The Onion Shed

Arden House Living Roof - wild cabbages looking beautiful in the sunshine

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North Lambeth's Living Roofs mapping

We're building the picture of living roofs so if you know of anymore just let us know ....it's a vital part of the sharing the conversation and building a greater visibility to the sustainable solutions in our patch. This is the flyer from last year's Up on the roof tour...lets add some more ....

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Living Roof Build no.4 - Arden House redundant bin stores - soon to be bike store

Amazing progress this weekend ...fake slates and ivy off, first layer of sub base on - reused shuttering ply

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Festive Greetings to you all and look forward to 2012 being another fantastic year for moving the Ecological Age forward

Enjoy the celebration of the Arden House build. put togther by Charles and Evelina. Thanks to all ........see you in new year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lMbCRqxp-k

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Beautifying our streets- the pelargoniums are in bloom this week !

Earlier in Autumn a few of us worked with Lambeth's Freshview Team to build tree pit planters across three SE11 streets, planting them with trailing pelargoniums, donated from neighbours, and grasses from Roots and Shoots. Freshview is a great programme and the biggest hit was the two huge communal skips for green waste and general waste, which became a weekend swap party and a great solution as many in the neighbourhood do not have cars to take waste to the amenity recycling centre.    Freshview

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Low winter sun through the tall waving plants , Arden House living roof

tiny cobwebs on the wheat

low morning sun

autumn colours

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Our very own poster boy .........and his extremely large garden tool

Any sightings on posters when you're out and about please take a snap and add to the comment wall below

There is a great article giving great support to Lambeth's Green Champions programme - well done all. Great stuff

Green Community Champion

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Up on the roof - a living roof tour of north Lambeth

many thanks to all the living roofers who shared a wonderful afternoon 'Up on the Roof' - a living roof tour of north lambeth, London as part of the Open City's Green Sky thinking programme. http://www.greenskythinking.org.uk/programmes/neighbourhoods.html

It was all about making living roofs visible, accessible, de-mystyfied. So the six roofs were an Edible bike shed, rubble roof, sedum and solar, sedum with 60 year BBA specification, artist's ecostructure and a community built biodiversity roof on 5 local authority garages.
Such a great mix of folk - a bat specialist, a Local Authority head of Housing and Regeneration, Housing Association officers, community gardeners, Architects, ecological designers, a housing maintenance team who look after green roofs 'It makes my job easy' , journalists, self builders, artists, .......Hoping to do more in the spring...and build up a Lambeth living roof gazetteer......

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Minty Tea Party at Feast on the Bridge

500 glasses of fresh mint and fennel seed teas were enjoyed. The herby pallette planter was a great hit.

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Fancy some fruit scouting

So the blackberries, damsons, crab apples, apples, greengages are looking gorgeous.... what a bumper year.

If you see any fruit that might need some hand in harvesting you could drop one of the London Orchard Project fliers through the door, maybe add a friendly hand written note on it too . Watch out for dates over the next few weeks for a fruit scouting gathering with kit of ladders and telescopic harvesting poles borrowed from David http://thelondonorchardproject.org/

Incredible Edible Fruit scouting flier

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Hot Chilli Hut at Clapham Common's Feastival

What a great day with building our third living roof as part of Jamie Oliver's Feastival. The roof celebrated the spirit of Incredible Edible Lambeth - a network of the 118 food growing projects across the borough- where chilli plants adorned the roof, grown from seed at Brockwell Community Greenhouses and Myatts Field Park Project and mixed in with herbs and succulents nurtured at Roots and Shoots.

roof top chillis and herbs

Bikes storage - all part of active travel

Sue's upcycled old shed shall now take residence at Macaulay Estate, a new food growing project, whilst the chilli plants have been re-potted ready to be used on Brockwell Bake's pizzas for Feast on the Bridge. Fabulous plant to plate in action !

'Supermarkets have only been around 20 years whereas we've been farming for 2000 years - plants are in our DNA  ' great words from Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins - who was very generous with his time to have an inspirational chat about Incredible Edible Lambeth - he's a big fan !

Great to hear The Guardian's Alys Fowler enthusiasm for Permaculture . We love her apple tattoo !

