Growing food and Growing Friends

The aim of our project is to encourage neighbours in Ilford (IG1 Postcode) to start to grow food in containers in their front garden/ space and also to make friends with their neighbours through the connections they make. We hope that the containers will also brighten up the streets and help people to believe that they can grow plants, even when they have very limited space.

So far the project is going really well. There has been a lot of interest from the community. We have 13 volunteers who have each contacted 5 or more neighbours to invite them to take part. One volunteer has been able to get donations of seeds and discounts on containers and compost.

Some volunteers have planted seedlings ready for our launch on April 1st.

One of our Bangladeshi volunteers is an expert grower of Khodu (Bottle Gourd) and has done a video in Bengali to encourage people to grow them as part of the project.

Our aim is to recruit 100 neighbours. We already have over 80 households taking part. During the summer we will hold mini workshops in people’s front gardens and, Covid restrictions permitting, have a celebratory event at the TTI Forest garden site.

If you would like to be either a volunteer or a participant then contact us at ilfordtransition@gmail.com

If you have any used containers (as large as possible) which you no longer need, then please consider donating them to us.