Arts Council support www.artscouncil.org.uk
Delighted to receive an Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant for our Fledgling Programme.
Workshops exploring natural and found objects will be held over the summer holidays, leading to a sharing event and book developments.
The grant also includes researching and developing, growing art works/materials and interactive website content, with a view to producing a children’s page.
All welcome. Please message to register your interest!
Open Sessions
Ongoing open sessions will be run by the hardy team at PlayGROUND - weather permitting! (https://www.facebook.com/PlayGROUND.CIO/ cancellations will be posted at least an 1hr before session start times). Apart from enjoying fresh air and exercise, we want to make sure that social prescribing referrals have a place to go, continue making a contribution to well-being, food sufficiency, art and environmental goals.
Wear warm clothes and bring a flask! To maintain COVID-19 safe numbers, please message or phone in advance.
Progress 2020
Note from James
23rd of December 2019, confronted a wall of bramble, what followed were months of clearing wilderness, rubbish, concrete, glass, plastic, asbestos and general debris. Coronavirus restrictions limited the number of people able to help and held up buying materials. This has greatly slowed the progress of the new charity - what a time to start! Grant applications suspended through the first Covid lockdown, then success with Birmingham Municipal Charity, National Lottery and Severn Trent grants. Volunteers cleared the site, built paths, shed bases and a compost area. Sheds were finally delivered, produce grew ripe and fed participants. Preparing the polytunnel base has been accompanied by a hefty learning curve, rule of thumb - level up not down. The end of 2020 has been almost unrelentingly raining and muddy, making for slow slow progress. Hopefully 2021 will improve and allow us to move forward with volunteers and our student, Bobby. Plans include rotovating, erecting the polytunnel, building green roofs, water conservation features and delivering local community projects. Please share and recommend. Looking forward to Spring, putting down roots and growing strong branches with fresh leaves.
Thanks to all friends and followers, happy new year for 2021.
Below, Bobby removes bramble root and old fruit bushes at the entrance of the polytunnel base.
Severn Trent Community Fund Award
Absolutely delighted to have been awarded a grant from Severn Trent Community Fund.
We’ll be using the grant to create green shed roofs and an integrated covered workshop area, water harvesting and storage features, raised beds for the polytunnel, planting and workshops. It will support a small amount of employment to implement the infrastructure and share expertise.
You can find out more about the grants available here: https://www.stwater.co.uk/about-us/severn-trent-community-fund/
Experimenting with time-lapse!
James makes light work of re-threading the strimmer. Keeping the vegetation manageable by strimming allows cut foliage to dry out and nourish the ground.
Using Pat's iconic split drum roller to firm the ground in preparation for the shed bases. Human rolling seals in the tree shadows:)
Awards for All
We are delighted to share the news that Greenaleigh Community Garden has received a National Lottery Awards for All grant.
The community garden occupies three plots on the Greenaleigh Road Allotment Site.
Clearance is progressing, shed and polytunnel bases are being prepared, and a manageable cultivated area planted with tomatoes, potatoes, squash and beans will produce edibles and seeds that can be distributed this season.
Due to COVID-19, the garden is currently restricted to having six participants/volunteers on site at a time. We are reviewing the situation on a weekly basis and look forward to welcoming many more as confidence in effective safeguarding increases.
Thanks to everyone who has shown an interest.
Please leave your contact details if we don’t already have them.
Documenting the Transformation
There are plans to archive the transformation from abandoned plots, covered in ten foot high brambles, dilapidated sheds, numerous carpets, a mountain of decaying plastics, metal detritus and broken glass to a creative, edible idyll.
In the meantime, here are a few photos of the unearthed treasured debris. The repurposed cloakroom shed frame serves as a palanquin to natures not so silent disco, where designer boots are paraded along side defunct object d’utility. Alien plastic faces appear from the undergrowth and found frames and jars serve as time capsules. It’s a rich journey that will survive beyond the skip!
