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Bristol gardens buzzing for Get Growing Trail
Community farms, gardens and allotments across the city are throwing open their gates this weekend, inviting curious visitors to dig in and get their hands dirty.
The Get Growing Garden Trail is an opportunity for friends and families to explore the city’s wild side and get stuck into local green projects.
29 sites will run garden tours and children’s activities, with an emphasis on nature and community. Techniques on display include no-dig, permaculture and sustainable building as well as gardening for wildlife, mental health and wellbeing.
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Bedminster’s Windmill Hill City Farm, set up in 1976 on a plot of industrial wasteland and the country’s oldest urban farm outside London, will run garden tours and seasonal veg tasters.
Visitors to Totterdown Community Orchard, home to an apple tree grown from seed during the house clearances of the 1970’s ‘for a road never built’, can relax amongst quince, plum, cherry and pear trees, and purchase local honey.
Bramble Farm, established a decade ago with the support of sustainable food guru Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, offers the chance to join in with communal singing and enjoy a bite to eat on Knowle’s Northern Slopes.
New additions to the Trail this year include Bridge Farm, an oasis hidden under the M32 on the edge of Stapleton.
The historic site features a 17th century Grade II listed farmhouse. Its ample green space contains wildlife corridors, pigs and chickens, and an edible forest garden.
And Hartcliffe City Farm, reopened in 2022 to provide a much-needed growing hub in the ‘fresh food desert’ of BS13, will invite visitors to meet the animals and take home fresh produce from the market gardens.
More unusual stopping points include the Malago Berry Maze, BS3, offering free foraging of unfamiliar berries like the rare yellow raspberry; Ashley Down’s Herbalists Without Borders garden, growing medicinal herbs for refugees and asylum seekers; and Brentry’s dementia-friendly allotment, challenging perceptions around age and illness, and demonstrating the benefits of therapeutic horticulture.
The Get Growing Garden Trail runs over 3-4 June 2023. Explore the map here.
This piece of independent journalism is supported by The Extra Mile and Bristol24/7 public and business membership.
Main photo: Redcatch Community Garden
Read next:
- Shock as council tries to hike community garden rent by 5000 per cent
- The refugee-owned farming business with dreams to expand
- New community garden opens in unusual place
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