Rhubarb Crumbled

It was time for a return to our friends at Dusty Forge - a community growing project in Cardiff. After my first 'run' in what feels like forever, I arrived at the project to find that Karolina and Martin were already there.

Claire from Grow Cardiff explained that the plan for this evening was to remove two existing beds and install four raised beds, ideally aligned to each other. The key barrier to doing this was a flourishing rhubarb plant, which had to come up to make way for more vegetables. The plan is that the rhubarb will be planted elsewhere in the gardens.

We got to work and pulled up the existing frames before shifting the compost in situ and digging into the ground to ensure that there was a solid base for the new raised beds. The compost revealed some unusual items, including peanuts and a bird skull! We pulled up some of the weed protecting sheets to make way for the beds and firmly planed them into the ground. Ben had also arrived to help and began weeding the plot too.

Claire told us all about the site. The assumption is that Dusty Forge was once an actual forge before becoming a pub and more recently a community centre. A local food pantry operates from the site with food donated from supermarkets and an open access policy that there is no criteria required to ensure that people in need receive what they need. The growing project supports people in the community to get out and about and involved in growing fruit and vegetables.

We reinstalled the paths between the planters, laying down some more weed proof layering before layering up more wood chip. The raised beds looked good and Claire told us that she'd sourced them from somewhere that was going to dispose of them so a sustainable contribution!

Our time at the task was up and we stood back to peruse the beds, which all looked good. We also shared that the polish word for rhubarb is 'rabarbar' and in Spanish it's 'ruibarbo.'