Vetch Veg
Last month we had the opportunity to visit the Vetch Veg site - a Community Garden situated on the old Vetch football ground, where 40 families from the locality come together, and grow! A very inspiring trip to motivate us for what we want to achieve at Biophilic Living.
The garden homes 40 families from around the Sandsfield’s area of Swansea, with 1/3 of these families being of an international nationality, something that the leaders of the garden really love, as it has expanded their knowledge of what is possible to grow.
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They emphasise that this is not an allotment, it is a community garden; users may have their own plot, but there is a lot of collaboration and team work happening, with greenhouses being built by some users for others, vegetables tended to when someone is ill, and meals cooked from the produce.
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The project began as a 9 month opportunity as part of the 2011 Cultural Olympiad, with it then destined for redevelopment by the council. However within those 9 months, it ‘grew’ to become an integral part of the community, and now, 13 years later, there’s no getting rid of it!
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In amongst the growth, there was an outdoor kitchen, which was available to all the users, seating areas for users to congregate, with much of the seating being donated and diverted from landfill, and communal tool sheds, again with donated storage, some of which coming from the prison behind.
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Seeing the build from the Vetch Veg site was motivating. The strength of the community and passion for growing is only something we can hope to achieve at Biophilic Living. We hope to join the two communities to empower our residents and building users to embrace this new way of urban living, and highlight that more green spaces are needed in cities.
On our visit it was clear to see how strong the community was, as well as the plants themselves.
Edited view from one of the apartment balconies to suggest the idea of urban gardening.