This week we made our final visit of the year to TARAGGAN (Tenants and Residents Association Green Gym and Nursery) Educational Gardens & Nursery in Gilfach. We’d like to thank John for all his help and for teaching us so many new skills; we really appreciate it. The project restarts in February 2023, and if anyone would like to join us then, please email enquiries@caerphillypeoplefirst.org
We recently attended TARAGGAN Educational Gardens & Nursery in Bargoed, where it was lovely to catch up with John and continue working on our plot at the allotment. Everything we planted was ready to be harvested so we were very busy digging up cabbage, beetroot and leeks. Leeks are fairly frost tolerant so you can delay harvest until after the first few frosts. Over the next few weeks we will be turning over our plot to make it ready for when we restart our project next February.
Caerphilly People First would like to thank Rachel and the Team from Groundwork Wales for another great workshop. This week (week 7) we planted sweet peas, and parsley and thyme. The group finished the session by digging up some new potatoes, which they will take home and cook.
The most recent gardening workshop with Rachel and the team from Groundwork Wales was another great success. We transplanted raspberries and grapes from cuttings. Transplanting raspberries is really easy to do. The best time of year to transplant red raspberry plants is in early spring (before the leaves start to sprout) or late autumn (after the leaves have fallen), when the plants are dormant. We look forward to the remaining two weeks of this eight-week course.
Yesterday we attended our fifth workshop with Groundwork Wales in Pontllanfraith. This week we planted strawberry plants by repotting them into a raised flower bed. We look forward to continuing our work with Groundwork Wales next week. It was very interesting learning how to pot and repot strawberries.
Last week we enjoyed our fourth session with Groundwork Wales at the allotments in Pontllanfraith. We planted and watered daffodils, sweet peas, and hyacinths. The group really enjoyed this session – it was educational and fun.
This week we held our third workshop with Groundwork Wales at Taraggan Educational Gardens & Nursery. The group planted herbs, purple mustard, oregano, coriander, parsley, rocket, and broad beans. Many thanks to Rachel and the team from Groundwork for another enjoyable session.
This week we attended our second workshop with Groundwork Wales. We planted onions and lettuce, and learnt about different types of mint and tiger nuts. We planted the onions and lettuce into small pots, and we will transfer them into the ground when they begin to grow. We also took some cuttings from two types of mint plants (mint and strawberry & mint and pineapple) and planted the cuttings into hanging baskets, so they will have plenty of room to grow. Rachel showed us the grapes they are growing in the polytunnel, and they tasted delicious.
This week we met with Groundwork Wales to begin our eight week gardening course at TARAGGAN Educational Gardens & Nursery. During the first week of the course we learned how to sow seeds, and planted garlic, spinach, spring onions and radish. We finished the session by digging up the remainder of our potatoes we planted many weeks ago. We look forward to meeting with Rachel and the team again next week.
During the afternoon we attended our first yoga session with Michelle from Sweetpea Yoga, Reiki & Guided Meditation. We’d like to thank everyone who attended – it was lovely to see some new faces from our community. We all enjoyed a lovely relaxed yoga session with gentle exercise, followed by tea, coffee and cake. This event was kindly funded by Caerphilly Cwtsh Community.
As usual, the Focus Group spent Tuesday morning at Taraggan Educational Gardens, and this week was spent harvesting beetroot and potatoes. Beetroot can be harvested from early summer through to mid-autumn, depending on time and variety, and are rich in folate which plays a key role in controlling damage to blood vessels, which can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
The afternoon session was spent making chocolate shredded wheat cakes. These are easy to make and taste delicious. We melted the chocolate in the microwave and mixed it into a bowl of shredded wheat. We then spooned the mix into the cupcake cases and popped them into the fridge to set (except some didn’t make it to the fridge). Thanks to Amanda from The Parent Network for helping out and supplying the ingredients.
