Tag Archives: Birmingham
Big Dig in Birmingham – 2016
The Big Dig returns to Birmingham this April for the third year running. The event will be on the 16th April and will see gardens across the city throw open their doors and give anybody the chance to get down and get digging to really kick start the growing season. Last year was a great success with over 1,600 people taking part across the UK, 1,207 of which had never been involved with the gardens before!
We’re keen to top that number this year so keep your eyes out for further information on the gardens that will be involved, free seeds giveaways and networking events which will all be advertised on here in the coming weeks and months.
Between now and then head over to The Big Dig website and take a look at some of the photos from last year and get inspired to make this year bigger and better! Alternatively, pop over to our Birmingham map and register your own event here.
Mapping Birmingham’s Community Growing Spaces
It has been a while in getting there, Growing Birmingham are please to be able to make available for the first time a map of Birmingham’s Community Gardens, Growing Spaces and Community Orchards.
The map is available here
We know this is by no means complete, and we can add to it all the time, so if your local space is missing and you want it adding then please let us know in a comment below or by e-mail to [email protected]
Some of the spaces on the map already have more information linked to them, web site addresses and the like, we hope to add pictures too soon.
This Sunday! Community Food Festival at Birmingham Botanical Gardens
15th September 2013 from 10am to 6.30pm . . . & free entry to Birmingham Botanical Gardens on Westbourne Road!
A celebration of everything edible from the West Midlands (WM) including a horticultural show so you can show off your amazing fruit and veg, a community hub so you can touch base with the amazing projects from the area AND OF COURSE delicious food to buy and eat from WM producers.
The day is set to be a cracker, with so much to see and do it promises to entertain the whole family and fill them full of beautiful food! So head on down on the 15th and say mmmmmm!
The Moo Man comes to Birmingham MAC on the 25th to 27th August
THE MOO MAN, a surprise hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festivals in Utah and London, is coming to Birmingham MAC on the 25th, 26th and 27th August.
The film (made using Kickstarter crowdfunds) features organic dairy farmer Steve Hook from Hailsham, East Sussex and his favourite cow Ida.
Steve is determined to keep his family farm small, organic and sustainable. To achieve this he sells raw, organic milk directly to the consumer via door-to-door delivery and at farmer’s markets. As a publicity stunt Steve takes Ida to Eastbourne for a photo shoot – an experience she enjoys so much, she digs in her heels and refuses to move when it’s time to leave. It soon
Watch the trailer here: https://vimeo.com/68796801
Big Dig News……..
Birmingham Food Growers NEED YOU!
On the 16th March food growing projects across Birmingham will be opening their doors, gates and sheds to locals in order to introduce you to their sites, start the growing year and get help from volunteers to complete a range of activities (tree planting, seed sowing, soil preparation and MORE!). Across the city, 26 sites have signed up so far….more on the way.
If you want to find out what’s happening there are lots of projects signing up http://bigdig.org.uk/
Birmingham: City of trees
Once the northern fringes of the ancient Forest of Arden, Birmingham is a city of trees.
This photograph of Old Joe (reproduced with kind permission of Wagsy Wheeler), taken about 1.5 miles from the city centre, shows how verdant the city is.
I reckon there are millions of trees in our gardens, on allotments, in over hundreds of parks. There are nearly 100,000 street trees — yes, someone has counted!
More wildflower meadows, trees, allotments, community orchards, market gardens . . .
In an article called LEP-speak and what money can’t buy for Birmingham published in The Chamberlain Files last week, I proposed a dozen aims that the city could achieve by 2015 which, combined, would change the face of the city for the better.
Here they are:
- 3 more wildflower meadows within the city boundaries. (Have you seen the wild flowers along the verges on Lee Bank Middleway and along the Bristol Road? Where else are they? Another few miles of them too!)
Growing Birmingham: Feeding the city?
I’ve realised there are more than a few people living in Birmingham who worry about the city not being able to feed itself.
Let’s get one thing straight. Cities are not places where food can be grown in quantity. Birmingham can’t feed itself, never has been able to and, without as-yet unimagined technologies, it never will. Think of the effort and, let’s be frank, the slight angst in the Girl in the Garden talking about growing enough spinach for two.
Two people? To understand the scale of things here in Birmingham: