We create beautiful container gardens for the residents of our South Heaton neighbourhood. The gardens are installed in unused, paved-up front yards and enable our community to grow their own vegetables, herbs and flowers right on their doorsteps. We help with the garden design, veg selection and plant care, and make sure your gardening adventure is a lasting, transformative and rewarding experience – regardless of your gardening knowledge. We are proud to be part of the diverse community we serve, and we care deeply about making a positive, lasting impact on our streets and the amazing people who live here.

Our project invests the entirety of its funding and effort into the betterment of health, social, and ecological qualities of our area.

— Health benefits

We help our residents grow an abundance of fresh produce, improve their dietary habits and diversify the nutrient profile of their daily meals. By encouraging our community to engage with their gardens, we give everyone a chance to stay active, enjoy the sunshine and get a dose of fresh air. The beautiful green spaces our residents create also offer opportunities to clear the mind, relax, recharge and improve concentration, while our colourful planters put a smile on the faces of their owners and passers-by alike!

— Social benefits

People are always at the heart of our project and we celebrate the diverse Heaton community by creating an inclusive, friendly and safe environment in which to develop and socialise. We teach our residents transferrable horticultural and DIY skills which they can take with them anywhere in life. We encourage interaction between our neighbours through mutual hands-on help, skill-sharing and simple chit-chats about their gardens. We are working to reduce social exclusion and make everyone feel welcome in our neighbourhood, regardless of race, age, religion or gender. With many residents tending to their gardens, we also make our streets safer and show anyone who is passing by that paved-up spaced need not be food deserts!

— Ecological benefits

All of our gardens feature a wide selection of specially selected, pollinator-friendly perennial flowers, creating excellent habitats for beneficial wildlife. Every new planter we add is a haven for bees, butterflies, moths, hoverflies, beetles and ladybugs, all of which we have already seen in the gardens we have installed (you, too, can see some of them in our gallery!). Street vegetation is also known to increase air quality, regulate local temperature and prevent excess water run-off. By bringing food closer to our residents, we reduce the amount of plastic, fossil fuels, pesticides, fertilisers, water and land needed to grow food shipped to our supermarkets, while donated and recycled materials we use save wood, plastic pots, seeds and plants from ending up in landfill.

Once you have requested a garden, you will be put on our waiting list. We are currently a small team, made up almost entirely of volunteers, and depending on the demand from other residents as well as the number of ready planters we have in stock, the waiting times will vary and may range from a few days to a few weeks. As the time it takes to prepare the planters is one of the most limiting factors for our project, consider volunteering with us – this will greatly help you and other residents enjoy their gardens sooner!

Sure! All you need to start growing is the enthusiasm to learn new skills and a bit of spare time (not much!) to tend to your vegetables – we will teach you the rest. As residents in the area, we are always on hand to offer advice on how to make the most of your garden, and if you wish to learn even more, we can lend you gardening books, point you towards useful resources online and introduce you to courses and workshops which will help you develop your gardening knowledge.

You can still get a garden if you don’t own your flat – you will simply need to get the home owner’s “go ahead”. We understand that some home owners may be initially opposed to the idea of having planters in their front yards as they can be seen as just another thing that requires maintenance. However, our gardens can also greatly improve the visual appeal of the flat’s exterior, increasing its standing on the property market and adding to its value while requiring minimal inputs, and it’s important to mention these benefits to the owner when seeking their permission. Feel free to get in touch if you would like our assistance with drafting an email which might help persuade your landlord, landlady or the agency.

While we help out greatly with the initial set up of your garden, we want you to experience the magic of growing food through your own work – we promise the veg will taste so much better for it! Before we ‘release you into the wild’, we will make sure you have the skills and the confidence to look after your plants but don’t worry – we are just around the corner, and you can ask us for help anytime. You can also ask your neighbours to lend a hand if you think you may need it or if you are going away for a while and will not be able to tend to the garden yourself.

From salad mix classics and aromatic herbs, to runner beans and colourful roots like rainbow carrots and beetroot, there are lots of great things you can grow right in your front yard! What vegetables will do best in your garden will depend on how much sunlight you get but even with a few hours’ worth of rays a day you can grow enough fresh food to surprise yourself and your neighbours. To see some of the most common seeds and seedlings we can provide you with, visit our “Growing Tips” page.

While logistical constraints currently limit the reach of our services, we are working hard to establish ourselves and expand our project to benefit more residents in our area. If we are currently unable to install a garden in your part of Heaton, we can still advise you on how to start your own garden, make the most of your space and look after your veg. You can also benefit from the access to our free library of gardening, recipe and nature books for extra inspiration.

Alternatively, if you know someone who lives in our catchment area and is willing to give you access to their space, we can also make it work!

Yes! Although you might struggle to have great success with some of the more sun-loving veggies in a north-facing garden, you can still grow a plethora of fantastic greens, colourful roots, aromatic herbs, flowers, and even fruit, so don’t let your yard’s less-than-ideal aspect stop you from starting a garden. Once you have signed up with us, we will be able to advise you on the most suitable plants for your space, time and needs.

Absolutely. We try to keep a selection of hardy, pollinator-friendly flowers in stock most of the time and we strongly encourage everyone in our community to dedicate a bit of space in their gardens to wildlife-friendly ornamentals. Not only do they look great and brighten up your doorstep, they are also extremely important sources of food for bees and butterflies and can make great habitats for a number of different insect species which will help keep pests away from your vegetables!

We understand that some residents would prefer to have our gardens installed in their back yards – especially those who don’t enjoy a lot of sunlight at the front of their properties. We encourage everyone to try and grow their food wherever they can but, at the moment, our project focuses solely on front yards so that we can best showcase the ample opportunities for growing food in paved-up spaces, beautify our streets, normalise urban agriculture, encourage the public to start their own container gardens, and create a more open, accessible community space without fences, walls and partitions. If you wish to start gardening in your back yard, you can still access our advice and books to get you started!

All of our containers come in a standard size of 100L x 40W x 36D – we have found that these work best for the vegetables we grow and the front yards we work in. We also have a range of plant pots we provide some of our plants in – especially flowers and vegetables which the residents can then pot on into the planters.

Yup! Our local suppliers make our planters using thick, pressure-treated pinewood. We then paint them inside and out with two coats of weatherproof garden paint, before finally inserting a durable liner and elevating the planters slightly to avoid direct contact with the ground. This ensures high resistance to the elements and great longevity of our planters.

It is understandable to be worried about the plants you grow – after all, it costs time and effort to take your vegetables from seed to plate. While we cannot completely guarantee that a passer-by will not help themselves to an odd pod on your bean plant, in our experience to date there has been minimal interference with the gardens from the public. We hope that, by expanding the project and increasing the presence of our residents tending to their gardens, our streets will become safer and the practice of growing food outside our doors will be a normal, commonplace occurrence and not a novelty to be played with by the kids who our currently left to think that their vegetables come from supermarket shelves, not farms – an unfortunate reality which we are trying to change through our work!

Of course! From hands-on volunteering or offering your specialist skills and outreach, to donations of money and gardening supplies, there are lots of ways in which you can become part of the change we are bringing to our community. We love meeting new people, teaching new skills and having a laugh while doing something good for our neighbours, and we would be thrilled to have you as part of our project! If you would like to lend us hand, visit our “Get Involved” page where you will find detailed information on how you can help our mission.