 HogCO - Home Grown Community Owned | sitemap | log in
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| Spanglefish Gold Status Expired 05/11/2014. | ||||||||||||||||||
Forches & Heppenstall Community Gardens
North Devon Homes Community Webpage Who we are We aim to:
Latest News: May 2012 ?rel=0" frameborder="0">
February 2012 (scroll down for earlier news items)
Since we last spoke in August 2010 our garden project has begun to mature into the social agriculture enterprise we envisaged two years ago with plans this year to start our Veggie Box Scheme. We have grown in size having three more underused gardens adjacent to the project being included making the total plot size now almost 1400 square metres. The community lead on this project, with other agencies joining in to help in ways the volunteers feel comfortable with, building strong ties and partnership working. Our produce has won 1st prize at the North Devon Show and 1st prizes in individual categories at the “Grow your Own” event at RHS Rosemoor. Volunteers have undertaken a variety of horticultural training with HogCO, and Grow Jigsaw in Bideford. In 2011 North Devon Homes were nominated for the South West National Housing Federation “What we are Proud of” awards when we created a You Tube film as part of the presentation dinner attended by Volunteers. On the night NDH won two awards, Best Impact on Residents and Best Impact on Communities. Funding has been sourced to bring longer term sustainability through the Big Lottery, Sure start and the Forches Community Association- our future is blossoming! Oct 2010 Colin Porter, Horticulturist (externally funded), continues to spend time with both the Forches and Heppenstall Gardens (15 min walk from Forches). In an effort to bring the two communities together, HogCO is funding a ‘winter planting’ workshop in the next month that will involve work on both sites, with a communal lunch. August 2010
This project is working with residents on a housing estate to develop their vision of growing their own food in a community garden in partnership with their landlord, North Devon Homes. Since the Member’s Forum site visit, the garden continues from strength to strength. Carol, who hosted the group visit, and other volunteers held a stall at the North Devon Show, and won 3rd prize. The group were very proud of their success. They have also produced a newsletter (copy enclosed) in July which is very impressive and showcases their progress. Carol continues to hold Saturday club at the garden, and while she is passionate about her work, her salary (Lottery funding) runs out soon and she is concerned about her professional future. The group also have nothing in writing from North Devon Homes regarding security of land, and HogCO have offered to follow this up. Colin Porter, Horticulturist (externally funded), continues to spend time with both the Forches and Heppenstall Gardens (15 min walk from Forches). In an effort to bring the two communities together, HogCO is funding a ‘winter planting’ workshop in the next month that will involve work on both sites, with a communal lunch.
July 2010 A group member attended training in how to hold a successful community group meeting. HogCO facilitated several meetings to develop the constitution and plan future action. Several HogCO training sessions have been hosted at the Forches Community Centre including Healthy Eating, Legal and Governance. Members of the garden have attended courses on Safe Use of Garden Machinery, Food Hygiene and Basic Gardening. Forches ran a stall at the North Devon Show and were awarded 3rd prize in the horticulture marquee.
November 2009 HogCO facilitated an action planning workshop for members of Forches and Heppenstall communities. This clarified project aims and objectives and set dates for work days.
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