The East Manchester Academy
Repost from July 2021
We have been working with staff from The East Manchester Academy in Beswick to start a new garden on the grounds of their school. After meeting with S. Lonsdale of EMA the requirements of the garden are as follows;
A place that can be a community garden (much like PFMG) for people to visit with emphasis made that it will be open after school hours for external visitors.
A place that children from the school can visit and enjoy during school hours.
A place where a practitioner can run sessions for the children based around gardening & wellbeing, especially for those with complex needs who do not enjoy being taught in the classroom.
A place for curriculum enrichment for children that can be enjoyable and educational.
A space for events & clubs such as After School Club.
The possibility that food grown can be donated to the food bank or for food parcels and the opportunity for beneficiaries to get involved with growing the food too.
It was suggested that the garden would develop organically into a space that will suit the school and the community best as it grows. We propose a phased approach to developing the garden into a sustainable project.
DESIGN
The design of the garden will use a diverse mixture of growing methods, layouts, bed designs and planting styles to maximise accessibility and aesthetics. This will satisfy the desire to be more than a traditional style market garden and will complement the existing lanscape surrounding the location of the garden as well as work with and around the existing BMX track.
Whilst this may reduce any potential yields from vegetables, it will allow for more experimental growing and maximise the educational and community value of the garden. It will also increase interest and the availability of spaces throughout the garden for play, learning, socialising and therapeutic practices.
Possible planting features:
no-dig growing beds
wheelchair accessible raised beds
Hugelkultur beds
companion plantings
herb gardens
3 sisters plantings
flower beds
wild flower meadows
coppiced trees and shrubs
fruit trees, guilds and hedges
This is the start of an exciting new project and partnership and we are looking forward to getting started on the space and see what happens over the next few years!