Digging in at the plot – 5.4.25

Our practical, community based activity with both the Keynsham Community Veg Plot in the Park and the litter picking with the Keynsham Wombles is a key part of what we do with At the grassroots. Last week, we put in a shift litter picking which we wrote about in this piece: We shouldn’t have to keep on doing this... 30.3.25. Today (5.4), we put in a shift at the vegetable plot – this the write up of what we did:

Today (Saturday 5.4) was a productive work session at the plot. There was more preparation of the beds to make them ready for planting / sowing - this involved weeding, more stone removal, and raking and levelling off. Once this was done, two of the long, thin beds were sown with carrots. Yes, we have reached the time of year that we love, when after all of the heavy work in the early part of the year, planting / sowing can start in earnest. It's the time of the year when we feel we're actually getting somewhere:)

What was unusual about today was the sheer amount of watering that we had to undertake. That's not just on the two carrot beds that were sown today but also, on the broad beans and garlic, the onions and last but by no means least, all of the prepared beds to ensure they have some moisture content. With the weather forecast giving us dry, sunny and relatively warm weather for at least the next seven days, we're going to be up at the plot every few days watering. There are a couple of watering cans behind the compost bins at the back of the plot so, if anyone can help out with watering in their spare time, please feel free to do so:)

The next scheduled Dig Ins at the plot are as follows:

Wednesday 16th April - 2pm

Saturday 3rd May - 2pm

If any of you can come along and help, even if it's only for half and hour, you'll be more than welcome:)

With the community vegetable plot, what we’re trying to do is inspire people to start growing their own food. The reason we want to do this is to play our part in decentralising and localising food production. This is something we’ve written about many times on this blog, with this being one of the more recent posts: Planting vegetables (and fruit) and building communities 10.2.25.

What At the grassroots is about is encouraging people to start taking back control over their lives and communities from the grassroots upwards. One way we can start doing that is by setting up community gardens for the production of food. In an increasingly turbulent world, our food security can no longer be taken for granted. Community vegetable and fruit gardens are part of a long term solution to ensuring food security.

With the vegetable plot being very publicly located in our local park, it’s the ideal spot to have those conversations as there are plenty of people walking past, particularly when the weather is fine as it was today. We’ve stated this before, we would love to see similar plots in each neighbourhood. Walking around Keynsham, we’ve seen what we would consider to be a number of suitable plots in pocket parks and the like. Before the proverbial hits the fan with a food crisis, we’d love to see as many as possible of these neighbourhood plots up and running. We hope it doesn’t take a crisis to spark people into action – getting prepared in advance is a heck of a lot better.

The heartening thing is that the Keynsham Community Veg Plot in the Park is far from being alone in what they do. In the region we cover, there are a range of grassroots food growing projects, each with their own story to tell. In The Directory this section - Community gardens, city farms, organic gardening & food - lists community growing projects across the Avon region taking in the cities of Bristol and Bath, plus the surrounding settlements.

We hope that these will provide the additional inspiration people need to get going on a plot in their own neighbourhood...