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Barking Food Forest: Growing Community and A New Year!

The Barking Food Forest Project has got off to a flying start. After several hurdles including underground scans, lockdowns and more, we finally got to start on site gardening sessions in August of 2021. The community got the ball rolling, preparing the site and building wooden planters to grow vegetables.

By September, school was back in and students of all ages began to get involved with weekly gardening sessions. All the way from toddlers at LEYF Nursery to secondary students at Riverside School, the younger members of the community jumped head first into all the gardening tasks.

There’s been a lovely symbiotic process, where the different groups attending the garden at separate times have been working towards a shared vision. A great example was our first batch of veggie planters. The community (residents) built the planters and got them filled up with compost, ready for planting. Then the nursery and primary groups planted them up with veggies. The secondary students and the community groups helped later on with weeding and mulching, creating a cosy blanket of grass cuttings – to help keep the young plants insulated and hydrated over winter. 

Saturdays have been lots of fun and an opportunity for all the different groups to work on the garden together. We have a few junior gardeners who come with their nursery/primary group on a Tuesday and then come with their family on a Saturday.

It’s a been a whirlwind of a first season. Although, we started towards the end of the growing season, we’ve got a lot done.

Resident and student gardeners have planted a hedgerow to attract birds and wildlife and created a pond – which is happily getting filled by the winter rains. We also planted many shrubs, flowers and young trees, which are all creating a real sense of the Food Forest that we have envisioned together. 

Barking Food Forest has had a couple of great events this year. Both the Pumpkin Party and the Diwali celebration had a great turn out. Residents and also neighbours from further afield in Barking and Dagenham got together to garden, celebrate and meet other like minded folks from the area. The kids had a blast playing games and doing seasonal arts and crafts. Some of the residents even brought delicious home made food to share with the community. Nothing brings people together like enjoying tasty food, in future we look forward to sharing the goods that we grow together as well.

In November, we celebrated a major win: the Mayor of London Climate Kick Start awarded Barking Food Forest and Riverside Bridge School £10K to create a Rainwater Harvesting System. The Bridge School Kitchen and Barking Food Forest, will each have a system to capture rainwater and use it for watering the garden. What’s more, it will include a solar powered automatic watering system, so that the school plants thrive even during the long hot summer holidays. 

Students from Riverside Bridge and Riverside Secondary school also got to meet Mayor Sadiq Khan at an exciting award ceremony in central London. They were inspired to hear of some of the other projects by schools in London and the Mayor’s ambitious goals for nature and wellbeing in the capital. Best of all the students were recognised and celebrated for being champions of positive environmental change that will benefit all London’s residents, wildlife and ecology.

Barking Food Forest is currently taking a break for the winter and will reopen in March for our first full growing year!

We’re also using the winter break to move forward with planning applications for our proposed structure and other plans. The next year should see some major changes to the garden site, so watch this space! Better yet come along and get involved. 

Community Gardening sessions are open to all and run on Tuesdays & Saturdays from 10am-12pm. The garden will reopen in mid-March.

Nikhil Rathore

Permaculture Designer & TWCP Steering Group Member

 

Follow us on social media: 

IG: @barkingfoodforest

FB: Barking Food Forest

Barking Food Forest Update: Vegetation Cut, and GPR Scan Complete!

Resident steering group member; Nikhil Rathore, was able to prepare the grounds for a ground penetrating radar scan to be completed, with support from TWCP, a local resident and Thames View Community Garden.

The vegetation was cut back by the team, and next steps will include building raised beds on the site. The team hopes for Barking Food Forest to be open to residents in due time.

Positive feedback from Barking Food Forest co-design sessions

Barking Food Forest is a new community gardening project in Barking Riverside that will benefit local children, young people, families and wider residents of all ages.

The Barking Food Forest will be next to the Riverside Campus. It is a great location that boasts part of the nearby Thames Estuary, in which Brackish water species live. It will also provide a much needed community green space, which is lacking in Thames Ward due to being cut off by the A13.

The Event

The Barking Food Forest co-design sessions were opportunities for TWCP staff, resident steering group member; Nikhil Rathore, and local residents to come together and hear the plans and vision for the forthcoming Barking Food Forest. Most importantly, local residents were also invited to share their views and suggestions on what they desired to be a part of the garden. Particularly, residents were able to give input on what plants they would like to grow, what features the shared garden space should include and what activities they would like to enjoy in the space.

