New Growth!

AS Spring is in the air and is conjuring up images of new growth, I decided to start work on a new project that has been hibernating away in the far recesses for a while now, after working on a project recently involving the setting up of a community allotment in Southchurch with some green-fingered friends of mine.
The basic idea for the allotment was to provide training for local people wanting to learn how to grow food without the full responsibility of a full plot, to help get them started on the learning curve. This is a project with lots of potential, but it occurred to me that many people cant get to the allotment and maybe don't have time, so, by default, could not be involved. So, I came up with a different but related idea.

Central to this project and my idea is that people have access to fresh, local food, be it their own or someone elses, as in the Stock Exchange Project that I set up a few years back (which will be starting again soon at Growing Together by the way: See my facebook page for details) In the same way this is a project focussed on people sharing produce and making the most out of their growing spaces. However, this time there is a difference. I am aiming to set up a network of local residence garden plots that will be maintained by a small team of green-fingered individuals, to grow fruit and veg in residents gardens and then to provide these residents with a weekly box of produce from what is harvested.
The veg grown will be gathered and shared by us and the rest sold locally to local independent cafes and restaurants to enable the project to thrive. It's only just started but there seems to be a lot of interest. In any case we are starting small by initially operating in the ward in which I live - the Victoria Ward, which spans a considerable  space and includes over 11,000 residents over 68.35 hectares! That's quite a lot of potential green areas in there.

So, I'm going to print some flyers and hand these out around the ward to see how many sunny plots I can find with owners who like the idea and want to get involved! If you know anyone in the Victoria Ward let them know about the project and ask them to send an email to agencysouthend@gmail.com for more information or to arrange a visit by one of our team!