Planting Up is a volunteer project group that has stemmed from Transition Town Milton Keynes to support wildlife-friendly land use and community food growing using permaculture methods.
Our mission is now to encourage, educate, and empower people to create local, sustainably run, community gardens that connect us to the natural world and each other in growing food, enhancing wildlife habitats, and cultivating communities for positive health and wellbeing.
What we do for your volunteer day:
We assign companies to volunteer work in public gardens across Milton Keynes
We keep a portfolio of gardening request jobs and companies interested in volunteering
We have a focus on the 5 Ways to Wellbeing: Active, Connect, Give, Keep learning, Take notice
In-event:
- Tour of premises being revamped, which includes a meet & greet for the owner to tell us why it’s important that their garden is supported this way
- Brief talk on conservation, biodiversity, what to look for etc. upon briefing the gardening work required
What we administer:
- Public liability insurance
- Risk assessment
- Organisation of the event, including document of activities, location, loose agenda for the day etc
- Help with garden plans (e.g. advice on work needed, what to plant where, etc.)
- Including agreement on management of any electrical work (such as mowing) or use of power tools
- Extra tools and gloves for the work party
- Point of contact throughout the process, including in-person on the day
- Blog with social media posts documenting the event
What we ask for:
From the corporate volunteer company:
Volunteers
We ask for your volunteers to be equipped as best they can with correct clothing, tools etc.
Optional financial donation
Giving a financial donation to Transition Town Milton Keynes for Planting Up organising the event is optional, but we ask to help us subsidise our time spent on the project and for maintenance of tools, insurance, etc.
From the garden owner:
Refreshments
We ask that you provide a basic lunch and refreshments for your volunteer work party
Facilities
We ask that you ensure our team has access to facilities (toilets, water, etc) and a point of contact before, during and after the event
Materials/ tools
We ask that you provide the essential materials needed for your volunteer work day.
E.g. Materials required to facilitate the work such as garden waste sacks/ skip, extra tools, gloves etc, paint, plants, plant structures (such as trellis, bamboo canes, etc), materials for beds (such as wood, soil, weed membrane, etc) or specialist workshops (e.g. building bird boxes, troughs, bug hotels, hedgehog homes, etc) and in-house management of any electrical work (such as mowing) or use of power tools.
Optional financial donation
Giving a financial donation to Transition Town Milton Keynes for Planting Up organising the event is optional, but we ask to help us subsidise our time spent on the project and for maintenance of tools, insurance, etc.
