Transition Poole – Notes from First TT Poole Meeting Tues 9th June 2009 at the Britannia

Notes of first Transition Poole Meeting in the Britannia Inn, Ashley Cross 9/6/2009

Firstly, the group felt perhaps we should keep our electronic discussions in the Transition BH group for now, rather than propagate the Transition Poole Google group I set up. (this was near the end but explains why these notes are here)

Harriet started the meeting with a quote from Schumacher (Small is Beautiful, 1970s). Paraphrasing it “can we rely on enough people to turn the world around in time ? -If the anser is yes, then this leads to complacency -if the answer is no, this leads to dispair so lets leave the question behind, and get on with doing what we can”

We went around the table introducing ourselves and why we were there. 18 people, plus two joined later. A mix of people who had just heard that there was something they might find interesting going on, through to those involved from the start of Transiton BH and Agenda 21 before it. Mostly people from Lower Parkstone, Upper Parkstone, Oakdale and Old town.

We undertook a quick ‘local mapping’, once we had oriented our compass (!!) inviting those living in the same part of the town to gather together and ‘meet the locals’.

We then invited topics for Open Space meetings.
- Greening the city – encourageing trees to provide shade and absorb heat as global warming strikes
- wildlife gardening/gardenshare
- growing food
- talking to the neighbours – the big lunch was given as an example
- green directory
- heart and soul

The first three were combined, so we had 4 groups.

Feedback from the groups will hopefully appear below. Action plans were invited from the groups.

After the feedback, any other burning topics were invited. http://www.ethicaljunction.org was mentioned – “Ethical Junction brings together businesses and consumers who share a commitment to ethical values. Our directory gives easy access to products and services while ‘Pulse’, its news forum, is the source of up to date information on events as well as opinions and comment.” Based at Ower in Hampshire – worth a look.

Andy enquired about websites. It was felt we should look to create a Transition Poole website, but probably not try and maintain another separate google group just for Poole. Andy will look to sort this with Dave.

A trees/growing/gardening meeting Mon 22nd June at Simon’s garden 6:45pm

Next Transition Poole Meeting – Weds 15th July 7:30pm on the beach (which bit tba).

Ellie Challans offered to organise the meeting Rachel invited everyone to try and bring someone else along to that meeting.

From: Dave Crossland
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 23:52:47 +0100

> Andy enquired about websites. It was felt we should look to create a  Transition Poole website, but probably not try and maintain another separate google group just for Poole. Andy will look to sort this with Dave.

I agree with this, and you’ve already done a great job with the http://tatnampatch.org.uk/ website Andy, so we can do the same again with www.transitionpoole.org as soon as you’d like :-)

From: Andy H
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 16:11:38 -0700 (PDT)

Trees/gardens/food/gardenshare topic

Trees
Pam recalled undertaking a survey with Mark about 10 years ago of the trees in Poole. She will try and dig it out.
Should be possible to identify some larger trees from aerial shots – Google Earth etc
Boscombe planted 500 Apple trees – Lisa Northover – Harriet to find out how this went, what we could learn.

Trees on open spaces
Stopping cutting the grass would allow return to forests to naturally happen, but this does take time.
Brambles, and other pioneer plants protect young trees which would naturally seed.

A somewhat more active method might be to create a Food Forest, which could be achieved in a 4 year period – er looking at the review below, that was in Australia !

http://transitionculture.org/2009/02/11/film-review-%E2%80%9Cestablis…

Nut trees -any squirrel proof ?  – Apparently American Heart Nut – http://www.nuttrees.com/climatic.htm says Japanese :

Japanese Heartnut (Juglan ailantolia var. Cordiforis)
Zone 4 to 8     SEE ZONE MAP.
Very fast growing, hardy, tropical in appearance. The nuts hang in clusters, similar to grapes, with up to 20 nuts in a cluster. Usually grows wider than taller, but some varieties produce good timber type
trees. Taste is mild, somewhat like the nut pines, but do not have the nutritional value the nut pines have. Selected from superior varieties.  The heartnut is low in cholestrol and high in protein and filled with antitoxants.
Varieties: Etter, Brock, Wright, Mitchel, Rhodes. 3 years $9.00 each

Selling the area as a nature reserve. Involving the local kids in planting and nurturing the trees. Possibly containment. There is a real problem about how one gets trees to an adequate size to survive
the onslaught of kids – who should be able to play in trees.

The group undertook to “map” locations that could be candidates. The intention is just to log – where and how big, what is there already, and photograph it. If possible talk to locals and consider who owns it, but this could be a subsequent step.
Areas were dividided up for a first view
Rachel – Lilliput
Lee – Lower Parkstone
Ellie – Upper Parkstone
Andy – Oakdale
Gary – Alderney
Sue – Branksome
Theresa – Canford Heath
Pamela – Baiter/Old Town

Agreed to see where we have got to by meeting 22nd June (see below)

Landshare/Gardening

Talked about landshare, lack of publicity, and accessibility, perhaps especially to older ‘donators of land’ via website.
Buddying people – skills share
Advice on gardening – going to the individuals house
Garden working parties – especially for big jobs – like a barn raising, feed people who come and share heavy work
Find ways to approach those on allotment waiting lists – perhaps just via adverts in local press

Where space is an issue
Encouraging vegetable windowboxses
Espallier trees on walls
Sound/visual screen – maintained by local householders

Buying surplus vegetables from neighbours
Collection/sales at hubs – school run/workplaces
Micromarkets – food swapping
Communal picnic on a Sunday

Agreed to do garden visits – view, advise, turn up to work
Strong candidates – Simon’s garden, needs to consider where to site a greenhouse. Has ducks, so looking for how to grow crops around them.
Gary’s Garden – lots of food growing already. greenhouse to reconstruct (Old Cedar one needs mending first)
Theresa’s garden – no car, lots of tarmac, wants to rip it up, lots of hardcore below.

Agreed Simon’s garden for a 1 hour look Mon 22nd June 6:45pm. Also to review progress on the ‘mapping’ exercise.

Buying pond-liner in bulk and encouraging/helping people to dig wildlife ponds

Bees – providing bee-hotels for solitary bees (bamboo or holes drilled into logs)
sugar water for exhausted bees.

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