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Surrey Docks Farm - February 2021
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Behind the Gates
Following the governments' plans to ease lockdown, we've been focusing on how we can increase volunteer numbers and ensuring the safe return of our community projects in April. Once we have our participants back and have more support from a full volunteer team again, we can then work on ways to bring visitors back to enjoy more of the site. Please bear with us, as soon as we have any news on visiting we'll let you know via our website, social media channels and signs on the gate!
February began to show signs of Spring with the first frogs arriving in our wildlife pond in the first week. But then the snow returned! The team worked hard keeping the animals cared for, defrosting hoses and sweeping our section of the Thames path for locals to safely walk through.
On a sunny day later in the month we saw a great team effort from our Youth Manager, Youth Volunteer and Horticulture Apprentice who planted one hundred hedge whips in the Wildlife Garden. The hedge includes Rosa canina, Acer campestre, hawthorn and Prunus spinosa; these will grow up along the new trellis fence providing more homes for wildlife. The team also planted a crab apple tree by the edge of the pond. This project has been funded through our ‘Wild About Wildlife’ Crowdfund London campaign, thank you again to all who donated and gave their support!
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Vacancy
We're currently recruiting for a Youth Worker to join our team for two days a week to establish and deliver an exciting new project named ‘Greenagers’ which will engage 14-18 year olds at the Farm.
‘Greenagers’ will see young people work together for a common purpose, developing their knowledge, skills and experiences in a range of outdoor activities including animal care, food growing, environmental conservation, cooking and craft activities.
If you're interested, or know someone who might be, please visit our website for full details and to complete an application form.
Thanks to the Jack Petchey Foundation and British Land for their support of this new project.
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Support the Farm
We have been overwhelmed by the support our community has shown in this past year. We continue to rely on donations, particularly as we ease out of the lockdown this Spring. If you'd like to support on a more regular basis you can sign up as a 'Friend of the Farm' find out more here.
Our farm shop collections are still running on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sundays. We have lots of eggs, sausages and meat cuts available to order via our website, ready to collect from our gates the following morning. Find out what's in stock here.
The farm shop collections are possible thanks to one of our dedicated volunteers who has attended every week throughout the pandemic. On a rare morning off, one of our Young Farmers took on shop duty with our Youth Manager: "it's exciting!" he said, sorting the orders and giving them out at the gates. A taste of work experience a few years early!
It's now the time to get out in the garden to start preparing for a new year of growing! Alongside our farm shop, we have a weekly gardening shop selling bags of well-rotted manure, compost, herbs and bedding plants. These are for sale on our website here and are ready to collect on Sunday mornings.
This month we attended Southwark's online 'North-East multi-ward meeting' and were delighted to hear our local councillors announce funding success for the Farm! We've been awarded funding through the Cleaner Greener Safer fund to replace the small polytunnel with a new greenhouse next Winter; and funding through the Neighbourhood Fund to support with costs to deliver our rotted manure to community gardens and allotments across the borough. We're very grateful for this funding and will keep you updated on the new developments!
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Livestock
On 26th February our lovely donkey Alice turned an incredible 29 years old! She’s much-loved here and has helped build confidence and bring joy to so many in our community. This includes participants in our training projects for adults with learning disabilities and young farmers clubs; visiting children enjoying a ride; plus many schools and churches she’s attended for nativity and Palm Sunday events over the years.
The chickens are still in a temporary covered pen, in line with DEFRA guidelines due to the continued risk of avian flu. The team have given them veggie treats, fresh woodchip and made these perches from logs donated from a tree surgeon. The chickens are starting to lay regularly with the longer days and milder weather. Did you know the colour of eggshells varies between chicken breeds and is the result of different pigments being deposited during the eggs formation!
Our Young Farmers usually love to feed the Guinea pigs, but for now it's down to staff and volunteers to make sure they have regular fresh veg to chomp on. Thanks to one of our dedicated volunteers who made this film for our Young Farmers during lockdown, click here to watch, we hope you all enjoy it too!
Our dedicated livestock team work hard in all weather. Huge thanks to our volunteers who give their time to keep the animals well cared for, we couldn’t manage without you! We've been pleased to welcome a few new volunteers to the team but are back at capacity again. If you're interested in volunteering with the animals please visit our website from mid-April onwards, when we might have some more opportunities to get involved!
 
We’re so grateful to all who have bought us gifts from our Amazon Wishlist! Last weekend we were thrilled to receive these sheep shearing clippers. Farmer Claire is using them to ‘dag’ the sheep, tidying up their fleece ready for lambing in April! Huge thanks to Angela for gifting these to us!
If you’re interested in supporting the Farm in this way, find out more here.
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Training Projects
Our adult students with learning disabilities are still at home while we're in lockdown. As usual we're keeping in touch with phone calls and posting weekly newsletters.
The horticulture students in our New Leaf and Plot to Shop projects have told us what they want to grow when they can return to the Farm. We've been busy Spring cleaning at the back of our plant room and have cleared lots of space ready to start seed sowing. The windows are south facing and several of the tables are heated which helps seeds germinate early, such as these rows of tiny tomato seedlings which are also covered at night when the temperature drops. We’re looking forward to the summer when the students will be busy potting these up to grow and fruit in our new greenhouse; with surplus plants sold to local residents to grow at home.
We've also planted crops in the outside beds, such as these varieties of lettuces going in to the Plot to Shop raised beds. Pictured below are our pansies, sweet peas and tomato seedlings on the picnic benches. A flavour of what’s to come this summer!
Finally, we've been busy with lots of garden maintenance tasks, including pruning the orchard. As usual nothing is wasted here, the branches were collected up and given to our pigs and rabbits to gnaw on and eat the bark.
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Horticulture Apprentice
We welcomed our first ever Horticulture Apprentice to join the team in September, thanks to funding from the City Bridge Trust and Southwark Council's Neighbourhood Fund. Find out what she has been up to here:
This month I’ve been sieving and sterilising lots of fresh compost then mixing it with composted bark, sand and biochar to make a potting mix for our plants.
Every week I attend the City and Guilds Work Based Horticulture course at Walworth garden, with the focus this month being plant identification and vegetative propagation. I’ve also started a few new projects of my own at the Farm to support my horticultural learning and development. These include setting up a wormery for making Vermicompost, revitalising the Dye Garden and planning, developing and maintaining a polyculture bed in the vegetable garden.
I’ve been busy sowing seeds, preparing the plots for planting and putting my new propagation skills into practice, dividing rhubarb and artichoke and taking hardwood cuttings of woody perennials - all of which I plan to incorporate into the project areas!
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Heritage
The types of clay pipes you find in an area often reflect what went on there. These are just some of the many 'workers' pipes that have been found along our area of the Thames foreshore. With their shorter stems, they could be comfortably held in the mouth, leaving both hands free to continue working. These may have been smoked by those working on the wharves here, or dropped by the crew of passing or visiting barges or ships.
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Youth Programmes
During February we delivered 34 hours of 1:1 support to 14 children and young people needing additional help and guidance during lockdown. These Farm sessions included art, sound and animal therapy with our Youth Worker and offered a valuable chance for the young people to slow down and connect with nature in the wildlife garden.
This month we also engaged our 40 Young Farmers in a total of 24 hours of weekend online sessions which offer the groups social contact, a chance to share news and updates, play games, celebrate birthdays and receive updates from the Farm.
Through these sessions our youth group members achieved three AQA unit awards: Food Growing, Forest School and Caring for the Environment. Young people learned about the local and global impact of food production and how individual choice can make positive impacts on the health of the community.
Our youth volunteers have been hard at work this month. One volunteer led two online Forest School sessions where our youth club members learned how to tie special knots, make weavings and read from 'The Lost Spells' book. You can watch a video our Youth Volunteer also made explaining how to make a stick frame here.
Another volunteer has been working hard each week on the youth allotment keeping on top of weeds and helping to renovate the space so that when our youth groups can return they can get straight back into growing food to take home.
Our Youth Committee have also been working tirelessly behind the scenes this month researching and pitching for their London Youth City Leaders project. The group successfully pitched to secure a budget for their social action projects planned for late Spring and Summer. Their project aims to engage young people who have experienced loneliness and isolation during the pandemic through Farm workshops and digital engagement. Watch this space!
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Wildlife
There's lots to see along the Thames path if you look closely. These fantastic photos were taken by one of our team of the thriving moss garden on the river wall at the Farm. It’s made up of numerous species, forming little hedges along the gaps between the bricks. The taller plant - the one looking like miniature palm trees - is the appropriately named Pellitory-of-the-wall.
With the milder weather the Spring flowers have opened at the Farm. We've spotted lots of honey bees frantically clambering all over the golden stamens of the crocus flowers.
We're so excited to see the first frogspawn in our newly renovated wildlife garden pond. Thanks to the Young Farmers for leading a successful crowd fund campaign to complete this much needed work to benefit local wildlife and to everyone who donated! If you look carefully through the new trellis fencing on the Thames path, you might be able to spot the frogs and their spawn.
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