Mother gardens – empowering communities through green skills

Working towards Social Justice and Climate Justice is at the heart of Fircroft College. What better way to achieve this than through empowering community groups to come together and engage in sustainability and Green Skills projects.  Through the Mother Garden Bootcamp, learners are taught how to work on new or revived gardens, which in turn create further new gardens as plants and seeds are propagated and shared. This activity enables learners not only to make better and sustainable use of their own growing spaces but also develops community cohesion and inspires new community projects and volunteering activities that make a sustainable impact on carbon reduction.

The programme is delivered over several months at Fircroft College via residential weekends and day attendance where the practical activities take place in the six acres of grounds.  It covers the principles, philosophy, and practice of Mother Gardens and enables learners to then apply this learning to their own green space. Learners find out how to grow and propagate perennial edible plants and get hands on experience to develop food forest and edible conservation spaces. They are coached and supported to develop their own small-scale sustainable gardening projects and gain an understanding of ways in which to establish community engagement. In addition to learning activities on-site at Fircroft, learners go on visits and field trips and are able to participate in community-based workdays at various forest communities and orchards across Birmingham. There are also placement days and during the course learners visit and build links with other mother gardens and community gardens in the city. Many learners benefit in terms of their wellbeing, confidence and renewed sense of connectedness with others and with nature. Learners who have completed the Mother Garden Bootcamp course receive ongoing support via the Birmingham Mother Garden Network to start and develop their own community growing spaces,

After the programme, learners go on to work in community food growing projects, create their own Mother Garden, use the Mother Garden model to develop urban forest communities, including community orchards, foraging gardens, and nature-conservation projects.  Lorna runs a community group for young mothers. As soon as she finished the course, Lorna’s brother, who is an avid gardener, gave her some pumpkin seeds which she planted and was able to harvest in late October.  Lorna manages a mothers’ group and she shared the pumpkins out, with some of the mothers making pumpkin soup at home for their families.  Lorna also does seed sharing with other gardeners and people who want to start gardening.

“You not only benefit from the fresh air when you’re outdoors, you are also mindful in the pursuit of growing.  Socialising with other people who all had the same purpose but came from different backgrounds, was really interesting too.”

Lorna, Fircroft Mother Garden Learner

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