Any country/garden types here?

[Crackle]

Get some Chainsaw sculpting in it. You can get it done, have demos or teach-in's.

If anyone shows an aptitude, you can start flogging them. The sculptues that is.

http://www.chainsawcarving.co.uk/

 

[Aperitif]

How about a few representations of how the land we walk upon is made up? Strata, fossils, magma - don't know exactly but it could be big scale and give viewers a chance of comprehending the earth.
The Kew Gardens 'rope walk' is good apparently - maybe go for a version of that?
Write a polite note to Andy Goldsworthy

 

[wafflycat]

Deffo some chickens - mind you there are *regulations* you need to follow if you are *selling* eggs and/or your flock is over a certain size. You can get ex-battery hens from as little as 50p - £1 each and they are wonderful creatures. Plus - this time of year many a purebred hen has stopped laying and my little ex-batts are still going strong. The hens will provide you with lots of lovely stuff for the compost heaps too.

Veg/fruit plots - grow stuff - and you can grow plenty of the lovely veg that supermarkets don't stock and concentrate on varieties that are bursting with flavour as opposed to a long shelf-life. Using the traditonal three-plot roation, you can have different crops year round.

Your local freecycle list may well provide you with most of the stuff you need to get going, such as tools/greenhouse/shed...

 

[mr Mag00]

this sounds excellent. good luck there are loads of things you can do, but as waffly said regs do tend to get in the way.
this is not a negative list despite its outlook, these are thing i have seen done elsewhere and know from experience do not work. I will come back with more ideas later especially on the education front if you are serious as that is what i do for a living.

dont get pigs under thr fruit trees unless you nose ring them, they will kill the fruit trees by damaging the surface roots. the chickens would be great, hopefully there will not be too much windfall as it will all be cider/perry!
dont use chainsaw sculptures extremely polluting oil, use trad methods such and hammer and chisel far more sustainable and the public can join in easier

with current state of bees you need an observation hive and a couple of other hives too. do you have running water eg stream, woodland?

instead of growing produce, sell the plants, greater turn over, better returns less work, you will need a polytunnel. garden produce needs a full time gardener unless that is your plan.

try to establish links with school for education but costs will mean that this post will have to externally funded i find.

 

[wafflycat]

Noodley... in a couple of recent gardening-type mags, there's some articles about schools getting involved growing fruit/veg on allotments. If you want I could photocopy & post to you. Just PM me with your postal address. If you don't want - fairynuff.

 

[User482]

Have you thought about contacting Hugh FW? He may put you in touch with the Bristol project...

 

[surfgurl]

If you choose an area for water, make sure you have safe spots for small children to play safely with the water. I'm thinking of a little water wheel that splashes in the water with lots of little containers to pour water with and a little area to sail little toy boats.

 

[rich p]

How about a few representations of how the land we walk upon is made up? Strata, fossils, magma - don't know exactly but it could be big scale and give viewers a chance of comprehending the earth.
The Kew Gardens 'rope walk' is good apparently - maybe go for a version of that?
Write a polite note to Andy Goldsworthy

I saw some Andy Goldsworthy's in France last year - one of which was a completely submerged car in a lake You have to take it on faith!

 

[Twenty Inch]

Get in contact with the Allotment Regeneration Initiative for lots of good ideas on involving the community.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/communities/pdf/131015.pdf

There's also quite a lot on DEFRA and other gov't sites about "shared green space" best practise - schools involvement, disabled access, waste disposal, all that sort of thing. Worth having a read through. Often being compliant with best practise is not about changing how you do things but about how you tell the story, if that makes sense.

You also need a PR campaign - it can be low-key, but you should be telling local stakeholders about how great the project is and how much of a benefit it is. Your story above of the 3 ex-offenders - have you (or previous managers) told the Probation Service? I would - it'll make them look good, you look good, and get you more naughty boys to do the heavy lifting.

This isn't about being cynical or spinning the story - it's about building a constituency of support locally so that developer etc don't even think about bidding for the site.

Best of luck, sounds really great.

 

[Chuffy]

I was thinking about this last night. Lots of sensible suggestions on here re: wildlife shelters etc.
I don’t know how your project is funded or who by, so some of the following may be irrelevant. But here goes…

Contact your local council. They should have someone whose job title will either be Community Engagement Officer or who has that in their job description. If you want, let me know which local council/s you are under and I’ll see if I can dig them out. That person should be interested in the project and may well be able to give you a lot of help with community contacts, applying for funding etc. If you’re very lucky they may even have some money and resources that you can access. You might want to try contacting your council’s parks dept, they might be willing and able to give you some kind of assistance such as a bit of help clearing the land etc. Check out the waste management team, if they collect garden waste then they might be able to supply you with much free compost.
None of the above is obligatory btw, you may have to use a little of the legendary Noodley charm and persuasion…

Contact the local police force and make friends with the neighbourhood beat manager. If they are running a neighbourhood program (PACT, Police And Communities Together) then they may also be able to offer some help. At the very least you will probably want them to keep a bit of an eye on the land. They might also be able to supply you with more ‘orrible scrotes who have been given Community Service (not sure how this fits in/overlaps with the remit of your project though, but it’s worth bearing in mind if you need spare hands).

I hope this helps, it sounds like a brilliant project.

Oh and wot 20" said.

 

[Noodley]

Thanks very much for all the helpful replies, I'll take a note of them all and make progress with them

A bit more info about the project: I am the manager of a local authority criminal justice team, with overall responsibility for delivery of offender programmes, including community service. This is a project aimed at providing positive outcomes for offenders and the community. Funding is part of overall budget, although there has been a recent pledge by Scottish government for some additional money specifically for community service. How each local authority invests this money is left to the discretion of each local authority, whether it be for additional staff or investments in infrastructure or new projects, etc...

I am keen to have links from the outset with other agencies and am in the process of holding a series of meetings. I am also in contact with local councillors to keep them informed of progress. We are looking at developing a web page for the whole service, one area of which will hopefully include the progress of the project. Publicity is also on the agenda, and I have good contacts at local and national press.

There is huge potential with this so I want to get it as right as I can.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[Arch]

A couple more things occur to me...

Raised beds - not all of them maybe, but some, and not just raised a few inches, but built up to waist height - great for those in wheelchairs, or who have trouble stooping or kneeling - makes it even more inclusive, and gives an excuse for the people constructing them to perhaps learn some bricklaying or such like.

For inspiration - I dunno what part of the country you are in, but the organic garden at Ryton, near Coventry has some great little gardens with examples of a lot of the stuff that's been suggested. Maybe worth a visit ot finding out if there's something more local to you...