Andover Estate Pop Up Plant Nursery

Address: Andover Estate, N7 7RT

Key People:

Steve White, Community Development Officer, Islington’s Homes and Communities

Sarah Warland, Islington Greenspaces, Public Realm

Achieving:

Lottery Outcome2: The wellbeing of low income families is improved

Lottery Outcome 3: Adults and young people with low-level skills will report an improvement in their life skills.

History

Andover estate is a large housing estate located in the north of Islington. Spread out across the estate are small patches of greenspace and raised beds located between and adjunct to housing blocks. Some of these were overgrown and derelict, others looked after in random ways by individual residents on an informal basis. The estate had no identified gardening group or dedicated shared gardening space

At the beginning of the first year of the We Can Grow project, following consultation, and in partnership with Islington Council’s Homes and Communities we were able to negotiate a short-term license to run a ‘pop-up’ plant nursery. The short-term license (January to 1^st November 2018) was a result of the space already being designated as the site for New Build housing, due to start in late 2018 / early 2019, hence the use of term ‘pop-up’ plant nursery.

The space, a disused games area on the northern edge of the estate, had previously been used by the Council’s Greenspace team for growing so we were fortunate in inheriting a polytunnel, growing beds and potting tables. The space also had a fixed water supply, good levels of light and secure fencing. A storage container was located a short walk away to serve as a more secure tool lock up. There was also a small group of resident gardeners really keen to be involved.

Our Community-led engagement process:

To start with we carried out house to house leafleting to let people know what was proposed for the use of the derelict space and asking them what they thought. We also created a ‘presence’ on the estate, in particular at the Finsbury Park Community Hub based on the estate. This enabled us to meet many local people face to face, to build new relationships and engage people in planning how the pop-up plant nursery could run.

By developing activities at the new pop-up plant nursery with local people over the 10 months of the license we had an ideal opportunity to bring the enthusiastic, but disparate estate gardeners and growing groups across the borough together in one space; to work together growing vegetables, herbs and flowers in raised beds and containers as ‘demonstrator gardens’ as well as helping people to sow, grow, pot on and maintain seedlings and plug plants to distribute as a resource to support their estate, park and community centre growing groups all around the borough.

Our community-led approach was to listen to the ideas that people had, help people form those ideas in more detail and help them implement them. We did this as a process throughout all our activities and evaluated what was working using various methods appropriate for different groups / individuals.

What did we do?

The social action / community enterprise nature of the programme of activities at the pop-up plant nursery provided for an interactive, highly participative non-formal learning environment; offering people access to training and development of skills.

We ran a series of regular workshops and learning / social activities which we advertised around the borough inviting people to come in and join us to learn new skills and share the ones that they had. We also ran targeted workshops for groups with specific needs such as those with disabilities and for local play schemes and youth groups.

We held a number of seasonal events and festivals to encourage wider participation; encouraging people new to gardening to helping us sow more seeds, prick out and pot on those already growing and generally help maintain the space. In return people were able to take away plants to take back to their own groups and gardens.

What went well, what less so? Were there any unexpected consequences?

The pop-up plant nursery developed into a place where adults, families and young people could drop in on a regular basis to relax and socialise, and at their own pace, get involved in the practical aspects of ‘gardening and growing’. Our non-pressured approach allowed people, many for the first time, to discover nature-based experiences and to develop interests in creating a living learning thriving growing environment.

Residents became inspired to become increasingly involved in civic action. One resident set up a petition to identify a location for a legacy garden on the estate to enable residents to continue gardening and growing together. This was successful in that it was well received by the local authority but due to complications and delays with the new build, actually achieving this legacy garden has taken longer than hoped for by the residents, which sadly meant that some of the initial enthusiasm generated waned a bit.

Children have a natural curiosity and are most interested in trying out something new. We have found that once you have engaged the children successfully, they then bring along their siblings, parents and wider family members.

