Preserving the Community campaign

Honesty boxes, seed sharing and jam-making days: join us on our campaign to make community spaces more fruitful. 

In issue three, we launched an exciting new campaign called: Preserve the Community, following on from our silver medal winning show garden at Hampton Court Flower Show this July.

As Nicole explained: The seed for our Preserving the Community garden was planted last summer: after five years of tending, my fruit bushes were doing me proud – but now I was working away from home promoting our new book and I was too occupied to do anything with them!

I offered the fruit to my jam-making friend Cathy, who stripped the blackcurrant bushes and made 30 pots of jam to share. It got me thinking, there must be so many of us who can’t manage to use everything our gardens produce: whether you’re a busy parent with no time to plunder your blackcurrants or a keen gardener with an over-zealous patch of courgettes.

Living by our motto to spend wisely, waste less and appreciate more, we decided to launch a campaign to share ideas and inspire people to set up their own projects: whether small scale seed sharing and jam making or ambitious community gardens. Along with designer Anthea Guthrie, we built our garden for the Hampton Court Flower Show this July, and were not only over the moon to win a silver medal but also to meet so many inspiring people who shared our desire to garden in a more nostalgic way.

We designed our plot to show how to set up a productive, community-run space by adapting the items you already own. We transformed a tin field shelter into a preserving kitchen, where neighbours can bring gluts of fruit and vegetables to make them into jams, jellies and pickles on a log-fi red range. Around the shed, we planted a community cutting garden, using seeds and seedlings swapped with other gardeners. The idea was that cuttings could then be used to decorate community spaces such as schools and doctors’ surgeries.

There’s an honesty box shop at the front gate selling local eggs, seedlings and leftover vegetables. The money raised would go towards raw ingredients, such as sugar and vinegar, while any extra could be put towards community purchases, such as a shared barbecue or a community orchard.

As the dust settles, we’re determined to keep the momentum going and would love you to join us on our mission by sharing ideas. Please comment below with your plans for your own communities, or drop an email to editor@prettynostalgic.co.uk. You can also send us a message on twitter (@prettynostalgic) or check out our Facebook group to see how other people are getting on.

Pick up issue three of Pretty Nostalgic (on sale now) for tips to help you set up your own honesty box, organise a jam-making day, save your seeds and start crop swapping – and to hear from inspiring community gardening groups around the country.