NewsLetter
Urban Jungle Blogs, News and Press Releases > NewsLetterPumpkins are for life, not just for Halloween...
It's no secret that we just love autumn and everything it brings. Cosy coffees by the fire in Cafe Jungle, hot spiced soups and cassoulets amongst the exotics and exploring the rainbow of reds, oranges, browns and golds throughout the Norfolk and Suffolk Nurseries. Make no mistake though, the real star of the show at Urban Jungle is always the pumpkin.
Acorn, Butternut, Turks Turban, White, Cheese and Blue Hokkaido pumpkins, squashes and gourds have all made Autumn truly awesome this year at the Jungle.
Save our pumpkins
Our beautiful British pumpkins can contain up to 500 seeds and take around 5 months to grow, yet in the UK we are wasting around 18,000 tonnes each year. So here's 5 easy ways to make the most of these marvellous vegetables...
1 Grow your own...
Great fun to grow and easy to cultivate. Save your seeds for spring and grown your very own pumpkins. Find out how.
2 Seed snacks...
They're high in iron, and can be roasted to eat. Spread the seeds in a single layer on an oiled baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes to dry them out. Toss the seeds with olive oil, salt and your favourite spices. Return to the oven and bake until crisp and golden. Tip | The flowers that grow on pumpkin vines are also edible.
3 Compost them...
Create the most nourishing soil with your Halloween pumpkin. If you already have a compost area just add as you would other vegetable scraps. If not, find a sunny spot at the bottom of the garden, cover with leaves and let the worms do the hard work.
4 Make soup!
Café Jungle's Squash and Nigella seed soup is a real favourite this time of year, and if you're making at home it can be easily frozen and enjoyed at another time.
5 Feed the birds...
Birds and small mammals love dried pumpkin seeds, just leave them out in your garden. Or you canLarge birds and small mammals will eat pumpkin seeds if you offer them in your yard. Collect seeds from your pumpkins, before composting them, and let the seeds dry.
6 Turn it into a planter...
Post-Halloween pumpkins make for a unique addition to your winter garden. Cut a large hole at the top and hollow out the 'brains'. Drill a small hole at the bottom for drainage and fill the pumpkin half full with potting soil. Add some seasonal flowers or herbs, water thoroughly and enjoy.
If you would like to try any of these ideas, pop down to the Jungle and pick up a pumpkin for free. We'd love to see what you get up to with them too, so feel free to share on our social media channels.
#SaveThePumpkins #PumpkinRescue
0 Comments
Tweet
Pumpkins
Pumpkins
This year we've got lots of wonderful pumpkins for sale in the Jungle. We've carefully chosen to support local farm Algy's as our main pumpkin supplier, as being just down the road in Dereham the delivery miles are dramatically reduced. Algy's also use organic manure and each pumpkin is hand sown meaning that each and every one is completely unique.
We have small, medium, large, 'monsters' and white and warty ones too. Prices start from 1.50.
Children's Pumpkin Event
Join us on the 25th and 26th October and Jazz up your Jungle Pumpkin. For £5, we'll provide the pumpkins, paints and accessories, and Claree Fairy will be on hand to help design and decorate beautiful pumpkin centrepieces for your home and garden.
Just drop in or book your space HERE.
0 Comments
Tweet
Autumn planting - keep the 2018 summer alive throughout the winter!
0 Comments
Tweet
Save the Bees!
We're totally in love with bees at the moment. They're so happy amongst lots of the flowering plants in the Nurseries and it got us thinking, where would we be without our furry little friends? Well, not only does the frantic pollen foraging add some light-entertainment, and the soft buzzing sooth you as you relax in the sun; there's far more serious consequences to losing our beloved bees.
They pollinate 70 of the (around) 100 crop species that feeds 90% of the world, and that's just the start.
"We may lose all the plants that bees pollinate, all of the animals that eat those plants and so on up the food chain. Which means a world without bees could struggle to sustain the global human population of 7 billion. Our supermarkets would have half the amount of fruit and vegetables." BBC
Greenpeace reports that we have lost 45% of commercial honeybees in the UK since 2010. So, what can we do? On a large scale, there's an urgent need to stop chemical-intensive industrial agriculture, and to shift towards more ecological farming. However, every one of us can make a real difference right now, in our back gardens.
Here's 5 top tips to encourage bees in your garden and outdoor spaces...
