Help rebuild the meadow - Saturday May 10 seed-sowing day

At the end of last year, Mabley Meadow was buried under a 49-tonne pile of flytipped rubbish. But then something amazing happened - the daffodils bloomed anyway, and the bluebells are peeping out of the grass. So the meadow won't be beaten - and neither will we!

Join us on Saturday 10 May, from 11am-1pm for a meadow seed-sowing extravaganza, and show those flytippers they can't keep us down.

On the day we'll pick up the small amount of rubbish that was missed in the clean up (so if you have a pair of gardening gloves, bring them along). Then when the meadow's spic and span again, we'll sow a new batch of wildflower seeds then get ready for incredible summer. See you there!

Flytipping disaster!

If you've been past the meadow recently, or seen some of the many media reports, you'll have noticed that our community park has gone from this:

 To this:

(Image from ITV)

Illegal flytippers have dumped a whopping 49 tonnes of rubbish on Mabley Meadow, destroying the small orchard and edible herb area, and potentially killing all the bluebells and daffodils we've worked so hard to plant.

So this is a terrible day for everyone who's volunteered, joined the gardening-club and enjoyed using the meadow. But there's good news here too.

Hackney Council have already started the clear up, so it'll look much better soon. And some of our plantings are gone forever, some will come back fighting. So stay tuned for spring.

Best of all though has been the amazing support that's flooded in from people all over Hackney. Adversity really has brought us together, and proved how important and loved the meadow is. So thank you to everyone who's had a kind word to say or made an offer of help.

For now, we have to leave it to the council to get the site clear. But in spring, we'll do a seed sowing and get our meadow back. And in 2014, it'll be better than ever!

Willow weaving on the meadow

We had an extra-special gardening club on Saturday with artists Penny Sadubin and Elsa Godfrey teaching us how to weave with willow. As it turns out, we had some natural-born weavers who created some incredible willow sculptures for the meadow. The creations are still there if you want to take a look!

The gardening club will be taking a break over the summer, but will be back and better than ever in autumn, so stay tuned...

If you need some willow woven, ask these two. They'd never woven before but their creation was AMAZING!

A willow butterfly with wildflower decorations.

A wavey willow screen in progress.

The finishing touches.

Willow weavers are go!

Penny Sadubin (our resident willow expert) adds some extra support to a willow fence.

Our pals from Friends of Homerton Station dropped by for lunch!

Sunshine + spring = a great gardening club session!

Saturday's gardening club was a really good day out! Our expert Helen Wilson was on hand teaching everyone how to plant stuff that will make the meadow more beautiful - and that bees, birds and butterflies will love. And there were free snacks and drinks too!

With the Queen's Jubilee coming up, the club will be taking a break this weekend. But we'll be more than making up for it on Saturday June 9 when artist Penny Sadubin will be teaching us how to weave with willow - and we'll make a giant willow structure together on the meadow.