overview
The Growing Project is a community gardening programme, working with organisations who support vulnerably-housed people and those experiencing crisis. Whilst increasing access to green space, The Growing Project develops garden sites across Birmingham which are designed, nurtured and enjoyed by people passing through difficult times. Gardening for us is; the act of being outdoors, without any obligation to be productive. Experiencing nature’s cyclical processes without being clouded by the urge to control them.
The successful pilot season in 2019 at St.Anne’s Hostel culminated in a harvest dinner for 60 people, including Andy Street WMCA Mayor and local land and business owners. They were seated alongside residents of St.Anne’s and members of Crisis and SIFA Fireside. Guests and participants shared food, stories, and discussed the symbolic meaning of taking food from seed to soil to plate.
The Growing Project now currently operates across seven sites in Birmingham where our team of facilitators engage people in weekly therapeutic gardening and food related activities — the aim is to bring about transformation through growing and cooking food together, helping to create greater social cohesion and combat isolation. We have developed a strong partnership with Spring Housing Association and we are now working on models of best practice in using creative ecology and growing sessions in supported accommodation settings.
Grand Union is a charity. You can donate and support us via PayPal here.
See The Growing Project as part of the Naturally Birmingham Greengrounds Map here
An audio described version of the documentary is available on YouTube
Filmed in Birmingham during Spring 2021, over four different locations, the film captures the real life stories, dreams and achievements of the people involved in the project, from participants, artists, gardeners and volunteers to the organisations underpinning the work. The garden becomes a place of shared stories, plant growing, food making, and also sanctuary, recovery and meaningful production.
The film, commissioned by digital support agency The Space and produced by Sima Gonsai, shows the benefits of connecting people to nature when in difficult times and also questions what role local communities and the arts can play to the post-Covid19 social and economic recovery.
The documentary’s initial launch was in July 2021, where we hosted screenings at some of the growing sites with participants of The Growing Project.
The Growing Project documentary was nominated for Best Documentary at Birmingham Film Festival.
St anne’s
St. Anne’s Hostel was the pilot garden for The Growing Project and is still being tended to by the project every week. The first phase of gardening engagement here culminated in a public harvest celebration meal in 2019.
Since then, the space has been added to, improved upon and designed by the residents and now boasts a productive kitchen garden, hanging baskets with traditional border plants, a variety of medicinal and culinary herbs and an incredible 15m long greenhouse for propagation.
Facilitators; Kate Thompson, Exodus Crooks and Kieran have been working with St. Anne’s residents and participants from CRISIS Skylight and SIFA Fireside to sow, grow and harvest fruits, vegetables and herbs. St Anne’s harvests have been used to make pickles and ferments, whilst also providing healthy and delicious foods for participants and the onsite kitchen.
We’ve taken participants to visit other gardens and outdoor spaces and shared in celebrations at the annual harvest meal.
Hagley LODGE
Hagley Lodge is a Spring Housing property with a long, thin outdoor space which, on arrival, consisted primarily of lawn. Since The Growing Project sessions started here in August 2020, conservationist and gardener; Matthew Cox, and the residents have transformed the outdoor space into a shared garden space, beckoning wildlife back to the urban landscape whilst also providing space for traditional vegetable growing.
The project participants have built bird tables, harvested carrots, created a pond, and cultivated wildflowers, amongst many other things. Hagley Lodge garden has now become a calm and private place to sit and rest, or to socialise with other residents.
Composting has become an integral part of the Hagley Lodge garden. Allowing the residents to contribute to the full cycle of growing and improving the soil for future participants. In 2023 Ashley Walker and Jenny Escott took over facilitation at Hagley Lodge and will continue weekly sessions through to May 2024.
HESTIA HOUSE
Hestia House is one of three gardening sites from The Growing Project working in collaboration with Spring Housing. Hestia House garden was initially a car park, adjacent to a petrol station and a railway line. Working in partnership with Avalon Landscapes we have repurposed an area of the car park, transforming it into a beautiful, year-round garden and communal seating area.
We’ve facilitated a range of sessions in the space from; making prints, balms and soap from flowers and plants to building a coffee table, wind chimes and bird boxes.
We’ve also explored the local area with residents spending time identifying trees and collecting rowan berries and seeds from green spaces nearby. In 2023 Sammie Masters-Hopkins will work on photography and print-making workshops with Hestia residents.
RICHMOND HOUSE
Richmond House is one of three gardening sites from The Growing Project working in collaboration with Spring Housing. For two years, artist and gardener Carolyn Morton has worked with participants and residents to slowly persuade this garden back into being a restful and healing space.
