View this email in your browser

Autumn is here…

Dear Friends

As the Autumn sunshine has bathed us in warm light and calm weather (mostly!) we have been busy working on the garden and also slowing down a little from the craziness of summer to take stock of what we have achieved. While we are certainly not stopping, there are a lot of achievements that are worth pausing to feel grateful for, and to celebrate just how much we have achieved this year (so far!)

So grab a cuppa and a nice blanket, sit somewhere cosy and enjoy the read 🙂

As always, thank you to you all for your ongoing support in making Tregovenek into the beautiful community space we know is possible.

The Tregovenek Team xx

But first, a quick look at what’s coming up on the farm this Autumn..

Introduction to Permaculture – One day course with Klaudia Van Gool  

Sunday 20 October 9.30 – 5pm

Life Belt: Backstrap weaving workshop **Now fully booked.

Wormery/Vermicomposting Workshop with Ben Bryant from Sustainable South Hams and Devon Community Composting Network and Westcountry Rivers Trust

Friday 8 November – 14:00 – 16.00pm. Book your space on Eventbrite.

Earthenware Pottery Workshop- with Sian from Pottery and Posies

Friday 11 October

Tregovenek Volunteer Work Party dates for your diary

Monthly work party dates (10-3pm with shared lunch)

Saturday 26 October

Friday 22 November

Saturday 14 December

Weekly Garden work parties on Fridays (9.30 to 12:30) throughout October, but NOT the 25th October

What’s been happening on the farm…

Natural Happiness Workshop – Saturday 28 September

As one of the rewards for the garden crowdfunder, Karenza Permaculture Collective ran a workshop in the meadow and community garden, showing our lovely guests how to tend to their own wellbeing by using the principles of organic gardening, based on the work of Alan Heeks.

Compost Workshop with Westcountry Rivers Trust as part of the #FarmNetZero Campaign.

In September, it was a joy to host a workshop on all things composting in collaboration with Westcountry Rivers Trust. We were thrilled to see how popular the event was, being fully booked within a matter of days. We enjoyed a jam packed two hours with a wonderfully enthusiastic bunch. We discussed the fundamentals of composting, different options for different forms of ‘waste’ (resource!) including biochar, bokashi, vermi-composting, hot and cold composting and leaf mould. Thank you to Westcountry Rivers Trust for funding the workshop as part of their #FarmNetZero campaign.

Ecological Surveys

In August and September, we continued with our biodiversity monitoring to increase our understanding of the other beings that share the land with us. This included mammal, bird, insect and plant surveys. A highlight was finding this beautiful wasp spider and her egg case in the tall grass. We are slowly but surely building our grass ID skills!

Robin Sullivan – The Newquay Monoliths Project

We are thrilled to have Robin on site, who is currently renting our closed barn unit as a workshop space for his amazing sculpture installation project in Newquay.

Robin is creating a series of ambitious public sculptures, made by the communities of Newquay, using local materials: low carbon, sustainable, durable and celebrating Newquay’s diverse history & heritage.

The project seeks to explore the relationship between Newquay’s ancient past, Deep Time geologies and the contemporary community, creating communal architectures for the future, new spaces to gather, celebrate, rest and play.

The project will be a focal point and historical trail through Newquay town and the new developments at Nansledan, creating key points of interest and reference for local people and visitors alike.

The project is a collaboration between Robin and ALMA Artspace alongside local Cornish artists, young people and community groups.

The project is sponsored by

Photo credit: Ingrid Pop

Opportunities: Community Engagement Circle

Are you looking to get experience in online marketing and promotional material? Are you a whizz on social media and Canva? We are looking to recruit volunteers to our community engagement circle to help us promote the farm, and increase our reach to younger generations especially. If that could be you, and you can spare a couple of hours a week, please get in touch.

We have been training!

Sociocracy:

We hosted another round of Sociocracy training for our new members, one evening every week throughout August. Sociocracy is our chosen governance model so that we can organise ourselves in a way that is non hierarchical, and based around a cooperative and collaborative culture with mutual respect, allowing everyone to bring their own gifts to the project.

Conflict Resolution:

In October, we will be undertaking conflict resolution training to proactively face the reality that conflict and disagreement is an inevitable part of working in groups. We are consciously learning how to face these scenarios with respect, empathy and kindness for each other’s needs through positive communication, boundary setting and tending to our own needs. We want to learn how to best approach these situations before they arise.

Pentiddy and Tregovenek Tours

We completed our final tours of the year in September, showcasing the multitude of sustainable initiatives across both Pentiddy Woods and Tregovenek Farm.

Progress in our Community Garden

The final amount raised from our Crowdfunder at the end of August was just over £18,000, thanks to match-funding from Cornwall Council’s social inclusion fund and  the Climate and Nature Fund, and of course the huge generosity of the Tregovenek wider community. This amazing support has allowed quick progress with the more expensive elements of the garden build, such as landscaping and pathways, a new entrance into the garden, felling of non-native spruce on the northern boundary so that we can replace with native hedge trees; designing, purchasing timber and building a compost toilet. The remaining budget will go towards a greenhouse, information boards, fire pit creation, children’s den area, and seating.

We have been steadily working our way forwards over the summer with weekly volunteer work parties in addition to our monthly full day work parties in the garden.

For those who didn’t see the garden at the start, it looked like this..

First the digger cleared the garden back to a blank canvas and marked out the centre circle.

Then we started building the beds by covering the areas over with cardboard and then covering in a thick layer of compost…10 tonnes of compost to be exact!

We were given a good amount of walling stone from a lovely chap in Pensilva village, and then Caradon Stone extremely generously donated 2 tonnes of cut granite walling stone for our central circle! August saw a flurry of activity as we built the wall and created the surrounding beds and filled them with vegetables and medicinal herb plants, that latter of which was kindly provided by Klaudia.

and we woodchipped the paths…

In September – the trees came down…letting loads more light in!

and we created a new entrance!

We are working towards opening the garden to the community with a big celebration event in April 2025, completely finished and flourishing, and ready to be enjoyed!

Still to do! Priorities in the garden for October and November

1. Finishing the accessible paths.

2. Building the compost toilet.

3. Stone walling around the new entrance and installing a gate and archway.

4. Designing and creating our composting area, including vermicomposting and Bokashi and leaf mould.

5. Putting up our potting shed and propogating area

6. Sourcing and setting up our greenhouse.

7. Installing a fire pit

8. Installing seating areas and making pallet furniture

   
   

   
   

Garden ‘Wants’ List

This will be a regular feature in our newsletter, in the interest of recycling and because life is always easier when we share and help each other out. There will always be resources we need that you might be able to help us with, and vice versa.

If you can help with any of these please get in touch. Thank you!

• 6x8ft Greenhouse – looking to recycle a pre-loved one – please keep your eyes peeled and let us know if you spot a good one!

Please send any links through to hayley@tregovenek.org.uk

Garden ‘Haves’ List

Currently we have the following items in surplus if anyone would like to collect for their garden or projects.

• Plastic plant pots

• Spider plants

• Lemon Balm Plants

Please email hayley@tregovenek.org.uk if interested.

Finally, we would like to extend huge love and gratitude to each and every one of you for helping to make Tregovenek the beautiful, co-created community space that we all envision. We look forward to seeing you on the land again very soon.

With heart x