rising: with models such as OVESCO in Lewes and Brighton Energy Coop, communities around Sussex (and beyond) can see that their their long-held frustrations over the lack of renewable energy might be sorted out via DIY. If you want something doing, you gotta do it yourself.

In Germany, nearly 50% of renewable energy is owned by individuals and community groups. More than 1000 coops help power the nations renewable energy transition. Many fossil fuel power stations have been shut down; renewable energy has simply out-competed them. For the UK's oil and gas industry, this is a worrying trend: have their fracking activities kicked over a hornets nest that threatens them with their own extinction? Go to this article on our website to share it


Brighton Energy Co-operative is the trading name of Brighton Energy Limited, a Community Benefit Society registered in England, Registration number: 31107 R