While community garden is a wonderful tool for community engagement; growing and planting and use of space can sometimes spark ‘turf’ wars. When plantings have been done in pots or raised beds these can then be jealously guarded, sometimes to the exclusion of others. What was unexpected was the appetite for ‘shared’ gardening’.

Key lessons learned

The Andover estate was seen by many people as having a poor reputation. Many people visiting the plant nursery for the first time said that they would never have socialised on the estate if it wasn’t for the plant nursery. Running the pop-up plant nursery activities within a non-threatening welcoming environment for all, estate residents and residents from across the borough, meant that everyone worked towards a shared common goal that broke down social barriers and increased positive perceptions amongst neighbours.

We were able to demonstrate that gardening is a great way to bring people together and is a wonderful icebreaker as strangers start to work together and communicate; learning that the process is as valuable as the end result.

What we have learnt is that community engagement requires long term investment and resources and that you need to take time to build up trust and relationships as these are fundamental to on-going engagement. Regular appearances at regular times and in familiar places with clearly identified goals but room for improvisation and responsiveness to community desires at both group and individual level is needed to enable genuine community engagement.

Facts and Figures

In the 10 months of running the pop-up plant nursery we engaged with 284 unique children and young people and 301 unique adult

Impact:

The space was transformed by our participants from a derelict run-down empty space into a thriving learning hub where through collective social action adults, children and young people learnt new skills such as:

• Designing the workspace; putting together plans for the development of the space and how to implement those plans

• Using mechanical and power tools, drilling, sawing, sanding; building the infrastructure such as recycled pallet furniture, raised beds and planters.

• Working together as a team to accomplish tasks

• Improving communication skills

• Developing an understanding of what constitutes a social enterprise

• Sowing seeds, picking out and transplanting seedlings, potting on plug plants – general health and hygiene of growing plants successfully

• Creating edible displays

• Growing food productively

• Healthy eating ideas

• How to look after the environment through composting, re-cycling, re-use and water conservation techniques in food growi

100% of young people attending out youth programmes reported that they had improved their skills in leadership, problem solving, learning about the environment and the benefits of growing food locally. 62% reported that they had learned about running a community business.

The pop-up plant nursery provided a space which helped reduce social isolation as people connected to each other. It was also some where people could be physically active and enjoy fresh air; improving their mental and physical well-being through positive activity.

Quotes

‘I attended several events as a helper and it was delightful that residents of the estate (particularly children) were interested in growing plants, both on their windowsills and on the estate. There is little time in schools to develop nurturing skills and curiosity about living things these days’’ (Catharine, Volunteer

‘I enjoyed meeting other people from the estate and finding out more about gardening generally’ (Al, estate resident

“I became more aware of helping the environment. It taught me a lot about how to bring the community together’ (Catia, 16 years)

“I learnt how to plant food (Anastasia, 15 years)

‘I loved nurturing nature and learning about different aspects of gardening. It felt as if the plants were my children (Abiola, 21 years)

‘It makes me happy watching the plants progress. It helps me in school doing the life cycle of plants (Jemma, 11 years)

‘I feel fitter and healthier, the social side is important, just meeting people (Tony, 67)

“I feel relaxed, I love the atmosphere, all the plants and flowers. This is much better than chemotherapy’ (Georgiou, 70 years)

Sustainability

While the pop-up plant nursery sadly had to close due to planned building works, we were able to relocate to another nearby estate on a more permanent basis, taking our resources and learning with us, along with many of our participants.

On the Andover estate a legacy shared food growing garden was incorporated into the New Build housing plan. In addition, the Council further committed to a new gardening project on the estate in 2019 called the Andover Inspires Garden Squares Project with additional funding secured to enhance our estate-based work on Andover and creating further legacy based on the achievements of the pop-up plant nursery.

Geographic location

See the Location map for all the main sites

Immediate network connections

See the Connections map for all connections between projects