Horticultural Lead Sheffield Urban Community Well-Being Garden - some ideas for 2024-25

We want to grow herbs, vegetables and indigenous plants in an environment where the community has freedom of access and agency over what is done.

There will be areas where groups can take ownership to grow what they wish and to harvest, prepare, cook and share their food.

Growing and cooking events and outlets will reinforce the well-being ethos.

Herbs represent an enormous group of plants used for culinary, medicinal, cosmetic and fragrance purposes. We will welcome participation from those who are interested in developing uses for herbs and promoting their potential for enhancing well-being.

Further community participation that promotes well-being will be welcomed and could include growing and cooking classes, cost of living help, art classes and displays and small festivals.

Coming together to design, create and plant the garden will provide a foundation for future success. This is what we have done at Percy Street.

What kind of Space is Sheffield Urban Community Well-Being Garden?

The mix of plants is a little like a traditional English Cottage Garden. But we will steer away from the more artificially created varieties of flowering plants and shrubs used for display and seen in the chocolate box images.

Sheffield and Yorkshire has a rich population mix. Almost every type of food is available in restaurants and other outlets and plants from around the world are cultivated on allotments and in private gardens. Our Garden will be a showcase for growing and culinary diversity.

Capsicums growing outdoors in our Herb Garden in Neepsend.

Street Food in Sheffield

This is not an allotment or a public park. Neither is it the setting to an aristocratic pile -the expressions of privilege now mostly in the hands of The National Trust. The gardeners of the elite did their master's bidding to create some wonderful spaces using their enormous wealth. We can now pay to go and see them but, again 'don't touch'. Although many of these places are now in a form of public ownership, the decisions on what they should look like, what to grow and how they should develop into the future are made by the committees and horticultural experts. Having said all that there is no doubt that many of the plants and edibles we have today would not exist if it were not for the gardeners of the 18th and 19th centuries. Growing under glass was developed under the patronage of the aristocracy.

The French have the term 'potager garden' which is like the English Kitchen Garden but with an intermingling of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs. The potager garden provides the link between growing and the preparation of simple and wholesome food. So perhaps this is the nearest we have as a model for our garden.

One definition I found of the Potager Garden:

The Potager is a garden of effervescent beauty; abundantly spilling over with flowers, herbs and vegetables. Rooted in traditional French gardens, its style combines and celebrates the beautiful and the useful by marrying edibles with ornamentals in order to create an abundant space teeming with life.

Here are some images of what some define as a Potager Garden. We might borrow from some of these ideas..

We are recruiting a Project Team

In the short term we are just looking for people to sign up for regular updates on the project.

These will be sent monthly over the next 6 months.

Activity after that will be determined by progress on secring of a site and funding.

We are inviting individuals, community groups and local representatives to become involved.

Candidates are expected to have achieved RHS Level 3 or equivalent alternative qualifications. Relevant community growing experience will also be important.

Percy Street Collective - Horticulture Lead April 2024

Percy Street Collective was set up in the Percy Street Workshop in 2022 with the mission to support young neurodiverse people in Sheffield and South Yorkshire to realise their creative potential, enhance their self-confidence and, where possible, help them progress towards paid work.

We do this through our team workshop sessions where we employ a number of making skills and take people through the safe use of workshop machinery and hand tools. We focus on projects that involve other voluntary sector organisations in Sheffield on a collaborative basis.

We take people through the design and making process including preliminary briefing with customers, design using sketches and CAD, processes and cutting lists, making and final The post of Horticultural Lead will initially be for 8 hours per week for a period of 12 months commencing in June 2024.

It is expected that the hours will occur on a single agreed day but this may evolve and change over time and by agreement.

During 2023 our team designed, constructed and planted up the herb garden at PSCIC/Alder which has created a much-loved outdoor leisure space in Neepsend/Kelham Island. The Herb Garden and remainder of the Alder outdoor area needs to be cared for and further developed over 2024 to provide a resource for the community and a learning and support opportunity for the Percy Street Team. You will take a lead with this supporting young people to be fully involved in the decision making and delivery.

We are now reaching out to our friends and partners in Sheffield to identify further community gardening and growing projects that we can come together to design, deliver and care for. You will attend progress meetings with our partners and promote new partnerships and projects. Your skills and experience will be applied to devising garden and growing schemes and inspiring others to contribute.

In all your work you will be fully supported and aided by the directors, our volunteers and the young people we work with., We are going to create a new Urban Community Garden in Sheffield with a focus on wellbeing and community involvement. The site might be an already cultivated area in need of restoration or a brownfield site needing remediation. Site area will be in the region of 2 to 3 acres and will need to be accessible, or capable of being made accessible.

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Access to gardens, growing spaces and the natural environment increases well-being.

Some of us have known this for some time of course, but now it's official.

We have many types of gardens and growing spaces in the UK, but we are proposing something new that combines the elements that contribute to well-being., You are now leaving the VAS website and being taken to VAS's VC Connect online services. These are owned and managed by VAS.

Our private gardens are a repository of horticultural skills, limited but important biodiversity, carbon reduction, and the joy of growing.

But - there is no general access to these spaces. They are private. The skills that exist there are not generally transferable.

Urban Parks

My early life was transformed by access to our wonderful urban parks - the green hearts of our cities. But they are the product of a paternalistic Victorian form of local government. Alongside advances in horticulture, it was decided that these green oases would be 'good for us'. And they are.

But - the community is not involved in their design, development or upkeep. We have access but no agency. Look but don't touch.

Allotments

Urban allotments provide growers with the opportunity to produce their own food and experience the joy of doing it. Many sites have turned into community spaces and the sector has moved slightly away from one that is populated exclusively by older white people.

They satisfy many of our thoughts on Community Gardening but are restricted by the necessary legislation that surrounds them. They are not owned by The Community who cultivates them.

Allotments at Meersbrook

The Pilot Project - PSCIC/Alder/FoodWorks Herb Garden

In 2023 we created the Herb Garden at Percy Street, designed, constructed, and maintained by the young people we support at the Workshop Sessions on Percy Street.

The horticultural focus is herb growing and the harvest is given free to FoodWorks for use in their cafes.

Decisions on the design of the garden, what to grow, care and cultivation and future developments are all made by the group.

The Herb Garden will be extended over 2024 to provide more opportunities, more free harvest, and more pleasure for those who visit.

Our first crop in 2024