The saying goes that ‘gardening adds years to your life and life to your years’ and on Saturday the 27^th April you can drop in and meet people from your local community food garden.

The Big Dig Day is organised by Sustain the food and farming charity that set up the Big Dig Network, to help gardens get more people growing food. They also run the London based Capital Growth network, one of the largest urban growing networks in the world.  The gardens taking place range from large gardens such as The Regent’s Park allotment garden in London, urban farms and market gardens, community projects and schools.

“We have been working with all sorts of community gardens for the last 10 years and see first-hand how they bring together people of across ages and walks of life, providing a real sense of calm and wellbeing” explained Sarah Williams, from Sustain who launched the Big Dig Day in 2012. Since then thousands of people have joined in at their local garden to grow healthy food together, building friendships along the way.

The day, also being used to encourage people to eat more veg as part of the Veg Cities campaign, will be filled with family friendly activities, including planting and seed sowing, garden tours, family games and craft activities with the opportunity to create new wildlife-friendly edible gardens and to learn about permaculture and how to make plant feeds. The day is for all fitness levels, and for people looking to get regularly involved or those who may just want somewhere to relax. 

Find gardens on the www.bigdig.org.uk including:

• The Chalk Hills Academy in Luton helping retired community members share gardening skills with young people to grow their own food. There will be afternoon tea, children's activities, music and learn to grow your own sessions.
• Greenheart Growers in Glasgow - a Market Garden growing salad, herbs, and vegetables for sale to local cafes and restaurants, who will be building raised bed, sowing seedds, turning compost and planting herbs.
• Riverbank Community Garden in Manchester who will provide tours and a talk on beekeeping.
• Townsend Community Garden in Bournemouth for a day of planting, with sunflowers and beans for the children to plant and watch grow to giddy heights.
• The Old 1 O'Clock Club, South London where the Trees for Cities 'Edible Playgrounds' team will be deed sowing, planting out vegetable plus family games and crafts to encourage and wildlife.

Camilla who started growing food at The Castle Garden, in North London one of the regular Big Dig Gardens said “I find growing food an incredibly rewarding experience. Gardening in itself is a therapeutic activity, and gardening in a community environment, amongst other people with similar interests or views, is even better.”

There are thousands of community groups meeting to grow together every week, and whether you want to grow, sow or just sit to enjoy the peace, you can find your nearest garden in a few clicks.

Find a garden near you taking part in the Big Dig Day on our website. And if your local community garden has not signed up already, do let them know, all gardens are welcome to join #BigDig2019

For further information email sarah@sustainweb.org or call 0203 559 6777

Useful information

1. A full list of gardens taking part is available at www.bigdig.org.uk  or listed below:

2. The Big Dig Day is run by the food and farming charity, Sustain and is part of their Big Dig online platform that helps people to grow food together across the UK. Any community garden can register on the map for free and to date there are over 55 gardens on the map.

www.sustainweb.org

3. The Big Dig Day was first run in London as part of Sustain’s Capital Growth network which has supported over 3000 member gardens since its launch in 2008. www.capitalgrowth.org

4. The Big Dig Day is also part of the Sustainable Food Cities’ Veg Cities Campaign which is all about increasing the availability and consumption of vegetables in organisations ranging from schools and community groups to retailers and caterers.

www.vegcities.org

5. The Big Dig, now in its eighth year, is now running in 12 areas in addition to London where the event was first launched in 2012, with the support of the following organisations: Aberdeen (Community Food Initiatives North East), Birmingham (Growing Birmingham), Bournemouth and Poole (Bournemouth and Poole Food Partnership), Cambridge (Cambridge Sustainable Food), Durham (Durham Community Action), Edinburgh (Edinburgh Community Food), Glasgow (Glasgow Community Food Network), Hull (Hull Food Partnership), Leeds (Zest), Luton (Luton Borough Council), Manchester (Sow the City) and Reading (Reading Food Growing Network) You can see gardens listed in each area by selecting the area and then click ‘BIG DIG DAY’ button  www.bigdig.org.uk

6. Photos and interviews with volunteers and garden leaders are available on request.

 

