Bovey Community Garden

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Who we are

The Bovey Community Garden is situated in The Parke Estate, Bovey Tracey on the south-east edge of the Dartmoor National Park.

The site belongs to the National Trust. Negotiations between Bovey Climate Action and The National Trust began in 2007. Terms of a lease were developed and agreed. Initial funding was obtained from the Dartmoor Sustainable Development  Fund.

 

The National Trust began clearing the site in July 2007. Key members set out a basic plan to present at the initial meeting of the community gardeners.This included

• Plot layout based on a basic crop rotation
• Crop varieties.
• Timetables for garden opening.

It was agreed that each session would be headed up by a key member.

The community gardeners started work in early March 2009 and there was lots of hard work done with the help of Bovey Climate Action.

Our vision and key aims are:

• Creating a place to learn how to grow a variety of vegetables

• Sharing experiences and skills and develop a focus for the whole community

• Bringing together groups of local people young and old.

We had our first open day 5th March 2009 and Bovey Climate Action won a C+ Carbon Positive Award in the South West from The Prince’s May Day Trust.

We have installed  a solar panel over the well.

We were included in the National Garden Scheme on 5th & 6th June 2010 which raised money for nursing charities & helped to raise local awareness of our Community Garden.

We have developed the following guidelines for how each group member needs to contribute and how the produce is shared amongst us.

• All community gardeners work for 10 hours (to show commitment), before they can have a share in produce.
• During the summer, at the start of a session, we decide what is ready to pick. Some people pick, others weed etc, and one goes around with a list of produce to see which of the vegetable each gardener would like to take home.
• We always record the total weight of each type of vegetable harvested, before sharing it out. We also bear in mind when the next session is, so that they will get fair shares too.
• When harvesting stuff that keeps, spuds, parsnip etc, we split the quantity amongst all the regular gardeners, whether they are there that day or not.
• We ask people to continue coming at least 3hrs per month during the winter, so that everyone shares in the hard work of digging and working in bad weather.
• Some couples, for example with small children, register as one person, so that they can manage to do enough qualifying hours throughout the year - but they then only get one person's share.
• Some people log hours by doing other useful things - such as carpentry or grant applications for the garden
  
  Thanks to the Bovey Community Garden for the text and pictures