The garden contains a lot of fantastic trees, so wildlife is never far away. The residents of Richmond house have supported these non-human inhabitants by planting a mix of woodland and wild plants especially plants with medicinal properties.
The garden also includes a summer house which has been transformed into a light, indoor exhibition and studio space for engaging participants in dye and printmaking. In 2023 Jenny Escott and Ashley Walker will continue weekly sessions with Spring residents at Richmond House.
MINERVA APOTHECARY GARDEN
The Minerva Apothecary Garden has been created alongside the Grand Union canal, next to Grand Union Gallery and Studios. With the help of The Growing Project team, participants, volunteers, and Bruntwood Works we have transformed formerly unused space into a garden full of herbs and flowers, all with medicinal properties.
With referrals for participants from Anawim, SIFA and CRISIS Skylight, we host our weekly Minerva Garden Group* for people who are in a time of crisis, need of community support or experience gender oppression with engagement sessions that are linked to growing and cooking.
The Minerva Garden Group produce herbal teas which are designed collectively during ‘tasting sessions’ and are available to buy through the Grand Union shop.
In 2023 the Minerva Garden Group will work with Chloe Qureshi, Kate Thompson, Rebecca Noble, Sarah Hamilton-Baker and Chloë Lund to develop recipes for tea, to cook (and eat) together, to maintain the garden space and expand it and to develop their own practice in storytelling and production.
*Grand Union is positivley proactive in changing the language we use for our Minerva Garden group, previously referred to as the our Growing Project Women’s Group in order to be inclusive and more welcoming to trans, non-binary, a-gender, and gender varient people. This group is for people who do not identify solely or primarily as men, who have experienced crises at the intersections of gender based and other forms of oppression, such as homelessness, intimate partner violence, or incarceration.
We have decided to share this because in a time of increasing hostility towards trans folks we believe that it is important to be a proudly trans inclusive space.
FLOATING Garden
Nearly two years ago we embarked on repairing an old, rusty boat hull in a yard in Warwickshire. We’d been gifted the boat by our project partners; Canal & River Trust after they pulled it from the canal, flooded and without any of its original wooden upper structure.
We were hoping to use it as a floating garden, except, no matter how many times we tried, we couldn’t get it to float. Welders welded, stop-cocks were added, barrels were installed for buoyancy and an enormous crane lifted it into the wharf three times. Still it sank.
The irony is that we actually only needed it to float for the journey to the Digbeth Branch canal from Port Loop. After this, it would be scuppered to allow it to fill with canal water and become a new ecosystem of native aquatic and semi-aquatic flora, invertebrates and bacteria. The risk of it sinking on its 13-lock journey through Brindley Place however, was too great and so, in Autumn last year we gave up on the rusty old boat and developed a new design with MJM Bespoke here in Minerva Works.
The Floating Garden is now installed with a planting plant developed in partnership with horticulturalist; Alys Fowler. Over the summer of 2023 we have been tending to the new garden with the help of our team of paid cultivators. The native species are thriving in this new complex ecosystem of shade and light, depth and shallows, organic and in-organic and free flowing water. The hornwort in particular is thriving in among the jute-lined baskets and is boosting oxygen levels in the water as it grows. On the outside of the structure, Water avens, Brooklime and Marsh cinquefoil are slowly spreading out into the canal, blurring the lines of the structure. Pond skaters and dragonfly larvae dance around in the water whilst Moorhens, Geese and Herons take it in turns to sunbathe on the deck.
Common Field
The Common Field is a collaborative land care project set within Birmingham’s post-industrial landscape. Working with the local communities and in partnership with the University of Birmingham, Canal & River Trust and the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust, we are reimagining access to and enjoyment of green space in the city centre.
The Common Field exists in a place and time of rapid regeneration and the site creates an opportunity to reflect upon our industrial heritage, whilst improving health and well being of both current and new communities in Digbeth. With population growth set to soar in the area, our project site will become increasingly more important for achieving long term, sustainable, targets for tackling green deprivation, developing green corridors and increasing biodiversity.
Our proximity to the new HS2 site makes us an important starting point for a cycling, walking or water-based journey through the city’s green corridors.
