Medlars, Mulling and Making Merry
As the darkness draws in ever more, we move our collective focus to coming together in celebration of the season past, working on our infrastructure and making strong foundations for 2025.
Community Meal 2024
On 16th November, the Leyton Boundary Garden hosted a thankful celebration of food and friends. We invited everyone from the community and beyond to spend the afternoon together, enjoy each-other’s company, eat delicious food, create art and have a sing-song with toasted marshmallows. The weather was on our side luckily!






We were delighted to welcome Punam from Khao Suppers, who had used ingredients taken fresh from the community garden to created a crowd-pleasing coconut daal with rice, radish raita, Swiss chard fritters, artichokes and salad for us all to enjoy. We even got to experience a yummy Medlar “cheesecake“!






Phillipa’s warm plum cordial was a huge hit, and Jenny’s mulled apple juice brought forth the seasonal vibes, enriching the air with scents of cinnamon and orange. Homemade cakes and treats were brought for all to enjoy - and oh, how they were enjoyed! - with a warming cup of tea or coffee.






Our Head Gardener Ally showcased her expansive skillset doing face painting for the kids (and grown-ups if they wanted to). Caroline from The Castle Stay & Play provided fantastic arts and craft projects for the children with natural, seasonal materials, yielding some amazing creations.









And as the chill started to edge in, marshmallows were toasted around the fire while folks had a singalong and played music together. What a wonderful send off for the garden before the big Winter sleep, and a gorgeous way to spend a day with friends old-and-new.






Thank you to all who could join us on the day, and to all who couldn't join us on the day but helped to make our event as wonderful as it was, nonetheless. Until next time!
AGM 2024
On 9th November, we held our AGM at the garden. Our general planning meetings and AGMs are open to all who wish to attend, having an active interest in the garden and looking after it, practically or administratively.
We covered many ideas and topics; from finance, fundraising and governance, to compost, crops, events, projects and provisions. We looked back to celebrate what we have achieved to date, reflected on where we are now and what we look forward to building, nurturing and stewarding in the future.
With a new year came a change in organisation too. Our core administration team are voted in for a year’s term. Nicola stood down as 2023-24 Chair and Jenny was voted in as Secretary for 2024-25. Natalya was re-voted in as Treasurer. We re-elected our 10-person strong advisory circle - thank you to everyone who stepped into this crucial role for the year!
We thank Nicola, and Hilda, Finch and Jon before her for their warm, steadfast and grounded leadership, for their help in setting and securing the landscape of our values and our mission, and for their help in the transition to the new year. Continued thanks to Natalya for acting as Treasurer. Nicola will continue as temporary Chair until we have confirmation of who will take on this role in Spring 2025. Please reach out for an informal conversation if you are in any way interested.
If you would like to know more details from our 2024 AGM, you can contact us on info@leytonboundarygarden.com.


A Special Thank You
Earlier this year, Leyton Boundary Garden received news of a successful funding bid from the National Lottery Community Fund. This crucial funding enabled us to take a pivotal step and welcome our Outreach Officer, Alex.
Her horticultural expertise, teachings, and genuine passion for organic growing has made a huge impression on the garden and all those in the community who love it. Alex is a font of knowledge, instrumental in steering the garden to flourish and sharing skills in her workshops from container growing to fermentation. Above all, Alex is quite possibly one of the loveliest people we know and it’s been an utter privilege to have her support.
So, a massive thank you Alex; for all your hard work, for your inspiring, kind and effective guidance, and for becoming such a cornerstone of Leyton Boundary Garden. We look forward to learning more from you and working with you next year.




Eyes on winter wildlife
As part of the Waltham Forest Food Growers Network, we have the opportunity to link with many other fantastic community gardens for many collective endeavours.
The wonderful folks over at OrganicLea are helping to bind together the strengths of the network to take action for biodiversity in Waltham Forest with their Waltham Wild project. Working with and alongside nature is a key element of organic gardening and certainly no less in urban environments (perhaps even more-so in many respects).
Following on from the workshop in October, Leyton Boundary Garden is making headway on observing and recording our biodiversity, in and around the community garden site. This will help to shape our plans to support and strengthen it in the coming months and years.
Check out our first post about the Waltham Wild workshop in our October newsletter here!




A place for everything, and everything in its place
The cold months beckon forward a slew of slightly unglamorous but still-quite-exciting tasks in the shape of reinforcement and repair of our infrastructure, and the building of new projects.
We started off gently with minor repairs to the polytunnel, which had become a little battered by the weather as well as the nightly raiding by foxes and local cats. We also moved some herby friends from their butler sinks to new temporary containers, making room for new additions to the gravelled area. Jenny created some new signage for the front and side gates, bringing a rush of colour along with updated garden information.
There’s lots more to do already listed, including the creation of storage for all types of things, building things, moving things, patching things, cleaning things, making things, and so on.
We’ll be busy onsite, dipping in and out, as-and-when needed and possible. Everyone and anyone is welcome to lend a hand with our Winter tasks. The best way to keep up to date on the what’s, when’s and where’s is to join our WhatsApp Community.
Cold hands, warm farewells (for now)
Now that the cold season has very much arrived, Saturday Gardening Club has ended for 2024 and shall restart next year in March 2025.
We look forward to welcoming you back in early Spring.