[PDF]Permaculture: Moulsecoomb Forest Garden

Voted the best community allotment project in the UK by the Kitchen Garden
Magazine in conjunction with the National Allotment Gardens Trust.





During this period we have received funds and support from...
The Brighton Community Compost Centre, Eleanor Hamilton Education Trust, National
Lottery Awards for All, 02 Community Fund, Brighton Council Disability Grants Fund,
Britannia Building Society, Ernest Cook Trust, East Brighton Improvement Fund, Action
in Rural Sussex, Sussex Community Foundation/Local Network Fund, Brighton and Hove
Food Partnership, Brighton & Hove Business Community Partnership



Moulsecoomb Forest Garden and Wildlife Project Annual report 2008



The Project



Moulsecoomb Forest Garden and Wildlife Project is a community food project based
on eight plots at the Moulsecoomb Place allotment site in Brighton. The project is
situated on the north east outskirts of the city between four housing estates: the Bates,

Hollingdean, Bevendean and Moulsecoomb Estates, all
identified as deprived neighbourhoods in the City by
Brighton & Hove City Council. The project is a free local
resource offering horticultural, educational and social
opportunities to all residents in these surrounding built
up urban areas. We open three days a week, fifty weeks a
year and operate an "open to all, no experience necessary"
policy and volunteers get to take home whatever
vegetables are seasonally available.

But these aren't your run of the mill allotments.
Along with plots growing organic fruit and vegetables we
have wildlife areas with a pond full of newts and frogs, a
treehouse/outdoor classroom, polytunnel, compost loo,
social area with firepit and a kids space including a wattle
and daub wendy house. There is also a forest garden,
which recreates the different layers of a forest from tall fruit
trees to fruit bushes and herbs.

We put on events such as pick and cook, as well as
working in local schools running environment clubs and
helping to improve school grounds. The project isn't
just about gardening but also has a role in being part of
the social glue that binds communities together, with all
types of people, young and old, youth offenders to people
with learning difficulties working together in a safe and
pleasant environment.




Falmer students digging a vegetable bed



Aims

Reduce anti social behaviour by involving excluded pupils and youth offenders in
the running of the garden.

Improve community health by offering free, organic and locally grown fruit and
vegetables to low income families and older people.

Enhance skills and employability by offering practical based training and
volunteering opportunities.

Getting children involved in planting, growing and eating healthy food, and
respecting nature and the environment.

Creating and enhancing wildlife habitats, protecting bio-diversity including old
fashioned vegetable varieties.

Promoting sustainable lifestyles, by encouraging and educating people about
composting and the benefits of organic gardening and locally produced food.



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loulsecoomb Forest Garden and Wildlife Project Annual report 2008



WARREN CARTER - PROJ ECT MANAGER

Winning the best community allotments project award last autumn was a crowning
moment for our project and for a couple of weeks there wasn't a day when a radio, TV
crew or journalist wasn't at the project. We know what we do is worthwhile, but it's always
nice to be recognised and the award helped us cement our work in the community.

However, the award did bring more pressure onto the project. With an ever increasing
amount of young adults and pupils coupled with last years wet weather, food production
was pitiful. We were also lurching from one funding crisis to the next. So at our AGM
we decided to start meeting our partners and asking for them to pay for the services
we provide while other organisations started making grant applications on our behalf;
our website was completely revamped with a news section added and a donations page
encouraging people to support us by making regular standing orders. In the autumn we
decided to employ long term student volunteer Katie Turner to work on Tuesdays and
co-ordinate the volunteers and students so they could concentrate on learning all about
gardening and help us grow lots more food. We also decided to employ our builder Russell
Pountney on a Tuesday as well, so that both
of us could work with the increasing number
of pupils using the project. Being in a more
secure financial position helped us do these
things and has really made a difference to
Tuesday workdays, with lots more work
experience opportunities available as well as a
great mix of people.

