Practicalities on your site

Whatever you decide to grow, make sure your group has the capacity to look after it, water it and make sure it looks beautiful as well as being productive.

That might mean compromising on what you are growing, but be really honest about what time everyone can give to the project and design your space around those time constraints.

Plant familiar foods

Depending on where you are, the people walking past the site might have never heard of chard before, or might use it in loads of their favourite dishes. See the Crop planner for ideas for different crops and information about when to sow, plant and harvest them.

Harvesting from your sites

Consider when your crops will be ready to harvest and make sure you’ve grow plants which will be available to pick and eat for as long as possible, rather than all being ready at once. For information on when to harvest and eat your crops, see the Foods in season fact sheet.

Year round planting

Consider plants which look attractive all year around. Sometimes planters which look bare in winter can attract litter, so see our Extending the growing season fact sheet for more information on plants which will still be productive later in the growing season.

Watering

Most plants need regular watering, even during a UK summer, so consider how you’ll get water to your site, sometimes the council have a tap you could use, or you could ask a local business. In Dunstable the rain water is collected from the local shopping centre and pumped to the site. Also consider what plants you grow – don’t grow really thirsty plants (e.g. lettuces) unless you’ve got someone nearby who will water daily. Some plants don’t need much watering, like Mediterranean herbs. Set up a timetable for watering so you can spread the load among your volunteers – and make sure everyone gets thanked for their contributions.

Soil testing

It’s a good and safety conscious idea to get your soil tested. Most local councils will be able to point you in the right direction to get this done.

Waste clearance

When first clearing your space chat to your local council waste team and find out what to do if you find things you can’t deal with such as hypodermic needles. Make sure they know what you are up to and ask them to collect the rubbish. Then look at compost bins in order to manage on site green waste and feed your garden with the resulting compost – see the Composting and Wormeries section for more information.