"They're growing more beautiful each week!" - Vertical Growbags and Communities of the Soil Plymouth

Elsies Habesha - Ethiopan and Eritrean Cuisine at Jabulani - Elsie loves these fresh produce on her doorstep

Salad crops in a vertical growbag at HQ building

The Apricot Centre, Diversity Business Incubator, and Jabulani have been collaborating with other partners over the past year, using Permaculture to co-design spaces with the community which aim to be welcoming to asylum seekers / refugees and the wider community. A sense of belonging and a connection with the soil is the key feature of this collaboration.

We are building upon decades of previous work by Millfield Trust and other community development people and organisations. Getting to know one another and building trust.

The Vertical Growbags project was inspired by Louise Waignwright who developed them through Real IPM in Kenya. These bags require very low quanities of water and area a very efficient way of growing good amounts of fruits and vegetables in urban environments. They even have a drip feed irrigation system built in which delivers the water right to the plants roots.

In Plymouth Leon and Laura have been making these bags, sewn by MakersHQ, and then put together and planted on site both at Jabulani (https://www.facebook.com/Jabulaniplymouth/) and the Courtyard at the HQ building (https://www.dbi.org.uk/ ). Come and enjoy some food at the pop up kitchens, such as Elsie’s Habesha’s Ethiopan and Eritrean food (https://www.facebook.com/elsies.habesha/ ) and African Delight’s Jamaican and Vegetarian Food (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067531652228&locale=ne_NP ) at Jabulani and see the growbags and pallet garden in bloom.

Pallet garden at Jabulani Food Court - The Plot, Stonehouse