Craven Vale Children's Allotment

About the project

This is a community allotment specially created to give children a place to experience and learn about food growing. The project was started by Lance Cabble, a resident on the Bristol Estate, who has been gardening since childhood. He and his daughter enjoy gardening together and have volunteered at some of the other local projects over the years. Lance realised that there wasn’t a project specifically focused on children in the local area so he decided to start one himself so that other children could experience the joys of gardening as he did.

The allotment group was formed in August 2010 shortly after taking on a new plot up on the Craven Vale allotment site on Whitehawk Hill. To say it was a challenging plot is understating it. Not only did they have the very chalky soil to contend with and a massive overgrowth of brambles and weeds, but the plot was also full of rubble – glass, concrete, bricks – which all had to be dug out and cleared before children could come work on the site.

The first several months were full of hard graft by Lance and a few others. They put in a lot of time to clear the site of the glass and debris to make it safe for families to use, as well as digging up the brambles, making terraced beds and improving the soil with compost. Lance felt it was important to get a portion of the site sorted in this way before the children started planting to give them a good fresh start in fertile, bramble-free soil!

Future plans

Currently they have 5 or 6 families regularly coming up to work on the plot and are actively encouraging new people to get involved. Because of the amount of work required to get the soil to a state ready for planting, and because of the slope of the hill, it has been slow going and there is still work to do – and they have loads of ideas and plans! One area has recently been cleared by a group from Coca Cola on a team building day. This part of the plot will be transformed into a wildlife garden early next year. The group has also secured funding for 400 hedgerow trees to create shelter from the winds that whip through the site. The trees will be planted in November 2011, and they will also be adding three or four more terraced beds. They also are planning to build a decked area at the top of the plot where people can relax, cook and eat. Part of this will be covered to provide shelter when the weather isn’t great.

Working with the local community

They have developed strong links with the Green Centre, a local community centre that does outreach and education around environmental issues and how to reduce, reuse and recycle your unwanted items. The two projects support each other, with Lance helping out with work in the Centre’s garden and Melanie (who runs the centre) helping the community allotment by bringing in teams of volunteers to help with big jobs and encouraging more local people to get involved. So far, they have had a team from Coca Cola, the Princes Trust and a group from Concordia will be helping out soon. They are currently discussing developing a regular work days with the Princes Trust.

They also have good links with some of the other community projects on the allotments, such as Whitehawk Community Food Project. Lance regularly goes up to visit them to chat with the guys who run that project. He finds it really valuable to speak to other knowledgeable gardeners and get tips and inspiration from them. In fact, when the project first started Lance applied to the Harvest Gardening Advice programme and was matched with John from the Whitehawk Community Food Project who was able to advise him on his plans for the site.

Making the garden grow...

The project has secured funding from local grant funders to buy equipment, compost, tools, plants and a shed. They have also developed a good relationship with the local garden centre and have received lots of donated goods from them, including plants and a lovely summer house! They also try and salvage materials like wood whenever they can, putting someone else’s waste to good use on the plot. They have also invested in public liability and contents insurance for the project.

It is abundantly clear that Lance has a great passion for food growing and sharing that with others, especially his daughter who seems to love gardening too! She says her favourite things to do up on the plot are sowing seeds and digging up potatoes. She had been growing some beautiful purple carrots which she pulled up and shared with us too.

So far Lance feels their biggest success has been getting the plot to where it is now, and successfully applying for funding to bring in the necessary equipment and materials. Although clearing and preparing the site has involved a massive amount of work, Lance feels the biggest challenge is yet to come in getting more people enthused and involved in the project.

When asked if there’s anything the Food Partnership can do to further support the project, Lance thought help with promoting the project would be helpful.  And so we will!

Get involved!

The group has a weekly workday each Sunday from 2-5pm – all welcome! They are also looking at setting up a day during the week where adults can come garden while their children are at school, maybe a gardening group for Dads. For more information or to get involved, contact Lance on 07969 126763.