After an hour of walking from my flat in the city centre, and getting lost a couple of times, I’m already shattered by the time we arrive at the allotments. But there’s little time to rest; a quick sit while the boys fetch some kit from their car. I take in the warm, bright sunshine that comes with the early afternoon. Then we get to work.

“We’re just picking up all the bits of plastic we can find and popping them in these buckets to take down the tip later.”

Some of the rubbish we cleared, including loads of plastic and even an ironing board?!

After that, I’m told, the plan is to clear a bit of ground, start a bonfire and use it to dispose of all the dead branches and twigs the previous owner of the allotment left in a handy pile for us. We don’t want to just burn the pile as is – there’s plastic netting tangled around some of the sticks, which we want to get rid of properly.

The four of us get to work. By the end of the day there’s nine of us finishing up tidying the plot. A fantastic start to our community garden – the Norwich Communalist Garden.

What’s a community garden?

Community gardens are basically just pieces of land worked by a group of people, rather than just one. As part of a larger community-driven activist group, we acquired the allotment through the council to set up our community garden. The idea behind it is to work as a team to grow food! Anyone with an interest in learning how to grow food, and having company while spending time outdoors, will be able to join us. With community at the core of the project, it’s not just a garden, but a way to connect with each other and with nature.



Teamwork makes the dream work! Some of the nine gardeners clearing the pile of wood for the bonfire.

Why are we doing it?

The community-driven group I’ve just mentioned is founded on the principles of communalism (hence the name: Norwich Communalist Garden) and social ecology. Complicated ideas if you’ve never heard them before? Well, to break it down, it’s about equality. Everyone in the group gets an equal say in the projects, and an equal chance to start something. And it’s about working with nature, rather than dominating nature, and by putting that into practice we can also learn to work with each other on equal footing.

The community garden is just one way of bringing these ideas into the real world. By growing food, we’ll be able to give that food to people who need it, such as local soup kitchens and food banks. That helps foster a sense of community, and working together to make life better for everyone. Those of us working on the garden right now are lucky enough to have enough to eat, so rather than using the food ourselves we’d rather it go to those who can’t afford fresh food. Additionally we’d like to learn how to take control of our food sources, and be able to pass on that knowledge to others.

Working together with nature is another way to bring the theory of social ecology into practice through the garden. As a group, we’re learning about permaculture – something I personally know nothing about and I’m very keen to understand! Through the use of permaculture, which I’ll talk about a little more in the next point, we reject the domination over nature to create something sustainable, without harm to the environment.



The ash from the burnt wood will help make the ground fertile – which is why we picked out all the plastic.

Thirdly, as a project the community garden allows us to explore the idea of democracy. As a team, we should decide what to plant and when, and how to take care of it. At the same time, everyone involved can exercise autonomy in how they participate.

For example, if I’m super interested in the theory of permaculture I can take the initiative to learn about it, and explain the theory during group discussions. Another member of the team might be more interested in reclaiming traditional knowledge from older generations, and that person can arrange to chat with other gardeners and record what they’ve learnt. Yet another person might just want an excuse to get out of the house into the fresh air and socialise, so they come to do maintenance on the garden itself.

What’s the plan?

So a bit about permaculture, then. The plan is for the garden to be sustainable, kind to the environment, and fairly easy to maintain. I don’t know much about permaculture – I intend to write about it here as I learn – but I do know that it’s the technique most in line with our aims.

Permaculture is about working with nature to create a garden space that’s as close to self-sustaining as possible. So that involves planting things that are best for your climate and the type of soil you have, growing plants next to each other that will help each other, looking to the natural environment to find out what plants best support each other …

A popular example, and the example that helped me understand best, is that of the forest garden. A forest garden is a kind of permaculture that sets up the plot of land to mimic the edge of a forest. Things grow in natural abundance in the forest, with trees providing cover for more delicate plants, for example, and leaves falling to create compost. In turn the smaller plants might attract insects for pollination, or birds to help spread seeds. Plants with deeper roots can help bring nutrients from far down in the soil to much closer to the surface for other plants to use.

That pretty much covers the extent of my knowledge on the subject, but as I say it’s something I’m super excited to learn more about. I’ll add my experiences with permaculture to this blog along with updates about the garden as and when they come. 🙂

So how did the day go?

It was a terrifyingly warm day for February, which only highlights the need for environmentally kind projects that help us to become self-sustaining on a small scale! (I wish I was kidding …) But taking advantage of the mild weather, we powered through the work that needed to be done, even getting as far as starting to turn over the soil.



We planned to be ready to turn over the soil next week – exceeded expectations!

It was a good job we moved all of the branches before burning them too; we found a sweet little mouse we named Murray nestled inside the pile! He scurried off to find a new home once we disturbed him, but we all took a break to coo over him first. I’m only sad I wasn’t quick enough to snap a picture to share. We also failed to befriend a frog, who bounded away pretty sharpish – thankfully towards the neighbouring plot, where the owner had just put in a pond.

The allotment at the start of the afternoon vs. the end of the day

Overall, our first work day was a great success. Everything we wanted to get done by the end of the day got done, and then some. We were able to chat with some of the other gardeners on other plots. Working in a team of four, then five, then eight, then nine, there wasn’t too much graft for any one person. Between us we had plenty of energy left to chatter away and joke around!

Some people enjoy the peace of gardening alone, which I understand completely. But for me, nothing beats community.