Urban Growing
By Hannah Shepherd
With so many health and social benefits associated with growing food, it’s important that community gardening spaces are inclusive and accessible. Hannah Shepherd caught up with some of the sites participating in this year’s Get Growing Trail to find out what makes their community projects so extraordinary. A complete list of the trail’s accessibility features can be found at the end of this story.
“If you make a garden dementia-friendly, it naturally makes it inclusive for everyone.” Alive’s community allotment project officer, Guy tells me.
Alive’s site in Brentry was Bristol’s first dementia-friendly allotment and one of the first in the UK. Having received the keys to the abandoned plot in 2020, the team at Alive has designed the site as a space for people living with dementia, and their care-givers, to garden, catch up with friends and enjoy nature.
“It feels like there is a greater recognition of how important this [project] is,” says Guy. “Everyone who has ever gardened knows that it’s a tool for wellbeing.”
As well as being accessible for wheelchairs, the team ensures that there are lots of opportunities for seated activities at all their sessions. There are raised beds and adapted tools “to make sure people can make the most of their sessions,” and crucially, the operations are made possible by “an amazing, supportive group of people. Everyone gets so much from it”.
Alive’s Dementia-Friendly Allotment (North Bristol) is open Sunday 16 June, 12–4pm.
Sea Mills Community Garden (SMCG) ethos is “growing food together”. Maria, Barbara and SMCG volunteers tend to gardens that consist of raised beds, polytunnels and a foraging garden with plenty of wild space for local creatures. “Starlings roost in the brambles and there is an enormous babble of birds in the winter” Maria tells me.
The team goes to great lengths to ensure that their sessions are tailored to the needs of their visitors, with lots of seated activities. “One year, we built a bean tunnel that was particularly great for one visitor. He could pick the beans from his wheelchair and it inspired a lot of chat about his gardening memories.” As well as working with adults, school trips to the gardens are now a part of the annual programme. “It’s a loved resource within the community now.”
Sea Mills Community Garden is open Saturday 15 June, 1–4pm.
Tucked beneath the Royate Hill viaduct The Haven is a peer-led recovery space in nature. The 1.3 acre site is made up of organic allotment plots, orchards and wild, medicinal herb gardens.
When asked what makes The Haven so inclusive, its facilitator Sophia tells me how everything is free at the point of delivery, and welcomes people who identify with mental health challenges, experiences of addiction, trauma or long-term chronic illnesses.
There are communal growing areas and quiet areas where people can relax and restore in nature, “being around people that have a shared experience.” Nature is a key component to The Haven’s work, as “it facilitates that sense of being part of a community and it’s important that people have access to spaces like The Haven to recover.”
The Haven is open Saturday 15 June, 11am–4pm.
From a flourishing fruit garden to a bustling cafe, Redcatch Community Garden (RCG) in South Bristol maximises the small plot that was once the local bowling green. The imaginative team is even growing hops for their ‘Knowle Brainer’ beer and flowers to specifically attract night-time pollinators, which in turn draws bats. As a Community Benefit Society (CBS), head gardener Louise tells me that they work with the community to find the gaps and explore local needs.
Most areas are accessible with a wheelchair or buggy, and the goal is to ensure affordability for as many people as possible. “We host art therapy sessions, educational sessions for schools and we are a flagship site for NHS’s green social prescribing,” says Louise as we walk between the raised beds. They also host a community lunch for over 50 people each week, “we get a lot of people who feel quite isolated or lonely, it’s a great social for them.”
Redcatch Community Garden is open Saturday 15 June, 10.30am–2.30pm. Garden Tours at 11am & 1pm.
The Get Growing Trail runs over the weekend of 15-16 June and full opening hours for all the different sites can be found at bristolgoodfood.org/ggt.
So, what change do you want to see happen that will transform food in Bristol by 2030? Do you already have an idea for how Bristol can make this happen? Join the conversation now.
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