Introduction
The Incredible Edible Dunstable community garden in Bedfordshire won £1000 in National Garden Gift Vouchers last year in the Cultivation Street annual competition, and they have gotten in touch to tell us how they are doing and some of the things that they have been able to add to their garden with their prize money.
Building community spirit
Incredible Edible Dunstable is a group of neighbours who have come together to cultivate a piece of public land owned by Central Bedfordshire Highways. The garden has helped create a strong community spirit, and they regularly hold events that are targeted towards a wide range of ages. They also now have a popular and very active Facebook group with almost a thousand followers; they have a vegetable patch to grow food that the volunteers can have fun tending to, picking and eating it; and it’s also become the place to hold local events, like the grand opening, Christmas lights switch-on, and visits from Santa.
Last year they made seven raised beds in disused tree pits. The idea was to involve the local businesses to maintain a bed each, and the local Milehams Motorist Discount Store even made signs out of registration number plates with each business name on them.
This year they want to continue to develop the garden by planting a bigger variety of fruit and vegetables like fig trees and edible flowers, and they have been able to get what they need to do that from a few local garden centres using the vouchers they won in our 2017 competition. Here are the garden centres they visited and some of the things they have bought so far:
Poplars Garden Centre Toddington: Six blueberry plants, seeds, Wolfgarten multi tool weeding brush, leaf rake, thermal gloves, fairy lights, veg packs, fig tree and a plum tree.
Eaton Bray Nurseries: Edible flowers pansies and violas.
Hertfordshire Garden Centre: Lots of ericaceous compost and organic compost.
Much thanks to Sahira Ward from Incredible Edible Dunstable for sharing with us! Keep up the good work!
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