Fruitful Durham Dig This!

Aim

We want to create a vibrant community resource in an abandoned walled garden - somewhere for growing, learning and fun!

Dig This!

Help Fruitful Durham Community Interest Company bring Durham's secret garden back to life.

For six years Fruitful Durham has been saving surplus fruit from going to waste, now we are reinventing a neglected garden as a vibrant hub for the local community.

Dig This! will...

• Have a plant nursery for growing and teaching
• Produce locally grown produce, meaning minimal mileage and maximum freshness
• Provide new skills and opportunities for volunteers
• Run workshops and social events to enrich the local community
• Reconnect people with the outdoors
• Use wildlife-friendly gardening
• Be run by local, dedicated, experienced social entrepreneurs
• Work with partners in health and education

We need £10,000 to make this happen. A breakdown of costs is shown in the chart in the 'Next Steps' section below.

Read on for details...

About Dig This!

Fruitful Durham's Dig This! walled garden revival will create somewhere for growing plants, learning new skills and meeting friends in the grounds of Ushaw College, four miles outside Durham City. The four and a half acre garden has been neglected for decades and we are raising money to clear areas and provide growing and workshop space so we can open it for community use. 

Poor diet, isolation, and sedentary lifestyles are growing problems in the modern world. Our nursery, workshops and events will help reconnect people with healthy, locally grown food; provide a place to meet new friends; and offer opportunities to get active outdoors; as well as sharing knowledge and skills. Activities in the garden will benefit mental health, another growing concern, by providing a positive and peaceful environment where people can engage in worthwhile pastimes  

Close to areas of relative deprivation, including several ex-mining villages, the  project will provide new avenues for raising aspirations and enriching people's lives. Volunteering can improve motivation, confidence and self-esteem; provide challenges and uncover hidden talents; and make a difference to you and your community. 

Volunteers will:

• learn about growing produce in our nursery
• meet new people
• get active outdoors
• be part of a team 
• get reduced and free admission to events

Often volunteering can be a route to employment and we want explore ways that Dig This! might help unemployed people get back to work. This might be by partnering with organisations to offer placements, teaching volunteers valuable skills and maybe even taking on employees ourselves. In the short-term we will provide work for self-employed facilitators who will up-skill local children and adults with a programme of workshops including:

• specialist horticultural 
• heritage skills
• outdoor education
• arts
• exercise
• personal growth

Social events will also be important, including entertainment and live music for dancing and relaxing; healthy, outdoor-cooked food; beautiful bonfires; and a bar; in a unique, magical setting. 

Social events will:

• bring people together and build stronger communities
• promote healthy living and benefit mental health
• build appreciation of the outdoors by connecting people to the seasons and the natural world

The story so far

Fruitful Durham Community Interest Company set up in 2012 to promote the growing and use of local food and help reduce food waste. To find out more, see the video below.

In 2017 Rachel Kurtz, co-director of Newcastle-based Bare Toed Dance Company, joined the Fruitful Durham team and Julian and Rachel got married. Together the couple are combining their interests and dreams to create Dig This! While Julian provides the gardening expertise and tirelessly leads the physical re-sculpting of the garden, Rachel draws on her experience of project management and background in community arts to propel their vision forward. Both Julian and Rachel are keen to foster community involvement and bring lots of experience in this respect: Julian has led juicing demonstrations, managed volunteers, and taught grafting workshops. Both Julian and Rachel have Forest School training and many years' experience working with a variety of groups including adults and children.

After taking over the garden in June 2017, Julian and Rachel, supported by company director Janet Tayler and a team of volunteers, have:

• battled the brambles to uncover the old greenhouse and buried paths
• cleared and levelled an area for a large poly tunnel
• dismantled the large and dilapidated shed
• Brought in pigs to dig over an area at the bottom of the garden

About the Walled Garden

The garden was once the kitchen garden for the Ushaw College seminary, and at it's height, in the middle of the last century, fed around 450 pupils. Since it then it has been used for youth training and by landscape gardeners, and has remained  untouched for two decades. Nature has taken over.

The plum trees that once lined the south-facing wall (and lured in agile children from the local villages) have died, while their blackthorn rootstocks have suckered inward, making it difficult to get to the walls in places. The one or two apple trees still living have been shaded out by saplings and are in need of pruning, and although there are a few structures in varying states, there is nothing ready for use. Now that we are some way into clearing the site, we are pretty much starting from scratch. 

Despite being over four acres at the top of a hill, the garden is remarkably sheltered due to the high games wall on the south side, which provides protection against the prevailing winds. We have been told it is generally four degrees warmer inside the walls than out. Although we have not tested this, it is easy to believe as even on windy days it remains calm. There is a massive amount still to be done but we are looking forward to planting our first crops this season, with which we plan to supply the Ushaw College cafe. 