Context
Since November 2021 we have been working on the adopted land to remediate the soil that contains toxic heavy metals at quantities above ‘normal background concentrations’ for urban soils according to DEFRA. Improving soil health is paramount to increasing biodiversity and so we plan to continue the work we’ve been doing for the past year. This work has been carried out as part of Grand Union’s Field Commission project with Cooking Sections and artist Asad Raza in partnership with researchers from the University of Birmingham. Regular testing has been carried out to measure the impact of our work. This is the first project of its kind in the U.K. Soil remediation without removing any material from the site. We’ve also started a planting plan that contributes to improving soil health and greater biodiversity across the site too and have been in partnership with Canal & River Trust and the Wildlife Trust on this to ensure the best possible outcomes for both plant and invertebrate species. Conservationist and gardener Matthew Cox and the team of paid workers on the site have also brought a breadth of knowledge with them. Some are mycologists, community campaigners, composting enthusiasts, soil health advocates, artists or horticulturalists who have all contributed to the success of this first year.
Activity plan
Practically, the project comprises: the production of high quality compost from local waste materials; the remediation of the current, degraded soil and the introduction of new plants and habitats that increase biodiversity at multiple trophic levels.
We’ve built a team of regular ‘cultivators’ and volunteers who will form an open learning environment allowing organic conversations and knowledge exchange whilst working on site. A unique approach to land management which we’ve successfully used for three years on other sites. The project will bridge gaps between communities and nature by re-imagining public space in Digbeth, rich in biodiversity and full of learning and engagement opportunities for visitors, volunteers and referred participants.
Our holistic, ecosystem approach to working on site will consider impacts at every stage whilst adding value to the city’s waste. We’re diverting it away from long, carbon-intensive processes toward shorter, carbon-sequestering processes instead. The new substrates we make will be used across spaces in the community as a high quality growing resource, enriching and expanding green spaces. We’ll increase biodiversity above and below ground by diluting the soil with this new material and by planting in support of solitary bees, invertebrates, fungi and mycelium. We’ll produce habitat for macro species through structural elements on the site such as bird and bat boxes. We’ll engage with Digbeth’s community as well as our existing partners in the homeless support sector on a programme of activities which communicate the importance of green spaces and soil health, instilling a sense of custodianship for all the public land in Digbeth.
Grand Union will utilise its cultural capital to share ideas of community-led approaches to land care. We’ve built a strong and proven reputation for bringing together different sections of society to work collaboratively toward environmental and social aims. Using visual arts as a communication tool we are able to demonstrate the soil/person web and its relevance to our daily lives.
More information
The Common Field site is a sloped canalside bank in the heart of Digbeth, Birmingham. The main access is from Fazeley Street. The site measures roughly 1,500 square metres in a long thin strip of approximately 190m x 8m oriented in a southwest to northeast aspect. The site can be divided into two distinct sections separated by the Horseley bridge which crosses the Grand Union canal opposite the Birmingham Proof House. From Fazeley street, the first bank has four large (above 5m) trees of willow and silver birch as well as a number of smaller native and near native trees and shrubs such as; alder, crab apple, rowan, apple, silver birch and willow. The slope of this section is at its steepest at the Fazeley street end of the site (roughly 30 degrees), but flattens along its length. The northwest edge of the site features a paved canal towpath which separates the site from the canal itself. The southeast edge is bordered by a half ruined brick wall ranging in height, with metal fencing on top. This separates the site from the adjacent access road owned by Homes England. The entrance from Fazeley street is a traditional paved canal towpath entrance with raised brickwork used originally by horses. The second distinct section of the site is larger (~1,900m2) and is a dense woodland of native and near native tree species including: rowan, silver birch, field maple, cherry, apple, ash, beech, oak and many others. It’s thought many of these trees are up to 150 years old.
Scientific studies
In 2022, soil scientist; Jess Chadwick from the University of Birmingham’s School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences began regular testing work on the soil to understand what effect our work was having on the concentrations and locations of toxic heavy metals. Further studies are continuing this year through to September when a new partnership with the University of Birmingham will see Grand Union become co-host to a multi-year PHD research project based at the Common Field site.
2022 Reader text by Matthew Cox
The Growing Project x Modern Clay
The successful pilot season of The Growing Project in 2019 at St. Anne’s Hostel culminated in a harvest dinner for 60 people, including elected officials and local land and business owners, seated alongside residents of St. Anne’s and members of Crisis and SIFA Fireside. Guests and participants shared food and stories all centred around ceramic platters and plates produced by the project participants in collaboration with Digbeth based clay studio; Modern Clay.
Modern Clay is a co-operative clay studio run by artist members, that produces ceramics, runs public workshops and designs bespoke projects with charitable organisations. Working collaboratively with The Growing Project, Modern Clay developed clay making workshops for participants, sharing the benefits of working creatively and enacting their belief that creative expression is vital to wellbeing.