Nikhil Rathore introduced the project as a “community effort” and explained the permaculture approach that would be adopted. He stated that the food forest would be a space that was permanent; sustaining itself and regenerating nature, and pointed out a few principles such as catching and storing energy. Local residents were then invited to introduce themselves and share what their favourite nature spot was.

The session continued with Nikhil providing more detail as to the structure of a food forest; a garden system design that has multiple layers. He named seven layers that would be incorporated into the garden (canopy, lower tree-level, shrub layer, herbaceous layer, soil surface, root layer, vertical layer), and their benefits, such as weed protection.

Local residents were then told of the progress of the project so far, which included:

– Campaigning: YCAG’s winning campaign for the site of the food forest.

– Co-designing: YCAG and other students from Riverside campus informed the initial food forest design. Sessions with local residents.

– Preparatory infrastructure works are currently taking place. 

The session ended with a collaborative Jamboard where everyone shared their ideas on the themes of a garden and forest, what plants and features they would like to see, and aspects of the project people were most passionate about.

 

The Impact

The sessions were well attended by local residents. Residents found it empowering to know that their ideas would be incorporated into the design of the garden site and the activities to be held there.

Loving it! Planting something, being surrounded by nature! I’ll be there!”

Really excited about the prospect of a community garden as I used to have an allotment. It'll be nice to have something were lots of people are involved!

The enthusiasm and honest opinions from the local residents were well received and would be vital to the continuing progress of the project.

We really need a communal space for the community to be able to engage with each other after lockdown.

Next Steps

The updated design will be shared with the community, reflecting the input from both the local residents and student co-design sessions. 

In person gardening sessions will be announced as soon as soon as national restrictions allow.

If you would like to join in gardening activities please complete the form below and/or follow TWCP social media channels.

– Weekly sessions (x2 hours): Midweek evenings, designing regenerative garden systems. 

– Monthly sessions (x3 hours): Weekend daytime sessions, guest expert visits, intergenerational sessions.

How To Get Involved

If you would like more information about the Barking Food Forest, please complete the form below.

Co-Design the Barking Food Forest – Monday 15th & Monday 22nd February 2021, 6pm – 7.30pm via Zoom

Join the community to co-design a vibrant new garden in the heart of Barking Riverside. Learn more about the projects’ vision and give your input on what we will create together. Barking Food Forest will be designed, created, and enjoyed by the community. Get involved!

The sessions will take place online via Zoom while we remain on lockdown.

Click the link below to register and get involved: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/co-design-the-barking-food-forest-monday-15th-monday-22nd-february-2021-tickets-140129048757

Barking Reach Residents Association Awarded £10K for New Barking Food Forest

TWCP Steering group member and resident Nikhil Rathore (on behalf of the Barking Reach Residents Association) with support from TWCP successfully bid for £10,000 Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) funding in front of a panel of LBBD residents to create “Barking Food Forest” (BFF) a community designed, food producing, garden for all to enjoy!

The Vision

After a successful campaign by the YCAG (Young Citizen Action Group), the barren post-industrial site located on a strip of land in front of Riverside Campus, in Barking Riverside, was secured for the creation of a community garden. Students at Riverside School had already put forward many creative and inspiring design ideas for the project. The vision for the Barking Food Forest is for the community to design, create and enjoy a Food Forest; a multi layered, food producing garden that supports both humans and wildlife. Students as well as local residents will be able to co-create a garden of beauty, tranquility and abundance. 

The project aims to create a space for learning, growing food, understanding the relationship between food and health, and to provide a venue for community events in a natural and safe space.

The Food Forest project is a really exciting opportunity for the whole area. It's a chance to connect with nature and the community in a safe way. We can be co-creators of a local gem: an urban garden that will provide enjoyment for decades to come. The fact that we can help support the local wildlife as well makes it even more rewarding.

What's planned for BFF?

It is planned to host a variety of weekly and monthly sessions. These will include learning to design regenerative garden systems with locals and exciting sessions hosted by gardening experts. There will be fun and safe activities for all ages and abilities, such as tree planting, creating veggie beds and much more! 

Due to the current lockdown, activities will have to remain online for the time-being but we are hoping for support from local partners to get some of the more challenging infrastructure steps underway while we are awaiting clearance for residents to be able to get involved.

How to get involved?

Complete the form below to register your interest in the BFF!

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