Before you start
Insurance
Information coming soon
Funding
What are your costs likely to be - both start up and ongoing? Are you renting the land? Do you need to buy any equipment or invest in facilities? It’s a good idea to map these out and identify how you might acquire these funds. You can apply for community grants to help you get started -visit our 'Funding Opportunities' and 'Growing Grant' pages. It might be useful to think up some exciting fundraising ideas to keep you going along the way.
Volunteers
Make sure you have enough hands-on-deck to ensure that no one person (i.e. you!) is left overburdened. Maintaining an allotment or garden can be quite a commitment, as can planning for the year and organising events. It's also good to have other people bring their ideas, skills and experience to the table! There's no one-size-fits-all here, but generally a community growing scheme requires 2-5 committed people to manage it effectively for the long term.
General quidance
Farm Garden have created a guide for community growing projects, which explains some of the technicalities behind allotments, how to manage a community group effectively, practicalities to consider and lists some top tips from successful groups to help you.
Getting started
Make a growing plan
If you are an experienced gardener then you'll probably do this anyway, but if this isn't something you've done much of before - preparation is key! You'll need to map out what you can sow in certain months, when to harvest each crop and how to keep your community engaged throughout the year. Farm Garden have created a yearly planner here which may help you do just that.
Spread the word
Once you have everything in place and you’re ready to 'grow', make sure you start spreading the word! There are many ways to do this, and you can choose what works best for you depending on your resources and local community:
- Word of mouth
- Posters and signs
- Local businesses
- Social media
- Public events
Check out Farm Garden's guide to promotion