A Forest Garden in a Box
Ever since the idea first came up in Manchester at our second ever meeting I’ve felt excited about this. We have in Rosie a hugely experienced project manager who’s worked for years in innovation giving her time to guide us. She has produced a design brief which by the AGM will give us a ‘prototype’ to see and touch. A design team of volunteers will be invited to form who will then turn this into the finished article, taking on feedback from us all, ready to launch early next year.
Tomas Remiarz Fri 4 Oct 2019 4:53PM
Now that the box has been launched as a concept design, I am keen for us to get on with the next steps. This involves finding trial sites and developing the methodology for recording and documenting the trials. Timewise, it would be good to recruit volunteers now so they can start to allocate and prepare sites. If we then get our methodology ready to share by early next year that would be enough time for planting in the late winter and spring. That means getting a team working on it now.
It's probably a twin-track process, with finding and preparing trial sites in parallel with developing the methodology. Here are three questions for us all to think about, and feel free to ask further questions in response:
Does anyone want to offer a 10 square metre plot as a trial site, keping in mind that we have no funds to buy plants at the moment? We've got two offers so far - Richard's community allotment in Oxfordshire and (potentially) Kath's link to Birley Campus in Manchester.
For the methodology, could we arrange a conference call for the second half of October to get the ball rolling?
Between us, do we know someone who has experience in developing apps?
Rosie Frost Sat 5 Oct 2019 7:53AM
Sounds great Tomas thanks. I know an app developer we could chat to. Sounds like it could be quite straight forward. As for the plot I will ask at Sky’s new school who have space and always need people to help with upkeep so could be a win win.
Deleted account Sat 5 Oct 2019 9:30AM
Hi Tomas could you start us off with a time poll please with a number of October date options including a couple of early evening and Saturday morning ones perhaps to get us going? Thanks!
Elizabeth Westaway Sat 5 Oct 2019 9:52AM
Hi Tomas, how many sites would you like? What type of sites are you looking for, e.g. schools, farms, institutions? What are the requirements for a potential site to be accepted, e.g. space, duration? Who is the contact person? Best wishes, Elizabeth
Robert Lawrence Sun 6 Oct 2019 8:47PM
Hi Guys, sorry not been active at all, been a tricky and time consuming 2019 so far. I'm going to real farming conference in Oxford again so hopefully see some of you there. I'm hoping to organise a bit of land with Earth Trust in Oxfordshire if I can get something going and can arrange for them to set up a mooring so they can use my canal boat for accomodation next year. I also have potentially a bit of land in Devon where I'd love to set up a Forrest garden and open it up to the community (Ottery St Mary, EX11 1PH). I'd be happy to fund or part fund the trees and planting as wanted to plant a Forrest garden on farm anyway. A few options I guess. There is also Liz Powel and her husband Haydan in the forest of Dean, they might have some land to do a forest garden too. Keep me in the loop! Rob
Tomas Remiarz Mon 7 Oct 2019 6:04AM
I'm a tad busy in the streets of London right now, will do this on Wednesday unless someone else is quicker than me.
Rosie Frost Mon 7 Oct 2019 9:44AM
Go Tomas!
Nick Turner Thu 10 Oct 2019 6:58PM
Glad to hear it! We're helping to organise the family area, currently at TrafSq :)
Richard Urbanski Thu 17 Oct 2019 11:23AM
Hi Tomas, I'm currently looking at 2 possible local trial sites in Herefordshire. Queenswood, http://www.queenswoodandbodenhamlake.org/ who have recently launched their sustainability centre having recently received initial lottery funding for developing their exhibition and education programme. They are very interested in the Forest Garden in a Box and keen to explore the potential for bringing this initiative into their public engagement programme. Also, a potential school site running a practical Permaculture project is the Steiner Academy https://www.steineracademyhereford.org.uk/. I'm suggesting both these sites as I think they have the continuity and maintenance resourses to feed into the development of FGiB. I'll let you know when we can meet up with Wendy Ogden at Queenswood, hopefully late Nov/ early Dec. There is also a possibility of connecting with the local Green Schools Project via the Herefordshire Green Network - some links: [1] https://www.greenschoolsproject.org.uk/ [2] http://www.facebook.com/greenschools1 [3] http://www.instagram.com/greenschoolsproject. I'll let you know if this is a possibility. All the best, Richard
Deleted account · Wed 4 Sep 2019 10:34AM
If you haven’t already done so please help us all raise a little more money. Every penny will go towards giving this initiative the best chance of success. And perhaps produce work for those of you who might want that. Here’s the crowdfunder https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/forest-garden-in-a-box-scheme Warm thanks