Food

The Transition Belsize Food Growing Group have been practicing permaculture by building and planting public food growing sites. The first one was created in the car park of the Premier Inn Hotel on Ornan Road, just off Haverstock Hill. It includes raised beds, rainwater harvesting and wormeries.

This Sunday, between 11am and 1pm, there's a gathering at the Premier Inn site to do maintenance, to socialise and to think about what next. Anyone is welcome to come. You can help or just watch or ask questions.

Permaculture is the solutions toolkit and philosophy underpinning the Transition movement. It's about using our brains to design energy and waste out of systems, and about working with nature rather than seeking to subjugate it. See here for Rob Hopkins on what permaculture is and how it's linked to Transition. Transition Belsize are offering a course of four urban permaculture classes (three hours per session). This course will involve work on the Royal Free Hospital estate where we have been given a plot of land. As well as learning about the principles of permaculture in an urban setting, participants will design and create a forest garden food growing site.

Come and help break ground on an exciting new Transition Belsize project called The Fruitery! We are planning to transform some land at the back of St Peters church in Belsize Square into a productive, communal space that can be shared and enjoyed by the community. During the next few months we want to turn it into a showcase forest garden. First the site needs some preparation work so we need your help! There will be shrub and root clearance to be done, as well as generally tidying the site.

More preparation work at The Fruitery to clear the ground. Bring a hand axe if you have one!

The Royal Free Hospital have kindly given Transition Belsize a plot of land to plant fruit trees and medicinal herbs. There will also be raised beds so that children at the Royal Free primary school can grow food. 

The fun starts this Sunday 25th March when we'll be planting the fruit trees from 11am. The site is in the Heath Strange Garden, which is above the Royal Free car park.  Everyone is welcome. 

On Saturday 14th April we'll be running a raised bed workshop on the site from 2pm to 5pm so do come along if you'd like to learn how to build raised beds.

Do join us for this free workshop to learn how to create beautiful raised beds. We're building these ones for the children at the Royal Free primary school so they can grow food.

Last year the Transition Belsize Food Growing group installed raised beds in the corner of the Premier Inn Hotel car park on Ornan Road (see photos). The site was and is a huge success. A group of local residents maintain it and harvest food from it. Hotel staff are very proud of it. Hotel guests and passersby visit it. Rainwater is collected from a nearby wall to water it. Food waste is recycled through two wormeries and returned to the site as compost. It’s wonderful example of both Transition and permaculture in practice.  

The Royal Free Hospital has very kindly given Transition Belsize a plot of land for food growing. It’s in the Heath Strange Garden above the hospital car park. The plan is to plant fruit trees, fruit bushes and medicinal herbs, and to install raised beds so that the children at the hospital primary school can learn how to grow food.

On Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th March we - 25 volunteers - moved five tons of compost on to the site by hand and then planted fruit trees in sunken barrels so that the roots don't penetrate into the hospital department below the garden. We also planted some fruit bushes and some rhubarb (for Alexis!).