Although HCFA was no exception. One of the reasons HCFA has been established is to bring people closer to the realities of farming. The cold weather has meant record numbers of burst pipes and frozen livestock across UK farms. A trend not bucked by HCFA. The Faggs Road pipe-work has sprung a leak. Fortunately, however, the nearest we came to frozen livestock was the meat aisle at Tesco’s across the road.

It is said that we know more about life on the moon than life six inches below the ground. The home to that life, for most of us, is a nuisance – it stains your clothes, sticks to your shoes and means a trip to the car wash. However, if you are interested in growing plants the world of pedology is both complex and mysterious. Luckily you don’t need to be a pedologist to know that the soil at Faggs Road is top quality.

HCFA is hoping that during our stay at Faggs Road we can leave the site in a better condition than we found it – and that goes for wildlife too. But how will we know? Well we are starting with bird life – a rough and ready survey which has so far yielded the following result; Crows 87 the rest 0. Ok that’s an exaggeration. So far we have counted eleven different species but we are sure we can improve on that number – we’ll keep you posted.

As children we are often told that worms can be spliced in half and then regenerate. Whether this was to protect our child-like innocence or to forestall the awkward questions about where we “go” - its time to expose the myth. A spade through the midriff invariably results in death. And they say ignorance is bliss – well it would certainly have led us to believe that our spade work was doubling worm productivity!

 

Further details can be found at: www.hcfa.org.uk/general/faggs-road-plots-a-works-schedule.html

 

Society could do a lot worse than taking a leaf out of the bee book. Bees are incredibly well organised, hard working, sociable and their mode of communication makes the mobile phone look dated. What’s more, they are so eager to do their job that they take foraging flights knowing that, unless successful, they are 40 minutes away from starvation.

 

Similarly, HCFA members have displayed some beelike behaviour this January. Members were so eager to work that they invested almost 100 hours in the site this month – and whilst not 40 minutes from starvation the odd stomach has rumbled.

 

HCFA was asked to present to the Isleworth and Brentford and Heston Area Committees this month. Unfortunately the HCFA item was last on the agenda. So having sat through two hours on the benefits of decentralised energy to the Brentford community (something even the sensationalist Channel 4 documentary team would struggle to make interesting) we got our chance. It was worth our wait – HCFA received a warm reception. I am not sure how much it was down to the fact that we were the last presentation – in any case our thanks goes out to all the Councillors for giving us a fair hearing.

perhaps this will be the case as we attempt to deliver our first City and Guilds course in horticulture by April. But as the allied forces learnt whilst trying to take the bridge in Arnhem in WW2 – it all depends on the reliability of your supply channels. HCFA is hoping that supplies, in the form of 12 eager horticulture students and funds, get through in time to cross this bridge in April – if not we’ll try again in September.

in an era when almost all essential amenities in life are available at the flick of a switch, the turn of a key or the press of a button - the old proverb about teaching a man to fish no longer seems relevant to China let alone the streets of Hounslow. However, HCFA isn’t just about putting food on the plate (Tesco’s would out compete us every time on that front) we want to teach Hounslow to farm to enrich lives. So HCFA will be holding monthly workshops between March and October, run by experts in the field of horticulture, for the residents of Hounslow. Guest speakers from Kew Gardens and Osterley Park are already confirmed more details to follow.

HCFA has been awarded with a commendation in the Green Guardian awards in recognition of the efforts of all those individuals who have helped out to date.