We’ve got a great site on the edge of Elgar Park in Pickersleigh, it’s been fenced off, a shed, greenhouse and tool shed have been purchased (but need to be built) and lots of planning has already been done.
So…What are we waiting for? Let’s get started! There’s plenty to do but we need YOU to get involved. If we start now, this time next year we could be harvesting delicious fruit and veg and the garden will be a lovely place to spend time, enjoy the great outdoors and get away from it all. There’s no commitment, you don’t need to know anything about gardening, there are all sorts of jobs that need doing that don't involve getting your hands dirty but if you do have green fingers, that's great. We’re starting from scratch so we’ll learn as we go. If you’d like to be involved, have fun and make a difference in your community, get in touch and we’ll meet down at the garden and start digging! Ben. 07903 008057 - [email protected]
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Earlier this month, four of us headed off on a road trip to check out how two other community gardens are doing things before we finalise our plans and start spending our Bags For Life cash on basic infastructure needs. Both gardens have been created with invaluable support of Fortis Living and both have won awards.
Our first stop was Warndon Community Gardens in Worcester, where we met gardeners Maxine and Mark. As they showed us round the garden, they generously shared all kinds of tips and advice based on their experience which will help us make good decisions. For example, we now know we're going to need at least 5 water butts in our rainwater harvesting system. And, having seen inside their 'shed' (inverted commas because it's more clubhouse than shed), I'm wondering whether we might need to think about getting a slightly bigger one than we'd been thinking of 'til now. Otherwise, we might never get over our shed-envy. Next stop was Mr Beestan’s Garden in Droitwich, named after the local grocer who had the piece of land before it became a community garden. This garden was magically quirky with plenty of features dotted about for the benefit of wildlife and children - everything from bird-boxes to bug-hotels to a pond. We loved their innovative use of space between two adjacent fences to create - in the absence of a shed - covered storage too, and particularly liked that they'd left some unplanted areas to grass. Huge thanks to Ros for organising our roadtrip. It was a great idea and a worthwhile exercise. We hope to stay in touch with both garden crews and look forward to welcoming them into our garden just as soon as we celebrate our launch! Planning a garden from a blank patch of ground is a pretty daunting task. There's a ton of stuff to think about and seemingly insignificant decisions can have major impacts on the success (or otherwise) of the garden. Luckily, amongst our fledgling community group so far, we have a few local residents who've been involved in community gardens before and one who's a professional grower. Plus, we have the experience of the Fortis team who have helped and supported two other community garden projects in Worcestershire get off the ground and flourish. So before we get too far into planning the space, we're going to visit the community gardens in Droitwich and Worcester which Fortis helped get off the ground. The trip is scheduled for the afternoon of Monday November 7th. If you're interested in joining our Pickersleigh Community Garden group and would like to come along, get in touch!
One of the first big decisions we had to make about our garden was whether to have it open to all, at all times, or only when we were working in the garden. Aside from practical key holder issues which were bound to come up when different people wanted to work in the garden at different times, blocking access to the garden just seemed wrong. We talked about the risk of vandalism and anti-social behaviour that an unsecured garden would be open to, but in the end, based on the experiences of other open community growing spaces, a little bit of faith in our fellow humans and a plan to limit risk on an item by item basis, we decided on low fencing, with a gate that will always be unlocked. After weeks of delay with the supplier, the fencing finally went in on 21st September. Happy day. FInally some evidence of our collective efforts so far. Fortis' Chris was on-site to oversee the installation. Here's his tweet marking the occasion.
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AuthorsVarious members of Pickersleigh Community Garden group. Archives
July 2017
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