Transition Bath has four “guerrilla” community gardens, i.e. small unused spaces around Bath which have been planted up to grow fruit and veg. Each garden has a lead grower who looks after it and organises volunteer sessions, thus providing an awareness that fresh produce can be grown in small places and tastes delicious – yes, passers-by can help themselves to the produce.
To provide back-up for the gardeners and to be able to respond when opportunities to demonstrate veg growing – even a new garden – arise, we’ve taken on a quarter-plot allotment on Bloomfield Rd allotments (where surprisingly there are vacant plots) to raise fruit and vegetable plants. Up until a few years ago, the plot was notoriously overgrown with brambles, etc., but it was divided in half – the new gardener creating a beautiful plot on her half and putting down weed-suppressant tarpaulins on the other half. That’s the half that we’ve taken on – relatively weed-free and without any brambles!
So far, we’ve been given a compost bin, a second-hand ‘solar shed’ (a hybrid shed-cum-greenhouse, into which we’re going to insert more glass) and GoodGym Bath pulled back the tarpaulins and started marking out the beds. The beds are in multiples of 4 ft with paths in between. We are currently looking out for pieces of wood that are a minimum of 4 ft in length, and ideally 6” in width, to edge the beds. If you have any suitable wood you’d be willing to donate, we’d be very glad to hear from you (food@transitionbath.org).