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Bike the Borough

Big thanks to Eric and the Active Travel crew for organising the 18 mile tour of our fantastic borough . Amazing to see our great parks and open spaces as a playground for young and old. It is such valuable space for us all to have space to breath . Nice touch with the lovely signage along the whole route – so creative .

Dave and his embellishment by a lady in Archbishop Park

The gorgeous Nicola from Cottington and her blooming new bike !

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Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm

So how does it work in Brooklyn? Take one farmer with a farm-to-table passion + a team of restauranteers and farmers marketeers + a real estate company dedicated to the sustainable renovation of commercial spaces who can lease roofs like this one for 10 years.......Know of any of those around here ?

Apart from it being around 50 times the size of our Arden House living roof , similarities are it's built on top of an existing concrete slab, the soil depth is 175mm – AH is 130-ish mm . I am interested in finding out about it's soil composition which uses organic material plus lightweight porous stones. I'll be back in touch when I find out more.

Brooklyn Grange on Inhabitat website

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Another reason to love this rain

what a marvellous sight - the rainwater run-off from the living roof slows right down.  The photo below is of the first really heavily rains about 2 weeks ago , when as you can see the sun is out after it stopped raining and the water didn't start dripping out of the downpipe for about 2 hours after, whilst all around the hard concrete streets of westminster and lambeth were flooded as the drains couldn't cope. 

watch out as Charles has it on movie - you've never seen a bunch of people so happy with watching a down pipe - which we still need to attach the rain chains to.  The first of the rainwater butts  – a re-used olive barrel – was knicked (!) but now with the second one in place and full of lovely rain I don't think it's going anywhere !

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Flowering succulents 

..... rumour has it  the roof looks gorgeous from google earth ...

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Arden House Living Roof wheat logs and succulents

 Arden House photos

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New York's growing demand for Green Roofs

Gardens are sprouting on top of the city's buildings, bringing environmental benefits as well as beauty. See today's Guardian blog

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River Thames Forage for Green Roof

great fun and look at the gorgeous found local resource to create our rooftop habitat

more river thames forage photos

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Blooming Berlin

Have a look at this fabulous planting project here at Prinzessinnen Garten Berlin

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Living Roof Arden House off Black Prince Road, SE11

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Living Roof at Arden House

Great site survey of Arden House Garages today and brilliant AGM - more on that later.

Much discussion about the detail of the edge of the living roof , as that is what will be seen from ground level. Here's John Little's Gabion Edge detail much praised - lovely.  And the link to John Little's Grass Roof Company

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School-of-Sustainability

We are at a critical period in human history, and we need to galvanise our efforts to establish informed, sustainable communities that can respond in imaginative ways to the challenge of living sustainably on our little planet. Prof. Paul Clarke.

Enjoy the much needed website from Paul Clarke - one of the inspirational Incredible Edible Tods   School of Sustainability

Here's one of those stories that make it all worth while - wise words from Grace Lee Boggs , it's time for us to rethink democracy and equality and simply reconnect with each other

Grace Lee Boggs wise words

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Winter meet and AGM 2011 Sunday 30th Jan 11.15 - 12 noon

It's time to celebrate the glorious 2010 and look ahead for 2011 . Also we need to formalise as we have funds and they need a bank account !

So please come along to Beaconsfield cafe , 22 Newport Street . Grab yourself a coffee and get excited for the year ahead.

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Incredible Edible Todmorden discussion at Sustainability Forum Lambeth nov'10

Thanks to Incredible Edible Todmorden for their inspiration. The discussion was based around their recent London conference, where the 4 big asks in Lambeth are the same as Todmorden.

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Goat or bees on the roof ?
Following on from the pub chat about the roof needing to support biodiversity, I do like goats but realise they would eat everything as they are so mischievous . Whereas bees could be a good option !!