1. Easy. Plant some Bee-friendly plants to provide food, shelter and nesting places. Here are some of our (and the bees!) favourites in the Jungle...
BUY NOW Helenium 'Königstiger'
BUY NOW Penstemon heterophyllus 'Catherine de la Mare'
2. Let the grass grow and provide shelter and food.
3. Put away the pesticides; dealing with bugs can be as simple as stripping them off with a gloved hand.
4. Build a bee hotel! You can find out how from Friends of the Earth HERE
5. Don't have a garden? Try a window box of herbs or hanging basket...
If you would like to find out more about looking after our very important bee buddies, just talk to the team about the plants we can provide, you can contact us HERE.
0 Comments
Tweet
Press Release – Urban Jungle Suffolk's first anniversary.
This summer,
Urban Jungle at London Road, Beccles, will be hosting their first
anniversary party, and there's plenty to celebrate. The independent
Nursery and Cafe has overcome major setbacks and enjoyed great
success all in the first 12 months. August 5th will mark
the first of many, very special years at the site for the team and
their customers.
“We've fallen in love with Suffolk - the
charm of Beccles town, the cute villages, the beautiful coastline,
the bountiful produce...we could go on. And we've still so much more
to explore.”
Co-owner Liz Browne
After taking over the
site last June, the team had just 6 weeks until opening, and since
the launch, the changes and growth in the Nursery and Cafe have been
non-stop. In late summer 2017, the plant propagation and Edible
Jungle were set up in the adjoining field, supplying the Cafes at
both Norfolk and Suffolk with fresh salad and vegetables throughout
the winter. During this time, the Cafe saw a demand for something a
little different from lunch menus in Suffolk, and continued to
develop their ethos using the home-grown produce.
The Cafe at
Urban Jungle's mission.
'To deliver a casual dining experience in
a unique setting, serving beautiful, globally inspired dishes,
connecting people, plants and food.'
Following the success of
the new look menu, utilising home-grown produce, and the opening of
the Cafe on Saturday nights, Urban Jungle was proud to be awarded
'Best Newcomer' at the Suffolk Food and Drink Awards in
April.
“We've come so far in the last year - the 2 acre field adjoining the Nursery is producing 80% of the plants for both nurseries. And not only ornamentals - the Kitchen Garden produces organically grown salads and vegetables in abundance for both Cafes. We're already pickling and preserving in earnest to see us through the winter.” Liz Browne
It hasn't been plain sailing. The
'Beast from the East' and the never-ending winter caused devastation
in both the Costessey and Beccles Nurseries, resulting in their
closure for the best part of a week in March. The weather meant that
the gardening season was never really able to begin as it should.
March and April are usually the busiest months for nurseries, but the
terrible weather saw all but the most hardened gardeners staying warm
indoors. The first half of the year has certainly been a worrying
time for small independent nurseries such as Urban Jungle.
“The
weather and the roadworks outside the Nursery have tested us to the
limit but we thrive on challenges - they make us even more
determined, and our customers' reactions to our Suffolk Nursery and
Cafe have exceeded our expectations in their first year!” Liz
Browne
The propagation team
Although
the major roadworks are continuing on London Road, the weather has
improved for June and July, and co-owners Liz and Mal Browne are
determined to push forward. There are big plans for the Nursery, many
of which they hope to launch at the Summer Party, including the
building of what will become a secluded 'Jungle Garden', perfect for
private parties.
“Where has the year gone?! Can it really be
just over a year ago that we picked up a jingly bunch of unfathomable
keys, looked around the site, scratched our heads and thought 'right,
where do we start?' It was a daunting prospect and we had just a
couple of months to put our unique stamp on the premises. We were
still frantically building, cleaning, placing stock, and gathering
our brilliant new team right up to the minutes before opening the
gates for the first time.
There have been quite literally
blood, sweat and tears. We've suffered setbacks - mainly caused by
the crazy weather, and major roadworks right outside our gate, but
lots of love and laughter along the way too. It's been a triumph over
adversity.” Liz Browne
The Summer Party will be held on Sunday 5th August. Between 12 and 7 we'll be serving up summer cocktails amongst the plants and cooking delicious food on fire, all to the sound of DJ Chilli's lush, Latin beats. From 10am, there'll be VIP Party Bags for the first 50 customers, craft stalls, Festival Glitter, new areas of the Nursery open and of course plants, plants and yet more beautiful plants.
Register interest on the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/167665274087506
0 Comments
Tweet
