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Just back in from a stroll around the estate to try and ease my bad back, whilst walking around I was noting all the bits of land that didn’t have any use at all. There’s lots of it. Top of my road there’s an area of grass that’s about 2 football pitches in size, most of the year it’s wet (boggy this time of year) and is only ever used by dog walkers, maybe a few kids in summer having a kick around. This area would be ideal for allotments and may be wildflowers around the edge of it - it would help ‘soak up’ some of the ground water. (Even just half of it, leaving half for recreation)
Footpaths run throughout the estate with grass running along either side, again perfect to sow wildflower seeds to help increase insect and wildlife numbers. Aside from this it’d make the area more attractive, and in the case of allotments, provide the council with some income and benefit the resident who could use it. At the moment these areas are just crappy grass, mud, dog crap and litter.
So has anyone here done some community work like this? How did you go about it?
Yes. Don’t expect anyone at the council to be interested, the revenue from allotments is trivial. Don’t expect anyone nearby to think a bunch of sheds and compost bins look better than an empty field. Do expect whoever owns the field to support the dog walkers and footballers - right up until that field gets planning zoned for new houses!
If you are in an area with high mental health, low numbers of people in work etc you will likely find it easier to get traction and funding (you’ll be amazed at how expensive they can make it to turn a field into a lot of small fields!) than if this is perceived as a luxury for middle classes!
There is a National Allotments and Gardens Society who can provide advice to aspiring allotment societies. There are advantages to making the development part of a much larger scheme eg. Getting drainage sorted so there can be all yr round football on one half - but it also means you double the complexity of the politics and negotiations.
Thanks poly. As a mentalist I was looking at doing this to help improve my own mental health, and it falls within Dudley Met borough council, so higher than average unemployment - a route I hadn’t thought about. I’m thinking, for now, to go the guerilla route and just buy a sack of wildflower seed and go around scattering it when the weather gets better (only on patches of land that have no use at all)
So you want to walk around your estate scattering your seed?😵
😎
Dirty boy.
What is the grass-cutting regime? You'll likely want to ask someone to leave some patches uncut so that the flowers can grow and germinate. Irregular patches of long grass/wild flowers can look pretty good, they can also help trap litter at their edges making cleaning up easier. Have a look at the desire lines over this large area and create a plan around them.
A large area at the top of my street doesn’t get mown at all, I’ll post some pictures later if it stops raining. And yes, I agree, other areas could have patches of grass left uncut.
Anyone suggest how best to approach my council?
I’m thinking, for now, to go the guerilla route and just buy a sack of wildflower seed and go around scattering it when the weather gets better (only on patches of land that have no use at all)
The grass verge to a cycle path near were I work was taken over by a Gardening Guerilla, he/she did a lovely job planting loads of shrubs, which then all got stolen! Such a shame...
[url= https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4886/32039225547_74f8902e99.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4886/32039225547_74f8902e99.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/QPcpwt ]Missing: Mrs Popple[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
and eventually the Council came along and spreyed weed killer over the whole thing, which just about finished it off. Now back to weed killer resistant weeds.
make a meadow maze
the great thing about meadows is they mostly exist through careful neglect although theres a bit of planning involved in getting them started.
Apart from the planting/seeding you're deciding what kind of meadow it is by deciding what time of year to cut it. If the land is mostly grass just now you might need to plant something intermediate to reduce the fertility a bit - I think commonly people plant mustard for a year which helps hoover up excess nutrients that would make grass out-compete the meadow plants. Then you plant your meadow seeds the following year.
And of course to cut it you need one them things...you know the big meadow cutty things.
A Poldark. You need one of them - keep everyone entertained during their Diet Coke break.
Fwar.
Have a look at the desire lines over this large area
Desire lines? Why haven't I heard of these wondrous things before?
Anyone suggest how best to approach my council?
If there are many allotments in the area you may have an officer dedicated to them - but most councils just lump it in to the parks/open spaces department. You can try them, but don't expect too much imagination. Your local councillor MAY be a better route, they have surgeries where you can just go and chat to them. They are low level politicians though so don't be too surprised if (a) they tell you its a great idea and they want to back it but do sweet fa to make it happen; (b) they tell you its all the other parties fault and they'd love to help but the other side never cooperate; (c) the genuinely do want to help but the other party (or even another geographical faction within the same area) block it. What I am sure, is without a councillor on board it won't be going anywhere! Worth understanding if some councillors have special responsibility for certain areas (mental health, the environment etc). If the MH angle is one you want to push (and certainly for community gardens* may be more likely to succeed) then worth working our who in the Local NHS gets involved in these sort of initiatives.
If you are talking gorilla gardening rather than structured allotments then Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall was pushing that for a while and has a River Cottage website/forum. Google should find you other examples of community gardens, MH associated projects etc. It helps those in LA's with little imagination to see examples of what it could become (and how they could claim a huge success!).
*Community Gardens have different legal status from allotments. This is good for the landowner (and therefore makes them more willing to cooperate) but does mean if the landowner wants to build houses on it in 5 yrs time it will be tough luck.
Have a look at the desire lines over this large area and create a plan around them.
In a sense.. Desire lines usually show that a space is underused - they are the shortest, easiest route between the entrance and exit. If people are using the space recreationally (or could make more use of it recreationally) then you sort of need to counteract those lines and create a number of interest points so that you have reason to walk around rather than straight across.
It would be interesting to watch people walking their dogs in the area - even though the point is to spend time walking I bet they take the shortest route across the space as 'loitering' is actually a pretty difficult thing to do if you don't have the right cues for meandering and pausing.