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Dusty's thoughts for Biodiversity for Arden House Green Roof

The roof should meet targets as laid out in the London Biodiversity Action Plan LBAP and also Lambeth BAP [LAMBAP]

Black redstarts
House Sparrow - think this is now a national BAP LBAP LAMBAP
Stag Beetles [logs will need to be added to roof] LBAP LAMBAP
Built Environment LAMBAP LBAP
Wasteland Habitat Action Plan

Nationally
Open Habitats - Habitats action plan - I would add to this that this will meet many 'generic' actions for rare invertebrates associated with open habitats, brownfields and wastelands - some of which are UKBAP species
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Fantastic news - Green Roof no.2 gets funding

It is time to celebrate as approval has been given to the proposal for the Onion Shed's second green roof . Thanks to the Western Riverside Environmental Fund , the bio-diverse roof will be on top of the Lambeth Council owned garages, at Arden House, Black Prince Road. Charles has put together a fantastic bid, supported by Lambeth Living and our lovely green roof guru Dusty Gedge. Come and find out about it and more at Green Drinks on Wednesday 10th November at 8.00pm Duchy Arms, Sancroft Street , SE11 5UG.
Arden House Green Roof Application.pdf
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Garden Tiger Moth on our wild strawberries

Having survived the summer the living roof is doing amazingly well and looking great for today's Apple Day at Roots and Shoots. The flowers are out on the succulents and nasturtiams, whilst the grasses will need to be tamed as they have taken over. The kids from Cottingham Gardens Community Growers were seen eating the nasturtiam leaves off the roof - fab !

David spotted a pupating garden tiger moth on the wild strawberries early this month, which caused great excitement, as they were a rare species before the introduction of the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) launched in 1997. Apparently the moth normally prefers raspberries .

Andy Howard from the Heritage Fruit Tree Company set up stall next to the shed and we shared the rear wall to display Onion Shed information and his glorious apple posters. Couldn't resist buying a 'Cellini 'apple tree as it is the 'Vauxhall Apple' .

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The Onion Shed's first Bike (Onion) Shed

It is looking fantastic. The succulents are beautiful, the grasses are gorgeously delicate and the chives are still going strong

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Sunflowers from Made-of-London bags

The sunflowers are so lovely. Greg and Sarah made a brave attempt to prop the stalks in the bags as they were so thick and strong but the recent winds uprooted them. One of the lessons from this first summer season of growing in the bags is that they are more suited to smaller 'unit' sizes, as both the sunflowers and courgettes were too big for the bags. This is what I so love about this project, it's learning from doing .

............................................................................................................................................................ Harvesting of Brockwell Bake's heritage wheat in Made-of-London bags

Great to have got the wheat harvested today just before the rain. It wasn't until they were bundled together that the amazing difference in the varieties became apparent. From my very inexpert eyes, the April Bearded was probably the most successful in yield and very very handsome if slightly crooked. The Ile de Noe had very strong and straight stalks, but could have done with a few more weeks sunshine, and then there is the Hatif Inversable.......ahhh bless !

Across the 5 bags, bag 3 was the least successful - the first real plant which hasn't thrived in the coffee chaff-rich compost.

The lovely Cottingham Community Gardeners shall be taking the wheat up to the Feast on The Bridge celebrations as part of the Brockwell Bake's wheat extravaganza .
http://www.brockwell-bake.org.uk/

Hickling de Mars

April Bearded

Red Fife

Hatif Inversable

Ile de Noe

............................................................................................................................................................ Brockwell Bake's heritage wheat in Made-of-London bags

Here's a photo taken in that really hot spell in July of one of the seven heritage varieties of wheat, looking gorgeous in the low afternoon sun with the ladybirds.

The wheat should be ready for harvest soon for the Feast on the Bridge celebrations on Saturday 11th Sept where Nicola from the marvellous Cottingham Community Gardens will be gathering a merry band of north Lambeth revellers to join in the celebrations , whilst carrying wheat to be milled on the bridge with the Brockwell Bake crew .

This free event sees Southwark Bridge closed for the day to play host for this spectacular harvest gathering as part of the Thames Festival. Watch this space for wheat harvesting dates.

http://www.brockwell-bake.org.uk/#events

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Made-of-London produce
July 2010

Bag 3 is still doing really well - don't know how I missed this Courgette as it is just ever-so slightly oversized ! Good for gorgeous pots of tamarind and courgette pickle. Lovely looking Chard, but beans seem pretty weedy.

