The Locavore Garden is a community project creating opportunities wherever possible to:

  • enable/support community food growing through times of environmental crisis
  • explore and create landscapes which support future food security and incorporate lost or precarious forms of knowledge
  • champion food sovereignty/food security
  • Set an example of how land use can respond to and prepare for climate emergency by prioritising biodiversity and water management

By exploring these keystones in our working practice, we are working towards building a stronger and more resilient community based on these principles:

  • Working outdoors improves mental health and creates new opportunities for learning and forming communities
  • Gardening and growing food can be a community-strengthening activity, but it is one often associated with privilege and property. We will be careful to promote the positives whilst acknowledging our privilege, as well as the oppressive dynamics of land-use that affect BIPOC and other marginal communities.
  • We can learn so much about our environment by observing what already grows naturally, so our approach to cultivation is slow, gentle and watchful. The forest garden/permaculture approach supports this as it concentrates on fully integrated growing systems where edible plants grow alongside non-edible companion planting and focuses on perennial planting which has a long-term impact on the landscape.

ACCESSIBILITY:

We believe that everyone should be able to enjoy and learn about growing food and other plants. We will always consider accessibility in all our decision-making. This includes equal access for people with physical or learning disabilities, equal access for people who are unemployed or on low income, equal access for people of every race, culture and nationality

CODE OF CONDUCT:

PERMACULTURE and FOREST GARDENING/FOOD FORESTS:

Our approach aligns with permaculture methods, we create growing spaces for the future (of both the community and the planet) not just the current mood. We will consider longevity and incorporate the possibility of decay into our designs and plans.

NATURAL MATERIALS ONLY (NO PLASTIC or CHEMICALS)

We undertake to refuse the use of all plastic on site.

When deliveries or purchases arrive in plastic we will dispose of packaging in the most responsible way possible, either through re-use off-site, recycling or (as the last case) in a rubbish bin. We will try to ensure that deliveries do not arrive in plastic packaging wherever possible.

We will not buy any new plastic products for use on site. We will undertake an audit of all existing plastic items and create a plan to transition their use out of the garden responsibly over the course of 6 months.

The only exceptions to this rule are:

  • tarpaulins to protect and weather-proof certain areas (these should only be used when no alternative is available).
  • coverings for polytunnels if we decide to use them in future
  • Hosepipes and and other plumbing
  • donated or existing tools or heavy duty materials. We will only accept donations of this kind if no alternative is available.

We will try in all case to source materials responsibly and with consideration to how they will ultimately decay and affect the environment.

We will not use any artificial fertilisers or weedkillers in our gardens

MINIMAL WASTE

We will ask volunteers and participants to take all their personal rubbish off site with them encouraging off-site recycling where possible.

All organic waste should be composted or burned.

DON’T FIGHT THE WEEDS, EAT THEM