UK Gardens

Townsend Community Garden	Townsend Growers	Bournemouth
Slades Farm Community Garden	Transition Bournemouth	Bournemouth
Prestwich Clough forest garden	Incredible edible Prestwich and district	Bury
Edible Roundabout	Cambridge Growing Spaces	Cambridge
Incredible Edible Wishing Well Garden (opp Conwy Castle)	Incredible Edible Conwy	Conwy
Battlefield Community Garden	Battlefield Community Project	Glasgow City
Maryhill dot to dot	Maryhill Dot to Dot Community  Garden	Glasgow City
Greenheart Growers		Glasgow City
Square Yard	Finn’s Place	Glasgow City
Old Town Bloomers Community Garden	Hazlehurst Studios	Halton
Otley Community Allotment	Otley Community Land Trust	Leeds
Chapel Allerton Kitchen Garden	Chapel Allerton in Bloom	Leeds
The Chalk Hills Academy	The Chalk Hills Academy	Luton
Penrose Roots to Recovery Garden	Penrose Roots	Luton
Farley Food Growing Hub	Groundwork Luton and Bedfordshire	Luton
Riverbank Community Garden		Manchester
Incredible Edible Veg Beds in St Mary's Park, Prestwich		Manchester
Longford Park Community Allotment	Longford Park Community Allotment	Manchester
Platt Fields Market Garden	Garden Manager/ Director	Manchester
Moss Side Community Allotment	Moss Side Community Allotment	Manchester
Phipps Bridge Community Garden	Sustainable Merton	Merton
Wimbledon Guild Community Garden	The Wimbledon Guild of Social Welfare, Community Garden	Merton
MAEDT Community Garden	Mayfield and Easthouses Development Trust	Midlothian
Rockfield Park Community Garden		Monmouthshire
Wor Lotty		Newcastle upon Tyne
Hope allotments	Northampton Hope Centre - Hope Gardening	Northampton
Perth Community Farm	Perth Community Farm	Perth & Kinross
Adastral Square Gardening Project		Poole
Tatnam Organic Patch	Tatnam Organic Patch	Poole
Common Ground	Near Neighbours Black Country	Sandwell
Southend in Transition Community Allotment	Southend-on-Sea in Transition	Southend-on-Sea
Root’n’Fruit Community Allotment		Stoke-on-Trent
Hendon Natural Community Garden		Sunderland
Walled Garden at The Abbey Sutton Courtenay	The Abbey Sutton Courtenay	Vale of White Horse
Eastmoor Community Garden	Eastmoor Community Garden	Wakefield

 

London Gardens

St John's church plot	Incredible Edible Barnet	Barnet
Whetstone Allotments Community Plot	Whetstone Stray Allotments Community Plot	Barnet
Punch and juicy's Root To Market	Punch and Juicy Liquid Foods	Brent
Children Growing Vegetables	Willesden Green Town Team	Brent
Cecil Sharp House Permaculture Garden	London Permaculture Network	Camden
Broomfield Community Orchard	Broomfield Community Orchard	Enfield
The Maryon Park Community Food Growing Garden	Maryon Park Community Garden	Greenwich
Christchurch School Community Garden	Christchurch CE Primary School	Greenwich
St Mary's Secret Garden	St Mary's Secret Garden	Hackney
Rainbow Grow @ HCVS	Rainbow Grow	Hackney
The Castle Climbing Centre	The Castle Climbing Centre	Hackney
Trees for Cities Garden	Trees for Cities	Lambeth
Ruskin Park Community Garden	Ruskin Park Community Garden	Lambeth
Oasis Children's Nature Garden	Oasis Play Nature Garden	Lambeth
The Springbank Rd Community Garden	Hither Green Community Association	Lewisham
Wild Cat Wilderness	Rushey Green Time Bank	Lewisham
John Evelyn Community Garden	Pepys Community Forum	Lewisham
Greenfingers	Trafalgar Infant School	Richmond upon Thames
Sutton Community Farm	Sutton Community Farm	Sutton
Families Go Wild	Spitalfields City Farm	Tower Hamlets
Cranbrook Community Food Garden	Cranbrook Community Food Garden	Tower Hamlets
Greenway Avenue Community Play Garden	Friends of Greenway Avenue Community Play Garden	Waltham Forest
Doddington & Rollo Community Roof Garden	Doddington & Rollo Community Roof Garden	Wandsworth
The Regent's Park Allotment Garden	Sustain	Westminster

 

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16/04/2019