Next Steps

In the coming weeks we plan to erect the poly tunnel frame and log cabin classroom, build the compost toilet with wood recycled from the old shed, create paths by reusing dumped debris, and plant this year's crops. With your support we will go on to put a skin on the poly tunnel, glaze the greenhouse, create secure storage, get everything we need to run events, and build a woodland stage, fire pit and pizza oven.

After being thwarted by the weather earlier in the year, we are relaunching our volunteer days, which gives people a very practical way of getting involved. We will be in the garden every Friday and Saturday working on the jobs listed above, so if you want to be part of the action you can contact us for details at [email protected].

Financial Sustainability

Once we are up and running Dig This! will finance itself through a number of income streams:

• Sale of produce and plants
•  Workshop and event charges
• Hire charges
• Grants

Any surplus income will be reinvested.

On the Horizon

Fruitful Durham have a licence to use the Walled Garden at Ushaw College for the next 2-4 years, after which activities on the site will be reviewed. The length of our stay depends how well things progress in the garden and on other developments at the college. 

Whilst we are hopeful that we will be able to stay in the present location, we have factored in the possibility of a move from the start. We carefully consider the amount and type of investment we make, in the knowledge that we may not be here for long, for example: building a compost toilet is a cheap, environmentally friendly alternative to providing more permanent, conventional facilities; the log cabin and poly tunnel can be dismantled and moved; perennial plants can be dug up and taken with us. When making decisions about our budget and time, we weigh up every investment against its short-term benefit, spending every penny effectively. Over the next few years we will provide valuable benefits for hundreds of people and build a project that is self-sustaining and capable of setting up elsewhere, should the need arise. 

Although there are currently no long-term guarantees, Dig This! is very welcome at the college. Estates manager Peter Seed says, "we are delighted that Fruitful Durham are interested and looking to move forward with the walled garden”. 

You can help us to make Dig This! a success - we will do our best to provide a framework of and for activities and if the garden is well used by the community we will strengthen  the case for a longer tenancy.

Outside interest and support

Other organisations have already expressed an interest in working with us, and we have been fortunate enough to have attracted considerable funding before we have even begun to look for it in earnest. This demonstrates confidence in Fruitful Durham as an organisation and Dig This! as a project.

The Mid-Durham Area Action Partnership  generously funded the building of the compost toilet and we are working with them to ensure that Dig This! complements their plans for the Deerness Valley. They have also supported us by offering advice and connections. 

As well as providing a venue for our own workshops, the log cabin classroom, funded by a private trust, can be hired by outside organisations looking for a peaceful setting So far we have had conversations about running groups and one-to-one sessions for people at risk of isolation, Non-Violent Communication workshops and pre-school groups, and we are open to more ideas.

In the corner of the garden the remarkably intact, brick-built bothy will become a studio for local artists Emma and Beano, of RT projects, who intend to use it for their personal work. We hope to collaborate with the artists on workshops and events in the coming months.

We are lucky enough to have the support of amazing carpenter Jack Richardson, who has agreed to lead our team of volunteers before we have even raised the money to pay him! We are over the moon that Jack has enough faith in the project to risk several days of his own time and are working hard not to let him down.

In addition securing the above, we have:

• met with Education Development Advisor, Richard Hurst to discuss how our outdoor learning for children might fit into existing provision in Durham
• sought advice and support from Sarah Wilson, formerly of Forest School Wales
• attracted interest from Liz Wright of 'Spring to Life' and 'Highbury Community Orchard' in Birmingham, who is planning to move to the area and is keen to get involved
• supported plans for Milena Kopowska and volunteer Barbara Johnson to plant a teaching garden for workshops in using herbs medicinally
• collaborated with the Local Authority on the 'Big Dig', attracting several volunteers to prepare the vegetable beds for spring planting

This interest, and that of local volunteers, is very encouraging. People are enthusiastic about Dig This! and are easily captivated by the idea. We value this and will build in opportunities for consultation with the local community. Feedback from events will help shape the direction of Dig This! and help foster community investment in the project. 

We believe that Dig This! can make a difference and we hope you agree. 

• Our nursery will provide local produce and teach valuable skills
• Workshops and events will bring people together to promote community and mental health
• Nature-watch workshops will foster a love of nature and the outdoors

If you Dig This! please help us to reach our target by donating, sharing this page, and volunteering your time. We are also looking for donations of materials and equipment, such as garden tools and furniture. 

You can even donate money to Dig This! at no cost to yourself - Tuin - the company we bought our log cabin from - have kindly offered us a donation of 5% of every order they receive through our recommendation, so if you're looking to buy a new gazebo, summerhouse or even a sauna, please consider buying through Tuin. If you do, tell them we pointed you towards them and let us know the details so we can claim the 5%.

Thanks so much for taking an interest in Dig This! We hope to be welcoming you into the garden in the not too distant future!

To finish, here is a rather cute video of Bramble helping us to pick fruit for jam last autumn.

This project successfully funded on 29th May 2018