Who's growing in Brighton & Hove?

Did you know that there are over 60 community groups around the city involved in food growing? From Moulsecoomb to Portslade and in between there's loads going on!

These projects are places where people can learn about growing and other skills, come together in a social setting, get some physical exercise or just relax. Some projects also sell produce to local shops, cafes and restaurants. Growing projects happen in a whole range of spaces - allotment sites, parks, community centres, and disused spaces around the city.

To find out about all the fantastic work going on around the city, please download this list of projects (pdf, 157kb) and read about the featured project below for an example of one of the great projects in Brighton & Hove. If you are interested in contacting any of them, please do let us know and we can put you in touch. Or have a look at the Volunteering section where you can find out about the many community projects that invite people to get involved with their projects through their regular work days.

We have also created a list of projects who can support people with particular needs, such as adults with learning difficulties or mental health issues. Please contact the Harvest team for more information.

Featured project: Hanover VEG

Mei-wah from Hanover VEG reports...
We started work on our lovely community garden back in August and things are coming along nicely (see photo of first raised bed).  There are a regular band of us that come weekly and get stuck into turning what had effectively become the car park of the Hanover community centre into an urban lovely community garden which we have lovingly named the Vegetable Education Garden (VEG) box.

The main work we are hoping to get done before the chill sets in this winter is to build a giant waist height raised bed - to allow access for people with all levels of physical ability, that’s the most labour intense bit.  On the arty side of things some members are working on a beautiful mural and info board to make our mark on the garden.  Others have magical plans of creating 'green roofs' and 'green walls' with used plastic bottles and a circular seating area out of old plastic buckets!!  All the people that have come seem naturally to have the same vision of creating a beautiful space where out of old used material that we have scavenged and given new life.

Luckily we have secured some funding from the council to buy in the material we need for soil and tools and bits and bobs - and recently volunteers pooled together to get the most important and lovely master piece - a Kelly kettle to see us through the chilly work days.

New members trickle in week by week and we welcome them all, if you would like to get involved in any way there are plenty of opportunities.  You can come along to work days and get physical, you can bring new ideas and lead on it, you can help spread the word - invite new members, help is always appreciated on the more organising side, you can run a workshop or you can even come along to work days to just hang out!!  It really is a project that touches many levels - sustainability, community, physical health, education, skills sharing and learning.  It is our hope that once all the big work is done that we will be able to run regular free monthly/two monthly workshops on a range of sustainability related themes.