Friends Of Handsworth Park News

Our group has been allocated a small, unused corner of Handsworth Park by the City Council to turn into a community garden. You may be wondering what is happening in this area as little progress has ensued over this time. This update summarises the funding we are applying for, to develop this area in order to acheive a garden of shared community contribution.

​

We have budgeted for just over £20,000 to landscape the area and realise our aims, around £5000 of which we have already secured from Birmingham City Council and the remainder we are currently applying to external sources of funding.

​

The Friend's group has carried out some consultation with local people and the preference is for an easy to maintain sensory garden with year round colour. We've asked the Council's design team to draw up some designs & cost it for us. Handsworth Park is 63 acres & in one of the most deprived wards of Birmingham. It is well used by local people, but it has only a few flower beds in the Victorian bedding plant style & there are no specific facilities for people with disabilities in the park. The sensory garden will be a calm area where people can take a moment to look at & smell the flowers and watch the insects. It will be accessible for people who use wheelchairs. Local people will be involved in planting & maintaining the garden & we'll be able to teach skills to volunteers & local school children. We also want to increase wildflowers and fruit into the park.

​

We have 3 aims:

To encourage people to get involved in growing and caring for plants so that they will have the confidence to plant their own gardens and appreciate the natural environment and the park more.

To make this area of the park useable as it between the park goods depot and the park railings and so is not used at all. It is beside one of the main gates to the park and so will be seen and used when it is the sensory garden.

To provide a places for bees and insects to thrive as we will plant native species and wildflowers too.

We will achieve:

300m2 of land put to productive use
Volunteers helping with the initial planting
Volunteers helping to maintain the garden
Links made with primary schools and one special school and children visiting the garden

The community sensory garden will benefit the volunteers as well and we hope that some of them will join the Friends group. We would then like to enter the garden into competitions and Britain in Bloom It's Your Neighbourhood.

There will be several types of beneficiary:

1. The users of Handsworth Park. The garden will provide a place for them to enjoy
2. Residents of Holly Road. The park boundary will be improved as the depot will be hidden
3. Volunteers. Local people will be involved in building & maintaining the site. We have been approached by the Probation Community Payback scheme & the Prince's Trust to volunteer their services. Local volunteers will receive horticulture training. They will also get to know each other. Handsworth is very multicultural and the volunteers will represent all sections of the community. By working together on a shared project they will learn about each others' cultures.
4. School children. Children from local primary schools will visit and help with the planting
5. School children with special needs. Children from Hamilton Special School in Handsworth will visit in the summer to enjoy the garden

The Friends group will employ a sessional garden consultant who will manage the planting & the development of the garden. We already have people who've expressed an interest in helping from our consultation event. We'll advertise for more volunteers in local community and faith centres. We will run workshops for volunteers to teach them about plants & how to grow them successfully. The volunteers will then be able to teach others in the following year. The consultant will also organise for other groups to come in & work with the volunteers eg RSPB, Birmingham & District Beekeepers Association, Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust, etc. After the initial planting, specific sessions will be organised weekly for volunteers to maintain the garden. The consultant will signpost keen volunteers to courses at South and City College or Adult Education. There are other community gardens in Birmingham & we'll organise skill and plant swops to help each other.

​

The community garden will benefit the environment by introducing a more diverse range of plants including native wildflowers; supporting insects and wildlife by incorporating bee hotels and overwintering logs. The sessions that we will run with local school children and the volunteers will focus on wildlife and how the cycle which plants, insects and animals are all interdependent within the cycle. The planting used to create and to onward manage and maintain the sensory garden will be donated by local people and allotments who we have relationships with including Uplands and the Victoria Allotments. Materials will be from sustainable sources to create the least environmental impact.

We have an ongoing partnership and relationship the Ranger service who will support with their wildlife talks, including insects, pond dipping and gardening support, we have organised talks by the RSPB and bat walks and both we will work with both to recreate habitats encourage bio diversity.