Buy Modern Clay x Growing Project pots here
Since late 2020, and running until autumn 2023, The Growing Project and Modern Clay have been working together on a further 3-year collaboration, exploring crossovers between growing and ceramics. In years one and two, the partnership centred around the batch production of terracotta pots to be sold at in-person events and through Grand Union’s shop. Modern Clay worked with residents of Hagley Lodge and St. Anne’s hostel once again to design motifs which would adorn the outside of the pots. These designs, representing different elements of the project, such as suns, beetles, carrots and trees, were made into stamps and pressed, by hand, onto the pots before firing.
In the third year of the collaboration, workshops with the Minerva Garden Group have focused on adding sculptural elements to some of these existing pots, making bespoke and unique editions in creative and therapeutic sessions.
To expand our range of collaboratively made products, and to continue our explorations into sustainable business models to enable the project to be self-supporting long-term, Modern Clay and The Growing Project will be releasing sets of unique tea cup sets in autumn 2023 to be sold alongside the Minerva Garden Group tea blends. All money made from sales will be reinvested into the project, to support more individuals, grow more gardens and run more sessions.
Facilitators
The Growing Project works with a group of brilliant facilitators, you can learn more about them here, and by following their various links.
Ashley Walker (he/him) – Ashley joined Grand Union’s Growing Project in April 2023 bringing varied experiences, from I.T. to photography. He believes that all these aim to help to create a nicely rounded person who could best contribute to the aims of the projects. An interest in Sustainability has also helped Ashley in understanding the Growing Project’s aims. Ashley describes himself as a thoughtful and happy person looking to contribute in fun ways.
Chloë Lund (she/they) – Chloë is creative producer living in Birmingham. Their experience spans the creative and mental health sectors, from which they have developed a trauma -informed practice. Chloë brings this the exciting variety of work they do which engages with nature, creativity, and care. They are interested in being an interconnected human and living in ways that depart from capitalist, patriarchal and colonial ideologies.
Chloë Qureshi (she/her) – Chloë is a chef and creative facilitator, working at the intersections of food, gender, and joy. She currently runs Verbena, a restaurant in Stirchley, and Women in Hospitality, a network to support women and people of marginalised genders across Birmingham.
Exodus Crooks (they/them) – Exodus is a British-Jamaican multidisciplinary artist, educator, and writer whose practice centres the relationship with self. Observing the results of fractious domesticity, despair and passion, their art tends to appear as questions of self-actualisation and the role that religion & spirituality play in that journey to enlightenment. Based between the Midlands and the north coast of Jamaica, their art exists alongside their educational role. With themes of care, tenderness, and reimagination at the core of their practice, Exodus uses gardening, text, filmmaking & installation to further explore indigenous thought.
Jenny Escott (they/them) – Jenny is a maker, grower, and performer with a passion for ecology and gardening. They have recently completed their degree in Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences at the University of Birmingham where, alongside their studies they worked on the Grow with Joe Community Garden.
Joanne Masding (she/her)– Is an artist and co-director member of Modern Clay, a co-operative ceramics studio in Birmingham. Her artistic practice is sculptural, working with clay, plaster, plastics, metal, as well as using text and image as materials for making objects. Her work interrogates relationships to objects: ideas of worth, ownership and production, and how they are absorbed by bodies and through technological interfaces.
Kate Thompson (they/them)– Kate is an artist, musician and gardener nestled in a passion for connecting nature to people in their hometown of Birmingham. Kate has worked across a few different sites as part of The Growing Project.
Matthew Cox (he/him) – Matthew is the Programme Producer at Grand Union and has an educational background in wildlife conservation and design. He’s a gardener who attempts to build complex systems of substrates, plants and animals (including humans) across the sites he works in. He believes in caring for gardens and people in unison as a radical act which can be a vital tool in when working toward social change.
Sammie Masters-Hopkins (she/her)– Sammie’s practice explores environmental politics and the complex relationship humans have to organic space. Through investigating environmental philosophies she questions the relationship between human existence and the natural world. In her work she explores our own individual agency and why we need to stop othering ourselves to begin re-engaging with natural surroundings. Sammie experiments with the boundaries of photography, questioning the place that the photographic arts have in the political world and how audiences may relate to the work.
Sarah Hamilton Baker (she/her)– Is an artist specialising in performance, sensory exploration, food and facilitation, her work fosters creative connections to nature and between people. Previously Sarah has worked with MAC, Flatpack Film Festival, and The Birmingham Rep theatre.
Evaluation
The Growing Project carries out yearly evaluations, if you’d like to learn more about what we do please feel free to read them. If you have any questions or further inquiries please contact info@grand-union.org.uk