For many pupils and youth offenders
school has failed them. We just try to find
the skills they are good at and give them
confidence and self belief. We offer an
alternative curriculum, teaching not just
gardening but building and carpentry skills,
woodland management and cooking skills,
but probably most importantly social skills.
The project is also a great place for a wide range of people who would never usually mix
to work together and socialise around the fire with a cup of tea.

I was reminded how successfully we achieve this recently when a student who was
studying deprivation in Moulsecoomb sent me the interview he had done with two of
the young lads who come for work experience. What struck me most was their attitudes
towards people with learning difficulties and those from other countries had seriously
changed. Where else would they meet and work with someone from Syria or Iran?
Have to help someone with mobility problems, listen patiently while someone who is a
slow speaker talk? Where else would they be cooking garlic eggy bread for everyone, or
showing new people around the project on a tour? One of the boys also said that he hated
school and he hated learning, and yet he is one of the most inquisitive people I know who
just loves to learn where people are from and ask them questions about their countries.

You would hope that in time, the education system will stop being obsessed
with league tables and exam results, and instead concentrate on producing rounded
individuals that can play a full role in society.

This is the part independent projects like ours have to play; offering a myriad of
opportunities for those struggling at school. We hope that winning the award will
encourage others to set up similar schemes in their area.




Katie and Caroline pruning fruit bushes



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Moulsecoomb Forest Garden and Wildlife Project Annual report 2008




Tree house classroom



RUSSELL POUNTNEY - BUILDING SUPERVISOR

Over the last year my work has increased at the Project as has the demand for sessions.
I have carried on working with the Youth Inclusion Project (YIP), the Alternative Centre
for Education (ACE), and the Youth Offending Team (YOT) on a weekly basis.

Through working with these agencies we are able to reach many of the disaffected
youth in Brighton and in particular Moulsecoomb.

Our clients particularly the ones that work on the building project have behavioural
and emotional problems, this dictates the way in which we have to work to achieve

results and as time has gone on we have refined
our way of working. Young people with these
problems more often than not have hyperactivity
disorders and getting out of the class room and
doing some practical work can really help.

Tree house classroom

We have been building our structure for two
years and at last it is nearly complete. Work has
been slow as apart from the odd shed building
day of adult volunteers it has been built entirely
with the young people themselves. The balcony
has been re decked, all the walls and roof have
been boarded inside and out. We have used
recycled wood where ever possible and have
insulated the walls and roof with a material made
from recycled bottles.
The young people have learnt to use hand tools and cordless power tools and I also
try and teach them how to work with recycled wood.

The next stage will be a paint job (possibly graffiti) and fitting out the inside with
seating and storage and a wood burning stove.

Bench building

We have made big improvements to our on site seating in the past year, and have
replaced our ropey old benches with solid oak benches that have been made with our
young people.

I purchased some big thick waney edged oak boards from the Wood Recycling
Project which we planed, sanded, shaped, and oiled to make the seats and backs. We
coppiced wood to make the legs and built them into the ground . They have been a
great success as a building experience and as the end result. Working with nice big
chunks of oak with the young people was a great chance to teach working with green
oak. Many of the people who use the Project have mobility issues and the benches have
improved the usability of the site and will last for many years to come.

Wattle and daub

Working with a children's group Mosaic at the end of last summer I started work on a
wattle and daub roundhouse, which we have worked on in our weekly sessions.

This involved weaving a ringed wall of coppiced hazel rods then plastering on a mixture
of clay, straw and sand over the top. I found working with earth a brilliant hands on way
of working that everyone enjoyed. Using these natural materials also gives an interesting
dialogue for environmental education. We are planning to finish the roof this summer.



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Moulsecoomb Forest Garden and Wildlife Project Annual report 2008



Other bits n bobs

Some times we will work on other projects as a means of keeping the attention of our
clients and a way of me giving more one on one attention. Last year we made stools to
sell at our open day and this year we have been building bird boxes to raise funds.

I have been teaching carving with chisels which has been very successful and has
kept the attention of certain individuals for an unprecedented amount of time. We have
also carved signs for the vegatable plots and carved names into wood for presents.

I feel my work has gone from strength to strength, we have improved communications
and support with the agencies we work with and are providing a valuable service in
keeping troubled young people in education. We try to empower young people and make
them feel good about themselves while imparting skills and education.

We continue to build strong connections with the local community and a level of
continuity to the young people we work with and creating a beautiful place for them to
return year after year.



KATIE TURNER - VOLUNTEER, MANAGEM ENT COM M ITTEE M EM BER

In January 2006 I started volunteering at the Project and found it a breath of fresh air from
the hustle and bustle of the posh hippy city and intense party/study atmosphere of the
first year at University. It felt finally like a piece of home and a slice of the good life. It was
somewhere to get to know the real variety of people in Brighton and try to fit in a little.

The allotments were more orderly in those days, less children to be distracted by and
plants guaranteed to grow in a straight row. As I watched the seasons of the garden fly by,
the Project gradually changed and opened up to
a younger audience. I studied this change and
how useful the allotment was as an alternative
source of education, not only in practical skills
but also for broad social interaction. I found that
those apparently labelled as socially impaired
were happily engaging with people they would
have normally made fun of or ignored in the
street. Sure, dens were made and destroyed,
trees damaged, tools broken and went missing at
first. But now more respect has been established
amongst most of the young people for the garden,
there is less vandalism and far more construction;
including a classroom (or treehouse as it's fondly
named), fences and new benches.

The allotment has a more buzzy, busy
atmosphere and the beds more character, more

weird spicy salad, pumpkins, peas, raspberries, and of course biscuits eaten and tea drunk.
There are more fire builders, cooks, carpenters, and more newt, frog and bug discoverers.

I work now only every Tuesday, (I would gladly do more if it weren't for my finals!)
in rain or shine, to ease off the crowds of curious minds, young and old, who hunger for
Warren's endless wisdom of the natural treasure trove before them.
I am on the management team and recently ran a half marathon to raise a few pennies
for the place I sincerely hold close to my heart. No swear words, songs from Michael,
continuous questions, illness, injury, manure, torrential weather, smoky fire or good old
slippy mud can keep me away from the garden and the people that use it, and I know its
been a good day when I have experienced all those things.




Falmer pupil learning how to make a bench



Moulsecoomb Forest Garden and Wildlife Project Annual report 2008



Events

We continue with our hugely successful Pick and Cook events. On these days children
(and adults) roam the project, picking whatever is ready to eat, and Erika Alder our
amazing community chef cooks it all up. Vegetable soup, salad with olive oil and
fresh raspberry dressing, pancakes with raspberries, pakoras, vegetable skewers and
smoothies were some of the dishes she served up. The events get children and adults to
try food they wouldn't normally eat as well as showing them how to cook it.

Our open weekend during the Brighton Fringe Festival also attracted 300 people.



MOULSECOOMB PRIMARY SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT CLUB

Just five years ago the large area that makes up Moulsecoomb Primary school playing
grounds was all tarmac and grass. Since then we have helped plant native hedgerows,
an orchard and small woodland with a storytelling area. There's an impressive play park,
iron age roundhouse and Saxon building.

We continue to run the ever popular environment club during lunch time at the
school, with the pupils busier than ever growing then cooking and eating the food they
have grown - with garlic bread the winner in the popularity stakes.

We also used vegetables from the Forest Garden and the schools environment
garden for the annual harvest festival and sold home grown potatoes in garlic butter at
the Christmas Fair. Many of the classes continue to visit the project for various activities.



Work Experience



We continue to offer work experience to pupils who are having problems with school, in
addition to the pupils that visit us through our various partners.

YOUTH INCLUSION PROJECT
CARLEEN DAVIES

YIP has a caseload of twenty five young people
from Moulsecoomb who are referred by various
agencies and professionals in the area who
feel that the young people are at risk of getting
involved in anti social behaviour, truanting,
being excluded from school and generally
needing some preventative work. We carry out
the work by liaising and working in partnerships
with local projects/agencies. We also provide
support for parents and can refer onto the
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