community green spaces

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….. discover what communities have achieved in their outdoor spaces and get some ideas on what you could do with your own Community green space

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….. discover what communities have achieved in their outdoor spaces and get some ideas on what you could do with your own

Community green space

Jane Knight

eden project landscape architect

[email protected]

Community green spaces – where are they? • Streetscape improvements …. ‘in bloom’ • Parks & public open spaces • Verges & roundabouts • Allotments • School grounds • Health centre & hospital grounds • Church grounds & graveyards • Land owned by utility or rail companies • Woodlands & biodiversity areas • Community orchards • Roofs of buildings • Green spaces within housing developments • Shared gardens • We don’t know yet! Community Land Advisory Service (CLAS) www.communitylandadvice.org.uk Service developed to combat the lack of available land for community gardening and green space activities.

Why get involved? • Caring for the local environment

• Enhancing community cohesion

• Improving facilities and opportunities

• An opportunity to learn new skills

• Promoting healthy living and improved wellbeing

Well managed and maintained green space is an asset to the whole community. Makes the community a more desirable place to live.

Getting involved with community green space? • Set up an ‘in bloom’ project

https://www.rhs.org.uk/communities/campaigns/britain-in-bloom

• Become a master gardener www.mastergardeners.org.uk

• Engage with your local Council on existing parks & open spaces

• Take control of an existing park or open space

• Take control of a space for the benefit of you community

• Temporary use of an open space, ‘meanwhile use’

• Guerilla gardening ….

• 160 year old quarry nearing its end of life • Irregular 16 ha crater, 30 – 70 m deep • No flat ground and unstable slopes • Very wet with poor drainage • No soil

Bodelva China clay pit : Eden Project site, 1998

be ambitious

Eden Project : A global garden where people can learn about the natural world and our role in caring for it….

importance of a champion

teamwork

Southbank Centre, London Queen Elizabeth Hall roof ‘sun deck’

challenge & opportunity

work with volunteer organisations

make it rewarding and fun

Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden People & plants transform a concrete desert into an oasis

growing vegetables and flowers

biodiversity & wildlife

Southbank Centre Festival of the World 2012

change & evolution

Certificate in Practical Horticulture at Eden Project

skills & training

Southbank Centre Festival of the Neighbourhood 2013 ‘meanwhile’ use

“To be able to help to design, build and nurture

the garden on the Thames at Southbank

Centre with our team is, to this date, one of

the biggest challenges of my life.

Seven years ago, I was a broken man both

physically and mentally, living on the streets

with methadone, heroin and alcohol

addictions numbing the misery of my life.

How I got there is a long story. Today I am

clean, employed as a Horticulture Teacher in

our group, Grounded Ecotherapy, paying my

own rent for the first time in 30 years.

Horticulture has changed my life.”

Paul Pulford, 2011

therapeutic value

Growing for Life(rs) HMP Dartmoor

Old, walled exercise yards in former punishment wing walled yards, before the growing project started

buried treasure (skills audit)

outdoor activity

Since August 2007, produce goes into free veg boxes delivered to elderly members of the local community. Veg boxes are sent out with labels designed by the RSU inmates: “peas release me.” Our growers inside have received many letters of thanks and have appreciated being able to “give something back”.

“PPeeaass RReelleeaassee MMee””

GGrroowwnn wwiitthh CCoonnvviicctt--iioonn!!

“PPeeaass RReelleeaassee MMee””

GGrroowwnn wwiitthh CCoonnvviicctt--iioonn!!

“PPeeaass RReelleeaassee MMee””

GGrroowwnn wwiitthh CCoonnvviicctt--iioonn!!

“PPeeaass RReelleeaassee MMee””

GGrroowwnn wwiitthh CCoonnvviicctt--iioonn!!

“PPeeaass RReelleeaassee MMee””

GGrroowwnn wwiitthh CCoonnvviicctt--iioonn!!

“PPeeaass RReelleeaassee MMee””

GGrroowwnn wwiitthh CCoonnvviicctt--iioonn!!

“PPeeaass RReelleeaassee MMee””

GGrroowwnn wwiitthh CCoonnvviicctt--iioonn!!

“PPeeaass RReelleeaassee MMee””

GGrroowwnn wwiitthh CCoonnvviicctt--iioonn!!

community benefits (giving, sharing)

“a new community garden that was created, with the help of Keep Wales Tidy, out of what was a grubby, brambly alleyway haunted by drug addicts and thieves who used it as an access routes into gardens, houses and the grounds of the neighbouring cardboard factory”

Ethel Street, Neath Port Talbot, Wales

repurposing waste

Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm (CSA), Ipswich • 12 acre former intensively farmed field.

• Two full-time professional farmers (paying themselves £850 a month, less than the minimum wage)

• 55 local households pay £8 a week for a “share” i.e. veg box (flowers, eggs and pork are optional extras)

• Members must undertake two hours a week voluntary work on the farm during summer – sowing, weeding, mulching, harvesting or feeding the two beef cattle, pigs, geese and chickens.

“As soon as you teach children which berries are edible and delicious,” says Helene Rudlin, the horticultural therapist at Hulme Community Garden Centre: “They get stuck in: they engage with nature and connect with others.”

Hulme Community Garden Centre, Manchester

Engaging children & young people Income generation

play with caution

‘loose parts’ & storage container?

playing in nature

natural and multi-functional

Outdoor space : development process Peace Park, Podujeve, Kosovo An outdoor space to heal a community

catalytic event

be resourceful

community needs

understanding the site

What’s there, how valuable is it?

• Slope

• Microclimate – wind, aspect, light/shade

• Features - retain?

• Soil – quality and depth

• Drainage

• Trees – condition and spread

• Views

• How is it used now?

above & below ground

Engage the whole community

Different approaches for different groups

Make it fun

Feedback what people have said

Keep community updated on what’s happening

Involve at all stages in the process

creative community engagement

What would you like to get rid of?

What do you like about the place?

Things that are important to keep?

What do you do here?

What would you like to do?

What kind of space would you like to have?

open questions …..

what do you want it to be?

Existing plans from building or other reason?

Land survey – if complex levels or large area.

If small, flat and straightforward – have a go!

land survey

make a plan

what plants?... seasonal change, maintenance ….

Working with designers vs. doing a plan yourself

Depends on scale and complexity

Big idea needs a master plan but don’t have to do it all at once. Advice on phasing & implementation

Some designers don’t build but can advise or project manage. Some offer a ‘design & build’ service

use a designer?

where to start?

making it happen

get started, quick wins

bulbs & wishes

work for a contractor

community work days

tools for the team planning & organisation

risk assessment

celebrate achievements

use the space

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

6. Magazines and Books

Explore the Spiral Garden Shamelessly plunder ideas from others!