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Community Food Growing at Bedfords Park published their Delivery Report!2 years ago
Delivered 7 April 2022
Impact data and claims within this report are provided by the project creator and have not been independently verified by Spacehive.
By Friends of Bedfords Park Walled Garden
Our walled garden needs a fruit cage to protect our crops from the birds! Can you help us so we can continue to provide soft fruit to make preserves, chutneys and run workshops for the community?
Bedfords Park Walled Garden is run entirely by volunteers and has been growing produce without herbicides, pesticides or artificial fertilisers. Every year we grow cane and soft fruit, but although we like sharing our produce with nature, we are losing a lot of fruits to pigeons and crows. We have not received funding for the running of the garden since 2018 and need to commit to trying to buy a walk-in fruit cage with a door to protect our crops. With more available fruit we can use this to make preserves, chutneys and provide fruit-based workshops. More fruit would allow us to sell more and make more funding for the garden. We have no paid staff, so everyday running, tasking and advising growing, harvesting, sowing etc is all down to our dear volunteers. Our volunteers are aged from 16- 84 and are a wonderfully diverse bunch of characters. #bedfordsparkwalledgarden
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
More fruit would allow us to sell more and make more funding for the garden. We have no paid staff, so everyday running, tasking and advising growing, harvesting, sowing etc is all down to our dear volunteers. Our fruit garden is over 20 metres long by 8 metres wide. The additional funds will allow us to provide food growing workshops for the local community, and help us to expand to provide more opportunities for local people to volunteer and enjoy the historic walled garden.
Steps to get it done:
Our project will help bring insects into the garden and provide shelter and food for pollinators. Bringing in pollinators and helping provide nectar for our resident and other bees will increase fruit yields. The increased yields of fruit will benefit the volunteers and ultimately the community as we will be able to provide and sell more produce directly from the garden. Volunteers will be needed to harvest the fruit and also to make jams and jellies etc. We already have apple trees and volunteers carry out juicing. The juices are sold in our on site shop. Our produce saves food miles and provides naturally grown vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers to the local community.
Journey
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We moved existing old fruit bushes when dormant in late November and commenced erecting the new Fruit Cages in December. The first one has been a challenge, with lots of parts and much netting to fix, but we have completed cage one and started on our second one. The second one is going up much quicker, now we have a much better idea of how to do it, and hopefully we can get all four completed by the end of February. We received the cages in the late spring and had to delay starting because the old fruit bushes were in blossom and subsequently fruited in June. We are all so busy throughout the growing season, it made sense to leave commencement of installation until the dormant season when we could clear the ground. The cages look amazing and we can't wait to finish them all and start growing in them! We're looking forward to heavier crops this year.
Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
Whoop, 40 people have pledged since fundraising began!
Check out our new video to find out more about our project and the work that we do at Bedfords Park! We're now over 50% of the way towards our target, and have agreed a new campaign deadline of 13 April. To help us reach it, we are looking for any local businesses who might be interested in coming on board as a sponsor. We're just at the stage now of drawing up a list of who to approach. If you have any ideas or connections you think we could follow up, please email us amoslois@hotmail.com
How will the money be spent?Total £5,335
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Overfunding
This project is enabled for overfunding. If the project hits its funding goal before the end of the campaign period, any extra funds raised will be spent (in order of priority) on:
Total £5,335
Our Volunteer List
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VolunteerThe Friends of Bedfords Park are a determined bunch of people who have revived and recreated a growing Kitchen Garden from the ruins of a completely derelict walled garden. They struggled for 11 years to get the worthiness of our project recognised by the local Council. After we applied for a Local Food Growing grant that enabled repairs to the infrastructure and work on safety measures to be carried out, the local Council, at last, recognised that not only would an important historic and socially valuable community asset be restored, but the functions that a community food growing project would be bringing :- social cohesion, physical and mental health and well being, addressing obesity issues and those of poor local diet. Increasing plant knowledge, creating a pleasant revitalised historic space to be enjoyed by all visitors to the Park. Keeping people fit and improving their horticultural and social skills. Learning how to harvest and prepare vegetables and fruits, herbs and floral products such as ' hand tied country bunches' and lavender bags. The emphasis on biodiversity and caring for our environment on a local and global level is always a priority. Our food is grown without artficial or chemical herbicides, pesticides or fertilisers. We make our own Comfrey feed and try to live with our natural pests! We harvest daily in the season and produce is sold from site - so really fresh conserving vitamins and minerals and with no polluting food miles. Everything is grown by volunteers, with love - from seed to shop! It is very hard work but wee know that it is appreciated by all who visit our glorious garden.
Project Owner: Friends of Bedfords Park Walled Garden The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
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