boxes of seeds in the temperature and humidity controlled seed store room at HSL In the heatwave at the end of July, nine members of the Stroud Community Seed Bank set off on an expedition to the national Heritage Seed Library at Garden Organic near Coventry. We spent a couple of hours touring the [...]
We're collecting/accepting donations of unwanted shrubs and hedging materials - particularly saplings - that we're going to eventually sell or give away for a donation. The reason we're doing this is that a lot of commercial hedging, although promoted as native, is actually brought in from Holland. Our work includes being asked to create wildlife friendly [...]
We are delighted to announce the launch of our new project at Vale Community Hospital in Dursley. We will be developing unused ground at the front of the hospital and installing up to 40 raised bed allotments for local individuals and groups interested in growing their own fruit and vegetables. There is a growing body of evidence to [...]
On Sunday we ran our first seed saving workshop as part of the new Stroud Community Seed Bank, and we were delighted to find we’ve recruited a bunch of really lovely, enthusiastic people keen to become our first ‘seed guardians’. From complete beginners to those with several years experience, we were all able to learn and [...]
Potato Day 2016 was an even bigger success than the year before! In spite of the bad weather we had lots of interest and raised over £270 profit for Transition Stroud and Down to Earth. But more importantly we had many great conversations and heard from folk who have been inspired to grow more of their food [...]
Thank you so much to everyone who helped make The Fruit Exchange 2015 such a wonderful success. We are so proud of seeing how well it went, how much waste we prevented and all that gorgeous local, home-grown, fresh fruit being used up! We'd been aware for many years of the amount of fruit which goes [...]
We are coming to the Farmers' Market this Saturday the 16th with a whole range of fruit trees and shrubs available. With the ususal apple, pear, quince, cherry, nectarines, plum, damson, gage, peach, apricot, and the unusual ones, such as medlar and mulberry this year. Plus loganberry, jostaberry, blueberry, raspberry, tayberry, blackcurrant, redcurrant and whitecurrant bushes [...]
We hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas break and enjoyed celebrating the new year. At Down to Earth we always have a Christmas meal together and this year we met at the Selsley community growing scheme for a 'bring and share' Christmas meal. Quite a few volunteers braved the cold and wet to share a meal. [...]
We have started taking orders for this season's fruit trees. As we have a wide variety of fruit trees and shrubs available, this year we are taking orders based on your choice. For varieties and rootstock, check the catalogue of our supplier, Frank P Matthews . All trees and shrubs are bare rooted and subject to [...]
We launched The Fruit Exchange earlier this year with the hopes of making use of all the surplus fruit in people's gardens. We've been busy setting it up and spreading the word but also getting businesses on board with the idea. It's been a busy few months culminating now in lots of exchanges of surplus fruit! We're [...]
