“Planting Up” permaculture project aims to create community gardens in Milton Keynes that serve the local community and the natural environment.
Our project was originally formed by volunteers at Transition Town Milton Keynes and was supported by funding from MK Community Foundation for our first community garden and project base at Westbury Arts Centre (WAC) in Shenley Wood.
Our volunteer group created a Forest Garden and social growing area that works with nature to be a low-maintenance, self-sustaining and productive space for local people to enjoy at WAC. Building a community garden this way, where volunteers learn from each other and help one another along the way, is at the heart of us creating a permanent culture that benefits everyone.
Taking what we’ve learned, we now aim to support the development of a community garden in every estate of Milton Keynes.
We believe that every local community should have a safe, welcoming and sustainable community garden for people of all ages to use and enjoy that connects them to local food, the natural world and each other.
In it’s simplest form, our project connects with the Transition movement by teaching us how we can grow our own food; which can not only save you money, keep you fit and give you a healthier lifestyle, but that also allows you to know exactly what you are eating and how to produce it in an environmentally-friendly way.
Our focus on permaculture also means that we recycle, reuse materials, and keep to local resources; saving money, protecting the environment and helping to reduce our carbon footprint.
By following permaculture principles we apply “no-dig” gardening methods and work together to grow organic produce we can eat and learn about, whilst also creating wildlife habitats that encourage a rich biodiversity in the garden. This sociable and environmentally-friendly way of gardening helps our project to be inclusive and helps us to reduce our food miles, produce less waste and grow plants/trees that help to clean the air around us.
Our project can help you lead a happier, healthier and more eco-friendly lifestyle as you get stuck in, learn new skills and make new friends volunteering on a meaningful project that will make a positive difference to your local community, Milton Keynes and in tackling climate change.
Find your nearest community garden on our map and contact us to help us add more MK sites.
To join our group, sign up to our mailing list or contact us here. Or you can always follow us on Twitter and Facebook too.
Milton Keynes Mayor, Cllr Sam Crooks, attended the Westbury Arts Centre Open Art exhibition and was really impressed with what he saw – not least when he had a tour of the gardens to witness how the Planting Up community is championing local people, art and nature.
Look what’s growing on at our community garden at Westbury Arts Centre. We’re sharing skills, helping wildlife, improving our environment and growing free food! Join our volunteer group and come and pick some free food to take home this summer.
School-children on the GIV MK programme have made new friends and developed new skills as they’ve made a big difference volunteering their time to improving the Westbury Arts Centre gardens. The pictures show how they’ve managed to transform areas with paint, clearing weeds and creating useful things from pallets…
Join thousands of people at Westminster on Wednesday 26 June to tell our MPs that #TheTimeIsNow to prevent climate breakdown and save our wildlife.
We got to work “Planting Up” the social area of our community garden at Wesbury Arts Centre for our May permablitz. You have to see it to believe what we got growing out of one of the pots…
We’re already using tyres to grow potatoes in our community garden. Here are a few of the colourful tyre up-cycling ideas we’ve had to inspire this year’s garden planters…