............................................................................................................................................................ Made-of-London bag-a-bag
June 2010
Bag 3 continues to excite - 75% local waste + 25% commercially produced compost . All the plants show the same vigorous healthy growth as the plants in the bags with the higher % of commercially produced compost, which is the control (as we know it works). The next couple of weeks will be interesting to see how all the energy and nutrients work hard to produce the gorgeous flowers or vegetables. Each bag contains Courgette, Chard, Dwarf French Bean, Nasturtium (2 types), Runner Bean, Sunflower, Brockwell Bake's Wheat (6 types) for September's Feast on The Bridge

Bag 1 100% local waste - 70% fruit + veg compost,15% Aardvark Recycling Compost, 15% Monmouth Coffee + Costa Coffee chaff mix

Bag 2 100% local waste - 60% fruit + veg compost, 20% Aardvark Recycling Compost, 20% Monmouth Coffee chaff

Bag 3 75% local waste + 25% commercially produced compost - 25% fruit + veg compost, 25% Aardvark Recycling Compost, 25% Costa Coffee chaff, 25% Arthur Bower's multi-purpose compost

Bag 4 30% local waste + 70% commercially produced compost - 15% Aardvark Recycling Compost, 15% Monmouth Coffee + Costa Coffee chaff mix, 70% Arthur Bower's multi-purpose compost

Bag 5 The Control 100% Arthur Bower's multi-purpose compost
................................................................................................................................................................ 'Up on the Roof' Repowering Lambeth
June 2010
This was a Fantastic weekend project with a great group contribution by the Onion Shedders. Special thanks to Dusty Gedge for inspiring us with his Living Roof passion. The construction of the green roof on top of the £100 B + Q bike shed is based on the DIY guide by Dusty and John Little. www.livingroofs.org/diy-guide-green-roofs.html

Delighted to share a few photos of The Onion Shed's first Onion Shed.

Dusty sharing his Living Roof passions

Strawberries, sedums and native grasses

Chives (Onion family)

Elf-dens and holey bricks for bugs

Shed reinforced with internal roof and upright struts and bracing to take extra load. Doors have been left off for clarity.

Walls waiting to be painted with water based low VOC external paint

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'Up on the Roof' Repowering Lambeth

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'Made-of-London' at Roots and Shoots
May 2010

The builder's bags full of weeds was a sight for sore eyes. I have never been so excited about weeds. Made of London is an experiment in growing food using a range of local waste materials in re-used builder's merchants bags. Each bag has a different soil ranging from 100% commercial produced soil ( the control) to 100% local waste, with the ratio of different mixes between.

The pre-weeding photos show Bag 3 to be the most vigorous- interesting as this contains the highest content of costa coffee's coffee chaff, which Greg - horticultural guru at Roots and Shoots - suggested might have helped with retaining moisture, as well as the largest ratio of Aardvark Recycling's compost. Bag 1 ( 100% commercial ) was totally weed free, with the other bags a range inbetween.
Having cleared the weeds out , each bag has been planted with :
Runner Beans ( seed beans donated by a lovely lady at the Roots and Shoots Spring Science Open Day)
Sunflowers
French Dwarf Beans
Courgettes
Two types of Nasturtiums
Chard

Watch out for taste test later in the year

Have a look at the photos .
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40617641@N05/sets/72157624065525758/

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Brockwell Bake's Spring Wheat growing in Made-of-London bags
April 2010

All the wheat is doing well, and so they should with such delightful names e.g. Red Fife and Bearded April varieties.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40617641@N05/sets/72157623590004447/

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Beautify The Beaufoy visuals
March 2010

In response to the Unloved Lambeth project and struck by the passion for food and compost production at the recent Onion Shed's gathering, Melanie has proposed 'Beautify the Beaufoy'. Be inspired.
Beautify the Beaufoy.pdf
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Thanks to Lambeth Council's 'Make the Big Difference Funding' March 2010 The Onion Shed are delighted to invite you to participate in three local activities: Seedball making workshop; Invisible Food Forage; Cycle Tour of Guerilla and Community Gardens

'Over the Fence' led cycle tour of Guerilla and Community Gardens
Saturday 27th March 2010 10.15 meet at Garden History Museum, SE11

Photos

Seed Ball Making Workshop
as part of the Roots and Shoots Spring Science Day on Sunday 21st March 2010

Photos

Invisible Food Forage
as part of the Roots and Shoots Spring Science Day on Sunday 21st March 2010

Forage thanks to Invisible Food
Photos
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Onion Shed Meeting notes Autumn 2009
November 2009
Onion Shed Meeting 02 191109.pdf