These articles are here to help you…
This link takes you to the monthly advice page of the National Allotment Society
“Daily Information’s Practical Gardening Tips:
- Daily Info’s own allotment gardening advice page
- BBC gardening pages: when to plant, what to plant & everything else, courtesy of Auntie Beeb
- The Incredible Edible Networkhave some great advice including the excellent Numpties Guide to Raised Beds (every bit as readable as it sounds!). See below for details on the Oxford Chapter.
- Royal Horticultural Society: plant finder with 70,000+ plants (and associated growing guides); extensive list of stockists & gardens; Chelsea Flower Show
Gardens to Volunteer at and Community Gardens:
- Barracks Lane Garden– the granddaddy community garden in Oxford. Open all the time, sometimes staffed by volunteers and sometimes you must book and collect a key.
- Incredible Edible Oxford– part of an international movement about putting public green spaces to use growing food
- Oxford City Farm– next to St Gregory the Great School and Florence Park, OCF aims to educate everyone about food production enjoyably.
- OxGrow– two unloved tennis courts in Hogacre Common (off Abingdon Rd) have become a thriving community food garden. Work sessions Wed evenings and Sun afternoon.
- Wolvercote Tree Group– maintains a Community Orchard opposite The Trout, with annual apple day, and other trees around the village.
- Warneford Orchard– not so much a need for volunteering this, but if you like apples go and pick some! Make use of the town green status and enjoy the produce, some of it rare species. Accessible from Hilltop Road via Warneford Meadow.
Places to Visit:
- Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust(BBOWT): local nature reserves, wildlife advice & more
- Living Rainforest, Hampstead Norreys, Newbury, Berks: educational charity providing a genuine, seasonally varied rainforest experience
- Kew Gardens: info, educational services, Q&A facility
- Museum of Garden History: plant fairs, exhibitions, visits & more in Lambeth, London
- National Gardens Scheme: 3,700+ gardens open for charity (including many gardens not normally publicly accessible)
- The Eden Project: vast geodomes in a Cornish quarry house a rich global garden
- Lost Gardens of Heligan: restoration of fabulous Cornish Victorian garden
Online Reference:
- Friends of Oxford Botanic Garden: the garden is a national reference collection of 7,000 different types of plant – more diverse than a rainforest!
- Plant Locations: AMAZING resource listing interesting/edible plants & their locations (most throughly, Bristol). Want to find your nearest mulberry tree? Wild plums? Fig? Find them here – and enlarge the map by adding plants near you.
- Flowers & Plants Association: flower fashion, flower facts, flower care
Interesting Oddities:
- Interactive Plant Biology (A Kid’s Guide To The Life Cycle Of A Flower): making the lives of plants interesting and accessible to younger plant fans
- Garden Picture Library: 5000+ photographs
- Old Lawnmowers Club: collection, preservation & display!
- eForests: plant a tree for a special occasion & offset your carbon footprint too
- Jungle Seeds: from Eucalyptus trees to pink bananas
- International Carnivorous Plant Society: grow your own natural pest control
- Postcode Plants Database: find what’s growing where you are (courtesy of the Natural History Museum)
- Images of England(English heritage): 300,000+ photos of England’s listed buildings
- GreatBuildings(ArchitectureWeek): 1000 classics of world architecture
- Student Vegetable Diaries: a resource for students, with guides on how to grow veg at Uni”
Neighbouring suppliers
Oxford Wood Recycling, Abingdon
Paul (Manure) 07770 743253
Wilko
Tools recommended by plotholders
Mattock
Dutch hoe