Community gardening
Involving people in change
Grounds4Change offer a subsidised gardening service to those people most in need.
Introduction to Living Classrooms
We help out in those cases where years of neglect have left gardens overgrown and unmanageable. We encourage client participation and advise them on future maintenance. If clients are elderly or disabled they receive priority.
The service is tailored to the need, for example, if the client can use the tools and learn about gardening we encourage this, if the client has ideas we can pursue them. We design low maintenance schemes that are also beneficial to the environment.
Before
Overgrown and messy gardens can have a detrimental effect on an area often attracting crime and anti-social behavior. In some cases community gardening could be part of a medical recovery, offering the client an opportunity to experience practical and rewarding work in their own garden.
After
Local Gardening Competitions
Grounds4Change run annual competitions across the city and are customised to the local area. They give people an opportunity to show off and be rewarded for their hard work. The picture shows an entrant in St Pauls.
A large custom built planter made from second-hand materials created and designed with young people in the St Paul’s area. The display brightens up a previously dull space.
Example - Lawrence Weston, resident action
Grounds4Change were approached by a resident who was fed up with the vandalism and litter around his property. We organised a series of resident-led work days at the site. We listened to the issues that were important to residents and implemented a gardening scheme that could be managed on a long term basis.
At the front the grass was dead and the fence was broken, at the rear the space was only used as a cut through for undesirable visitors. We organised the materials for repair and improvements including fencing, plants and bark mulch and the residents took action.
The initial works encouraged interest from more residents who are now installing a climbing frame, a trampoline and a barbeque on which they intend to cook home grown produce from the allotment they planted. Other residents in the local area have expressed an interest in a similar scheme.
St Paul’s Health and Wellbeing Group
Grounds4Change support a local group in St Paul’s. The group of residents have created a garden behind the Family and Learning Centre. They also are creating a new community garden on Burnell Drive. They are planning to propagate plants themselves in their own greenhouse. Grounds4Change help to make it happen by providing tools and a van to remove waste. The group is mainly for elders in St Paul’s but all input from the community is welcome. Sessions run every Wednesday morning.
Children from Lockleaze get involved with planting bulbs on Gainsborough Square