Tag Archives: edible eastside
Birmingham’s first Big Dig Day
Saturday March 16th saw the first ‘Big Dig Day’ in Birmingham. Across the weekend, over 30 grow sites, allotments & community gardens opened their doors to all.
Although the weather forecast was non-too hopeful, groups all around the city put this aside, and welcomed new and existing volunteers to many varied and fun events.
Visiting my first event of the day, I arrived at Edible Eastside, to be met by Jayne & Rob. Lizzie Bean soon arrived and work began in earnest on the next stages of the earth oven.
Despite the rain, volunteers soon started to arrive, and with a fire lit, and work underway, I took my leave to visit Park Lane Garden Centre in Aston for the second stop of the day.
Park Lane were beginning their work on a new community garden next door, and as well as welcoming volunteers, Julia took time to show Clare Savage and I the plans and setting for the new garden.
The Carrot City Talks: Jarred Henderson
The final speaker at the Edible Eastside event was Jarred Henderson, a designer and urban grower at Wayward Plants. Jarred’s talk was substantially different than the previous two, it focussed primarily on the sites operated by the organisation he works for; why they exist and the benefits they provide to communities.
The Carrot City Talks: Mike Dring
Mike Dring (middle of the picture) was the second speaker at the third Carrot City event hosted in the garage space of Edible Eastside. Mike is a lecturer at BCU’s BIAD faculty, and has worked with Jayne Bradley’s site extensively; having been employed in the nearby architecture firm, K4, before taking up at post at the nearby University. He is also part of the organising committee behind the UK version of Carrot City: spending a many-a-hours working away on the boards and exhibition spaces.
The Carrot City Talks: Dr Joe Nasr
The third Carrot City event occurred at Edible Eastside and featured talks from Dr Joe Nasr (Ryerson University), Mike Dring (Birmingham City University, BIAD) and Jarred Henderson (Wayward Plants). After a quick introduction from Jayne Bradley (Urban Grain), Joe Nasr, one of the exhibition’s curators, introduced Carrot City: its origins, current state and future ambitions.
The Carrot City Talks: Nick Grayson
Following the half-day event, which featured Andre Viljoen, Anne Cranston and Jayne Bradley, a lone seminar took place on Monday 23rd April: Nick Grayson, Climate Change and Sustainability Manager for Birmingham City Council, led this seminar, which had a specific focus on Birmingham.
The Carrot City Talks: Jayne Bradley
The third and final speaker, during the first Carrot City seminar, was Jayne Bradley of Urban Grain.
Jayne spoke about a project called Edible Eastside
The Carrot City Talks: Andre Viljoen
Andre Viljoen is a leader in the urban agriculture field. An architect by profession, he’s now at the University of Brighton.
Birmingham City University were lucky to get him to speak at the Carrot City event last week on ‘Practising Urban Agriculture’.
Events to the end of April
- 30th April: Allotment Club & Seed Swap at the Warehouse Cafe.
- 28th April: Spring Foraging at Edible Eastside
- 23rd April: Birmingham’s Edible Forest, a Carrot City seminar with Nick Grayson. Millenium Point