Incredible Edible Lambeth is looking for new members for the body that oversees and steers its work. We welcome nominations from anyone who has a passion for nurturing local food initiatives, and who lives and/or works in Lambeth. Continue reading…
Make Soil!
‘Composting’ is not always considered a very glamorous activity – but as gardeners, we all know the incredible benefits of creating good compost – or ‘gardeners’ gold’.
We are partnering with MakeSoil.org and are trying to persuade everyone to generate much more lovely, nutrient-rich soil by inviting our neighbours to deposit their food waste in our compost bins.
We already have seven MakeSoil sites in Lambeth – take a look at the website and type in your postcode to find your nearest site; you could become a MakeSoil supporter today.
This photo is at the Secret Garden on the Spurgeon Estate.
Find out more about MakeSoil here:
Blooming Lambeth Awards 2019
Join us on 15 October to celebrate community growing in Lambeth and crown the winners of the Blooming Lambeth Awards 2019!
Seed Swap and a Tribute to Esiah Levy
At our recent seed swap, the Garden Museum was humming with activity as people gathered to share seeds and started to think about the next growing season. We couldn’t believe the number of people who came through the door, eager to get a chance to talk about the next veg or flowers they were going to try growing. Continue reading…
Pesticide-free Lambeth!
We are experiencing a biodiversity crisis, with a catastrophic decline in insect life, in part because of over-use of pesticide. And there are questions around the safety of glyphosate to our health (read how Bayer have agreed to pay out $US15.9b in cancer claims.
HOT NEWS from mid September 2020 – a quote from Lambeth Council:
..“glyphosate will be stopped completely when the new contracts come in [October 2021]…as part of our expectations of the new service which we have put out to tender is that bidders have to prove how they will manage invasive weed growth without glyphosate.”
So we still have a bit of time to wait for out streets to be glyphosate-free (Council owned estates are now glyphosate-free, as from Friday 7th August 2020, read here for this news) but many TMO’s are not. Did you know that your street is sprayed twice or three times a year?
So what can you do?
1. If you would like your street NOT to be sprayed this year, you can email streetchampions@lambeth.gov.uk and request ‘no harmful chemicals’. 30 streets have already opted out this year (2020).
2. Watch Sophie’s video here, as we move towards accepting weeds on our streets. and watch our Biodiversity webinar here.
Get Involved – Make Your Pledge TODAY!
Join us and pledge to go pesticide-free in your garden.
(Glyphosate is commonly known as Round Up)
Other actions you can take:
- write to your councillor asking them to ‘take the pledge’ too, if you don’t know who your councillor is, go here
- support the work of Pesticide Action Network UK and support their Pesticide-Free Towns Campaign.
- share this Pesticide Free document (see pdf) with Lambeth Councillors, TMO’s and Lambeth residents.
- get in touch with the IEL team with your own ideas for a campaign, and most importantly, if you’re not yet a member, join IEL!
The Pleasure of Plants at Max Roach
There’s a corner of Lambeth each Wednesday afternoon which is dedicated to everything about healthy food — and there’s free fruit and vegetable bags on offer as well.
The Max Roach Community Centre, a vibrant, super-friendly, wood-clad building in Max Roach Park, becomes a midweek Incredible Edible LEAP zone. Walk in through its doors and you’re greeted by delicious smells from the kitchen, crates of brightly coloured fruit and veggies and lots of people with soil on their hands coming in from the garden. Continue reading…
Pledging for a Healthier Food Borough
As part of our mission to make healthier and more sustainable food available to all in Lambeth, Incredible Edible Lambeth (IEL) has worked hard to build partnerships with the council, NHS, local businesses and many more. This is manifested in the Lambeth Food Partnership, which launched The Lambeth Good Food Charter at its AGM earlier this month. Continue reading…
Why Lettuce?
The team from the London Freedom Seed Bank had us all enthralled last week at Incredible Edible Lambeth’s Seed Saving Event, held at the beautiful South London Botanical Institute.
Julie Riehl and Charlotte Dove provided a wealth of information about the whys and hows of seed saving. Charlotte reminded us why it was so vital (given the 93% loss in food seed varieties worldwide) and provided the background to the work of the Seed Bank whilst Julie gave a great drawn presentation on how seeds propagate and how to start seed saving. Continue reading…
And the winners are…
Read the full list of all the amazing gardens, gardeners and food entrepreneurs who won prizes at the Blooming Lambeth Awards.
Nearly all these winners can be found on our fantastic map – please do click through and learn more – and go visit some of them too. Get involved if it’s just round the corner from where you live or start a community garden of your own in a space near you. We need many more of them… Continue reading…
Blooming Lambeth Awards 2018 – what a night!
We had a wonderful night on 22nd October at the Garden Museum, celebrating all the magnificent gardens, gardeners and food entrepreneurs that are to be found around Lambeth.
The Mayor of Lambeth, Christopher Wellbelove, gave the prizes – there were 18 first, and 10 highly commended prizes. Continue reading…