The Fifth Quarter was set up as a community group at a public meeting in August 2011 although much preparatory work had taken place in the year prior to this.
The idea behind the group is really simple - use underused or unused land to develop edible gardens and encorage local people to grow their own fresh fruit, herbs and vegetables on their doorstep. It is not exactly inventing the wheel and we are simply replicating what happens all over the world - people growing their own food!
Actually, it doesn;t seem to happen much in inner cities in the UK , generally people tend not to have gardens and if they do they grow flowers or parking spaces. Also public greenspaces tend to be stocked with lots of grass, low maintenance municipal shruberry, flowerbeds - you know what we mean.
So, in summer 2011 we established a container garden on the conrete mezzanine of a block of social housing, building the containers from reclaimed timber decking, pallets and baths. We had to buy in topsoil and compost to fill the containers and the residents grew thie produce from seed.... two years later the container garden in still operating alongside composting, a wormery and what could be called a seed bank. The social landlord, Cotman Housing Association, has always been supprtive of the garden and has provided an annual grant of £250 towards day to day running costs.
Since it's set up this garden has provided residents with free fruit, herbs and vegetables but as importantly, it has provided the opportunity for people to meet their neighbours and to feel a pride in the change to their previously drab and echoey communal space.
Then the members decided that we should take over a piece of wasteland nearby and turn that into a community garden.. The land was owned by Norwich City Council and was used as a flytip and drop off point for local handbag thieves, you could also find the odd syringe. Anyway, due to public demand - 65 local people attended our public meeting regarding the site - we and the council spent many months negotiating alease for the site and finally after much frustration, a five year lease was agreed in 2013.
Clearance work had been undertaken on the site in 2012 but with no lease it stopped and this year we had to repeat it all with our long suffering and irritated volunteers.
Then in July 2013 a combination of fortune and clever planning led to a breakthrough and saved our sanity. We cooperated with our local church, the King's Centre, and hosted their young volunteers participating in the Newday programme, in constructing the garden. For four afternoons these highly motivated and enthusiastic youth grafted with us to turn site from eyesore to public space................they were brilliant but it didn't end there, alongside these young people were other groups painting a "garden of Eden" themed mural on a carpark wall adjacent the garden. What an improvement.
AND, by a train of coincidences involving smoking, tragic loss and sociability, a local business generously donated the topsoil and woodchip that we needed for the garden, thank you Bailey's of Norfolk....Ado, Paul and Amanda.
The idea behind the group is really simple - use underused or unused land to develop edible gardens and encorage local people to grow their own fresh fruit, herbs and vegetables on their doorstep. It is not exactly inventing the wheel and we are simply replicating what happens all over the world - people growing their own food!
Actually, it doesn;t seem to happen much in inner cities in the UK , generally people tend not to have gardens and if they do they grow flowers or parking spaces. Also public greenspaces tend to be stocked with lots of grass, low maintenance municipal shruberry, flowerbeds - you know what we mean.
So, in summer 2011 we established a container garden on the conrete mezzanine of a block of social housing, building the containers from reclaimed timber decking, pallets and baths. We had to buy in topsoil and compost to fill the containers and the residents grew thie produce from seed.... two years later the container garden in still operating alongside composting, a wormery and what could be called a seed bank. The social landlord, Cotman Housing Association, has always been supprtive of the garden and has provided an annual grant of £250 towards day to day running costs.
Since it's set up this garden has provided residents with free fruit, herbs and vegetables but as importantly, it has provided the opportunity for people to meet their neighbours and to feel a pride in the change to their previously drab and echoey communal space.
Then the members decided that we should take over a piece of wasteland nearby and turn that into a community garden.. The land was owned by Norwich City Council and was used as a flytip and drop off point for local handbag thieves, you could also find the odd syringe. Anyway, due to public demand - 65 local people attended our public meeting regarding the site - we and the council spent many months negotiating alease for the site and finally after much frustration, a five year lease was agreed in 2013.
Clearance work had been undertaken on the site in 2012 but with no lease it stopped and this year we had to repeat it all with our long suffering and irritated volunteers.
Then in July 2013 a combination of fortune and clever planning led to a breakthrough and saved our sanity. We cooperated with our local church, the King's Centre, and hosted their young volunteers participating in the Newday programme, in constructing the garden. For four afternoons these highly motivated and enthusiastic youth grafted with us to turn site from eyesore to public space................they were brilliant but it didn't end there, alongside these young people were other groups painting a "garden of Eden" themed mural on a carpark wall adjacent the garden. What an improvement.
AND, by a train of coincidences involving smoking, tragic loss and sociability, a local business generously donated the topsoil and woodchip that we needed for the garden, thank you Bailey's of Norfolk....Ado, Paul and Amanda.