Four Greens (FGCT) Ernesettle Community Allotment

Thank you for looking at our crowdfunding site.

LOCAL PEOPLE CAN PLEDGE £1.00 TO SHOW THEIR SUPPORT

We are looking to raise £6500 to help create a local community allotment in Ernesettle, to provide volunteering opportunities, increase sense of community and connection to the environment.

This piece of land tucked away behind Rochford Crescent, Hill Path, Lympne Avenue and Stapleford Gardens will be transferred to the Four Greens Community Trust (FGCT). We are a resident led community trust that covers the areas of Ernesettle, Whitleigh, Honicknowle and Manadon in Plymouth. We are a members owned CIC and seek to develop projects and assets in the FGCT areas that improve our communities well-being, skills and job opportunities.

The idea of the project came from local residents who identified the plot of land as a perfectly suitable space that local residents can manage, maintain and get involved in, close to their homes. The FGCT with support from Plymouth City Council and Plymouth Community Homes has been working hard to talk to local people. We have held three drop in sessions and a community barbecue to create the site designs, choose equipment and discuss growing ideas, address concerns and establish an allotment management group.

Interest has come from local Ernesettle Primary schoolchildren with their Teaching Assistant, the local scout group and scout leader, Barefoot youth project and the local Ernesettle Care Centre is interested in developing social prescription involvement, all offering skill sharing, education and knowledge to everyone participating including amateur gardeners.

The site will have

• very small areas for 16 individual plots
• single, large piece of land gardened collectively by a group of people, to provide produce for individual use, and possible sharing food within the community
• can be used to grow vegetables and fruit
• picnic/communal seating area with communal shed for tea making facilities
• shed and tool boxes for commuanl tool storage
• pathways
• water supply to include two troughs for watering plants and a fresh water tap in communal shed

Benefits

• improve health through increased fresh vegetable consumption and providing a venue for exercise. An activity for ourdoor social presriptions
• bringing urban gardeners closer in touch with the source of their food
• breaking down isolation or barriers by creating a social community, increasing community networks
• increase opportunities for volunteering
• sharing skills and knowledge of food production within the wider community
• creating safer living spaces

How will the money be used

• securing the site with three lockable gates
• preparing the land
• connecting the water supply
• providing a communal seating area and communal shed
• tool storage - shed and boxes
• composting areas
• tools and other shared equipment
• dwarf fruit bushes, cuttings and seeds
• maintaining pathways and keeping boundaries trimmed and tidy
• opening event

If you would like to pledge please do so. All pledges will be gratefully received, even £1 can bring us closer to our target and will be invaluable to our projects success.

Also become a member of FGCT by contacting us at [email protected]

And become an allotment management group member by contacting us at [email protected]