Growing food amongst the rubble

You may have marvelled at the new St Pancras and King's Cross stations, and stared in disbelief at the transformation taking place in this area of London. But did you know that, whilst these new massive structures were being created, amongst the rubble of the old, a community garden was busy growing food from skips, with a little help from the local builders?

The Skip Garden was started in 2004 by Global Generation with the initial aim of taking kids to the country. They then decided to bring the country to the city at King's Cross and the garden has moved its skips and makeshift structures several times as the buildings around it have been completed. The garden has strong links with the building companies in the area and uses recycled materials from the King's Cross reconstruction site. Even the skips are disused ones and have been adapted to create walk-in gardens. Amongst an array of plants and activity, there’s a potager skip and an orchard skip, each with very close plantings, but very healthy plants, all due to the care spent on recycling. A cunning water recycling scheme links all the skips and planters and is supplemented by a wormery, composting and comfrey juice extraction to ensure that the soil is the very best – as it needs to be in this environment. The aim is to show that food can be grown anywhere – and it succeeds. For keen urban gardeners, there are lots of lessons and tips to be gained on how to grow vegetables organically, using the resources you find around you.

Growing vegetables is used for educational purposes with young people, known as generators, recruited to help. They now sell produce to the many trendy restaurants which have sprung up in the area and have a makeshift kitchen where they host lunch and learning events every two months for the local community and produce jam and chutney for sale. The students from Central St Martin's have got involved, so now vegetables are also being grown to use as dyes. The fabric and materials they have helped create will also be on display.

It is the sight of fruit trees flourishing in skips and saffron harvested from a bed of crocuses which inspires the visitor. Bat boxes have been constructed amongst the vegetables and the wild, overrun banks of rubble nearby have been planted with bee-friendly plants.

The Skip Garden is not usually open to the public, but over Open Garden Squares Weekend on June 8th and 9th you can visit it and for the first time sample the delights of its kitchen as well as its garden. Paul and Silvia and the generators will organise a tour of the skips, the recently constructed yurt, the clay pizza ovens and the chance will be yours to see at first hand how vegetables and herbs of all kinds can be produced in such small spaces.

Who would have thought such a garden existed behind the cranes which dominate the King's Cross skyline? And when your visit is over, there are several other gardens to visit nearby, and the chance to sample the delights of this newly-recreated area of London.

Further information on visiting the Skip Garden »

A special open space in East London

Here at Duck Island Cottage we’re working on our programme for Open Garden Squares Weekend, 9-10 June 2012, and we’re very excited about the forthcoming event. We’ve just come back from a visit to Abbey Gardens, in East London – a truly inspirational location.

Harvesting at Abbey Gardens

Four years ago, two artists, Karen Guthrie and Nina Pope, designed the unique open-access Harvest Garden on neglected wasteland. The ruins of a 12th-century abbey gave the Gardens its name as well as protection from development. Karen and Nina were influenced by the idea of returning the land to production and today everyone can participate in the communal growing and harvesting of vegetables and herbs. Free garden club sessions take place three times a week, from March to October. There are no individual plots – produce is split between regular gardeners and is sold on site.

We love the positive and welcoming atmosphere at Abbey Gardens.

At Duck Island Cottage we’re also passionate about fresh, natural produce. In June 2012, at Abbey Gardens, the first of the season’s vegetables will be ready for harvesting, including our early summer favourites: peas, broad beans, new potatoes and young salad leaves. The following recipe makes the most of this early crop - and mint and parsley, also in season:

Salad of Broad Beans, Peas and New Potatoes in a lemon and mint dressing

A mix of the following vegetables:

fresh peas, broad beans, new potatoes and salad leaves

For the dressing:

light olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper, mint and parsley

Make a dressing by combining three parts olive oil to one part lemon juice, seasoning with salt and pepper. Finely chop a combined handful of mint leaves and parsley, avoid using the thicker parts of the parsley stalks, and add these to the dressing.

Fresh Mint

Cook the peas and broad beans until just tender, and the new potoates until cooked through. Combine the cooked vegetables and whilst still warm, pour the dressing over the vegetables and mix well together. Allow to cool, to room temperature. Line a salad bowl with the salad leaves and pile in the salad. Just before serving chop the remainder of the mint and parsley and scatter over the salad.

We’ll be back next month with a preview of another one of our exclusive Gardens for June 2012!