The heavy lifting is mostly completed – it was good to be able to take stock of the transformation of the site in the spring sunshine but we cannot wait for the leaves to open! It takes some imagination to visualise what everything will look like in a couple of months time, when green becomes the dominant colour rather than the current browns of the woodchips. Everything looks quite flat at present, its difficult to understand the size and three-dimensionality of the site from photos at the moment – but it won’t be long now…

The Allotments Association successfully applied for funding from the West Midlands Combined Authority to transform a row of four waterlogged plots and future-proof our community food growing. These plots had become abandoned due to the extreme waterlogging and seasonal surface-water flooding connected to local building work and climate change.

The Community Environment Fund award has enabled us to build the site’s climate resilience by:

• Adding hard standing to half the waterlogged area to create a level area where raised beds could be sited, allowing food cultivation away from waterlogged ground. These raised beds are a more flexible way for people to become part of a food-growing community, without having to take on a full plot and also allow people to ‘downsize’ from a full plot without having to leave altogether. 
• Building a communal shelter to be used for gatherings and as a workshop/teaching space. The funding covered a professional to build the shell of the structure. We intend to collect more materials and, over time, fill in the sides a bit more to create more shelter/places to sit/store tools.
• Building a bank of rainwater-harvesting tanks that collect from the shelter roof to supply those renting the raised beds.
• Creating a mini nature reserve, digging ponds and scrapes; planting wetland wildflowers and generally working with the land to create and enhance habitats for invertebrates, birds, amphibians and mammals to help support biodiversity on site and promote the benefits of nature-friendly gardening.
• Planting up a mini food-forest, to test out and demonstrate the climate resilience of more permanent planting (permaculture) techniques. It includes fruit trees planted onto earth mounds to keep their roots out of standing water; fruit bushes, herbs and nitrogen fixing and/or pollinator-friendly companion edible plants and flowers.
• Investing in extending rainwater harvesting capacity across the site and on individual plots to reduce the need for tap water and reduce our water bills.
• Holding a number of specialist workshops and learning opportunities in collaboration with Garden Organic, open to allotmenteers across the city.

The aim of the project was (and is) to conduct various experiments to trial and show how we might adapt our food growing practices to be better able to cope with changing and unpredictable weather patterns; and that seeing this in action encourages conversation leading to behaviour change (initially within the site, and then rippling beyond the site) – eg raised beds, green manures, soil health, composting, rainwater harvesting, seed saving, food forests, wildlife friendly, chemical free growing etc. The entire project so far has been blogged and, in time, this blog will provide the basis of a new tenant climate adaptation handbook. 

Participant Feedback includes:

“It’s been interesting and fun. I’ve enjoyed the social aspect of working together with people to get something done and I learnt a lot – particularly from the Garden Organic workshops. I feel more confident about taking action on climate adaptation.”

“It’s looked so awful for so long, this is an amazing transformation – and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it develops – and how we use it.”