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Annecy Edible Garden in Sandford Park wins Cheltenham Britain in Bloom Outstanding Achievement award

TTC have worked with Cheltenham Borough Council this year to convert the Annecy Garden in Sandford Park (at the top of the Strand) into a vegetable garden which is both ornamental, productive and insect-friendly. The delicious edibles were grown with an array of colourful annual flowers, which attracted bees and other benificial insects, as well as people.

Weekly work sessions took place on Mondays at 6-8pm and were advertised on the site for anyone who wanted to come along and lend a hand with weeding or planting, with the reward of going away inspired and with some produce to taste. People passing by were invited to taste a few leaves or pods too. We had a few events, such as the Cheltenham EcoHab open day and held plant sales to help raise funds.

We knew that our garden was popular with the public, but were nevertheless very pleased to be awarded the Cheltenham Britain in Bloom Outstanding Achievement award in October. Cath and Lorraine were presented with a certificate and silver cup at the awards ceremony by the Mayor. It's nice to have official recognition that people notice and like what we do (as well as eat it!).

At our 2012 work sessions there were still plenty of lovely flowers to fill the cup for a picture. See our Facebook page for more pictures

We carried on with clearing and weeding the beds, carefully leaving the many self-sown salads and flowers for next year. We are keen on letting nature guide our gardening in this way, rather than controlling exactly where things go as it means less seeds to buy. Also, the self-sown plants adapt to local conditions and grow better.

See Echo & SoGlos articles and contact Lorraine for more details.

Produce harvested after the evenings work on Monday 16 July, though we could certainly have picked more - particularly salad leaves.

Very enjoyable session in the sunshine 21 May. We planted climbing French beans (Cosse Violette), runner beans (Painted Lady), sweetcorn and beetroot The peas have started to climb, the broad beans are bushing out and all the little lettuces, salads and flowers are still there and still alive. The warm weather will bring them on, but also meant that watering cans were much in use. Lucky we have a pond nearby!

Two of our passer-by helpers from last week came back and much weeding, planting, watering, trimming, labelling and chatting went on. Our film maker came to do some filming and a man from community radio came to talk.

More watering, planting, watering (it was a hot weekend!) and general work on 28 May. And we have our shinny new sign in place.

Flourishing plants from hard working volunteers - the scene at the begining of June. More pictures on Facebook

Oil is the invisible cost ingredient added to our food. Large-scale production uses chemical fertilisers and pesticides and they are made with oil. Then more oil is used to transport the food long distances. And oil is getting rapidly more expensive as it becomes scarcer.

The answer is to grow more locally and on a smaller scale. Transition Town Cheltenham is keen to help people grow their own, although gardens tend to be small nowadays and allotments hard to get.