Growing
“Planting Up” is our permaculture project supporting the creation of community gardens and food growing in Milton Keynes.
Our first community garden and project base is at Westbury Arts Centre (WAC) in Shenley Wood Milton Keynes, where we have a demonstration Forest Garden and social growing area.
In keeping with permaculture values, our community garden works with nature to be a low-maintenance, self-sustaining and productive space for local people to enjoy at the Arts Centre, and where our volunteers learn and help one another in support of creating a more sharing and caring local economy.
As part of this project, we are also learning to grow our own food; saving us money, keeping us fitter and healthier, and connecting us with our food in ways that help us become more aware of what we’re eating and where it comes from.
Why it’s important
We believe that every local community should have a safe, welcoming and sustainable community garden for people of all ages to use and enjoy – connecting them to local food, the natural world and each other to create more resilient local communities.
By following permaculture principles we apply “no-dig” gardening methods and work together to grow organic produce we can eat and learn about, whilst also creating wildlife habitats that encourage a rich biodiversity in the garden. This sociable and environmentally-friendly way of gardening helps our project to be inclusive and helps us to reduce our food miles, produce less waste and grow plants/trees that help to clean the air around us.
Our focus on permaculture also means that we reuse and recycle materials as much as possible, and reduce our consumption by creating a sharing economy with local people and businesses, which in turn, helps us all to save money, protect the environment and reduce our individual carbon footprints.
How to join or support (& who to contact)
Find your nearest community garden on our map and contact us to help us add more MK sites.
To join our group, sign up to our mailing list or contact us here. Or you can always follow us on Twitter and Facebook too.