Community – Muswell Hill Methodist Church

David Combes 11th July 2025

Refugee Tales

If you went past the church late on the evening of 10th July, you would have seen lights on throughout the building, torches glinting in the garden and 60 or so people deciding where to sleep, from the chapel in church to the swing-seat in the Community Garden, and everywhere in-between! Our visitors were taking part in the Refugee Tales Walk of 2025 in solidarity with refugees, asylum-seekers and people who have experienced immigration detention. This year, the 5-day walk was around the Capital Ring from Southwark to Wimbledon, with overnight stops at various churches. Each evening, there’s an event where people with experience of detention share their tales, alongside live music and reflections, and the church was packed for a very special occasion that Thursday evening. There’s a few pictures from the event below, and please do visit refugeetales.org to sign-up for updates on their work and future events.

Here at MHMC, we have a long history of supporting refugees and asylum-seekers, and currently have a group of Christian Iranians as an active and engaged part of our community. We have been blessed by their presence and their enthusiasm to explore the Christian faith. As the Gospel of Luke tells us in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), we are called to “love your neighbour as yourself”, offering care and support for the strangers and foreigners in our midst. Our prayer is that we may all find the capacity to help those in need around us.

David Combes 13th June 2025

Blog, Community, Garden

Community Garden Blog 13-Jun

Community Garden: A creative Experiment

by Augene Nanning, 13-Jun-25

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers is a creative experiment for me, and always a learning curve.

Take the slug and snail potion: one teaspoon sugar and plain flour, and a generous teaspoon of yeast, to one cup of water. Mix and pour into container around the garden.

I have used this potion for years on my allotment with good success. I’ve used it in the Community Garden, and caught some snails and slugs. But more commonly, the containers appear grass, no longer where it has been carefully placed in a plant bed – or disappear altogether! Frequently, in place of the slug potion container in the veg bed, there is a deeper, larger hole than the container ever required!

Foxes! We guessed that foxes were enjoying the fermented drink. It wasn’t beer but it was enticing enough to encourage them to destroy areas of the beds!

So we stopped using the slug & snail potion. Fortunately, so far we haven’t had an infiltration of these hungry pests. There have been nibbles that might indicate their presence, but the style of the bites look more like bird pecking. But the lettuce is growing, a great favourite for slugs and snails – so we might experience an attack yet!

I’ve been told garlic crushed and added to water, or likewise with hot chillis would work. I’ve yet to try this but if I do, I’ll let you know how it successful it is.

I always welcome suggestions and recipes with natural ingredients.

Meanwhile, beans, peas, lettuce and more grow inspite of what we do in the community garden! As the weather warms, and rain falls, so do the weeds!

Your support and assistance is always welcome! Please drop by Thursday mornings,10am – 12 noon, to offer a helping hand. You are always welcome!

If you have questions, comments or natural ingredient potions or other suggestions for a healthy garden, please send them to communitygarden@mhmc.org.uk

David Combes 21st May 2025

Blog, Community, Garden

Community Garden Blog

Community Garden Update

by Augene Nanning, 22-May-25

Wish list:

Old CD/DVD discs (to scare away birds) – please bring along on a Thursday morning or give them to Augene after morning worship on Sundays.
People to join the watering rota!
Not all jobs are with soil: we need help in repairing some of the netting on the frames protecting the beds. It’s easy work, just tying string across the holes.

Last week, Saman joined Janet and I. You’ll know him for the bird houses he’s built that are on the trees, and for the work he did to clean up the swing chair that is now in the community garden. He’s a busy worker! He planted lettuce and herb seeds, watered, weeded and sorted out the raspberry bed. The foxes have had a fun time digging and creating big holes in the soil. Saman lugged the bags of soil and filled in the holes. Some bushes didn’t survive but we’ll replace those. Meanwhile, Janet and I continue with the many jobs a garden demands.

If you’ve visited the garden lately, you’ll see some plants are doing well! The potatoes, onions and garlic are growing in jumps and bounds it appears, and some beans (broad beans and dwarf beans) and peas, too! There may still be some courgettes – as I write this, I haven’t been to the garden for a week – but the plants weren’t watered as usual so some may have died. Usually the garden is watered Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday. But Paul, who waters on Tuesdays, and I weren’t available. If you have any interest in helping in any way in the community garden, do get in touch.

Even before last week, you may have notice that some plants died off. We lost a lot of cucumbers by planting them too early, likewise with some courgette plants. Our pumpkins didn’t do well at all. But there is time for us to plant and grow more. Thank you to those who have and are “fostering” the seedlings, taking them home and caring for them, helping make them strong and more resilient for when we move them into the garden. Like the plants in the garden already, some seeds won’t sprout, some plants won’t thrive. It’s the way of gardens, so don’t be discouraged! Meanwhile, there are still tomato plants that need fostering.

Contact Augene Nanning at communitygarden@mhmc.org.uk if you can help or have questions! Thanks!

David Combes 1st May 2025

Blog, Community, Garden

Community Garden Update

The Community Garden at Muswell Hill Methodist Church

28 Page’s Lane, Muswell Hill, London N10 1PP

Find the Community Garden through the parking lot, through the gate, up the path by the labyrinth to the wooden fenced area.

We meet weekly, Thursdays mornings 10.00am to 12noon.

The Muswell Hill Methodist Church Community Garden can be found near the labyrinth, in a corner of the 4.5 acres of church grounds. Under the direction and hard work of Paul Argent eight raised beds were built and filled, along with a protective gated wooden fence. A year later, in April 2025, we have 11 beds, soon to have 12!

Please come join us Thursdays mornings 10.00am to 12noon. We aim to finish with tea and coffee. You are welcome to drop in for a bit or attend the whole session, and to work as much as you feel comfortable doing. There is a bench to rest and toilets nearby in the church buildings!

There’s always something to do. You don’t have be experienced or have lots of gardening knowledge to participate, although we welcome those who do, too! We plant, label plants, weed and water, and will in time harvest and share the produce!

A lot of work went into creating the beds by a small group working diligently over a few months. In the first year, guidance and regular attention was nurtured by the church gardner, Paul Argent. In 2025, Augene Nanning, supported by Janet Biggs, took on the coordination. We are or plan to grow potatoes, onions, garlic, squash, courgettes, pumpkin cucumber, beans, peas, tomatoes herbs, and possibly more..

The Muswell Hill Methodist Church Community Garden was created as a space to develop friendships and fellowship among congregation and local people.

It is hoped that this garden will be:

a welcoming space for people of all ages and abilities;
a space where we will encourage each other to appreciate nature more;
a space to suit all energies: to tinker and potter, to weed and harvest, to chat and relax.

We appreciate there are different skills, knowledge and experience of gardening among us. We hope we will foster a community where all feel able and supported to share and learn from each other whatever our abilities.

In time, we might even develop a series of talks or workshops. We also hope to find an artist to make a sign for the Community Garden, and someone to create a coffee/tea table. We welcome further ideas.