City garden fete to celebrate harvest.
Apple pressing, seasonal produce, children’s wildlife activities, gardening workshops and live music from local musicians are some of the treats in store for visitors to Martineau Gardens annual Autumn Event on Sunday 28 September from 11am – 3pm. The organically maintained Community Garden, in Edgbaston, is holding a family-friendly ‘green’ fete to celebrate the Autumn harvest.
Apples and grapes from Martineau Gardens’ orchard will be pressed during the event with a traditional wooden press, to produce tasty fruit juices. The Garden’s seasonal harvest will be for sale including home-made jams, freshly-cut vegetables and salads and honey made by local bees! Gardeners will enjoy the opportunity to stock up on the Gardens’ plants and compost and there will be expert gardeners on hand to deal with gardening queries. There’s a gardening workshop and a Garden tour planned. There will be delicious home-made cakes, salads and sandwiches and other refreshments on sale inspired by the garden harvest.
The Gardens are an oasis for wildlife and a place for city children to get close to nature. There will be wildlife activities laid on. Children will be able to find out why we need worms on the Riverford Big Worm dig and survey, designed to help boost knowledge of the British earthworm population. There will be an autumn explorers trail, the shipwreck play area and foodie fun activities with Northfield Eco Centre’s gardening team.
Live music from local bands include Ingrid’s Accordion Band, Drumvoice orchestra (a 15-strong drumming troupe playing rhythms from West Africa and Latin America) and a workshop on American Shapenote music hosted by Second City Shapenote. Storytelling sessions with a nature theme will be in the tipi with Rebecca from Indigo Slippers.
As part of ‘Save a Life September’, St John’s Ambulance will be running family first aid demonstrations.
Local environmental groups (including Birmingham Friends of the Earth), artists (including Robbie Hornby) and crafts people will be running stalls.
The two and a half acres Gardens, though only two miles from Birmingham city centre, are a green oasis with plenty to explore including woodland, glass houses, a formal garden with trees and shrubs from around the world, an orchard, vegetable beds, a wildflower meadow and a play area.
Director Caroline Hutton said: “Martineau Gardens are a community-run garden which is open for the people of Birmingham to visit. This event will be a chance to find out a bit more about gardening and the growing year, plus have some fun and relax.”
Martineau Gardens are open Monday to Saturday, 10am–4pm and are free entry except on Event Days. Admission fee for the Autumn Event is non-members £3, concessions £1, families £6 and free to members. The Gardens are at 27 Priory Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B5 7UG. Located five minutes from the MAC and opposite the Priory Hospital. Information at www.martineau-gardens.org.uk or by calling 0121 440 7430. Additional public parking for this event will be at the Priory Hospital (across the road) by kind permission of the hospital.