Building a vegetable and wildlife garden for the community in Bristol

Building a vegetable and wildlife garden for the community in Bristol

The Beehive Centre Bristol
We’re growing together, we’re harvesting this food together and then we’re making meals out of that food together.

The Beehive Community Centre approached Avon Wildlife Trust in 2022 about working with them as part of the Nextdoor Nature Project. They wanted to improve their garden for people and wildlife and get out into the local community. Two years later, Amber, the community manager, explains how the project has developed and the impact that it has had.

The Beehive Centre aims to reduce isolation and loneliness in the community by bringing people together for various activities. One such activity is a gardening group that meets every Thursday to work on the centre’s community garden.

Amber, Community Manager at the Beehive Centre said: “I’ve been managing the Beehive Centre for around eight years now and I absolutely love working here. However, everything we do has been inside the building, so we’ve had to ask people to come in to get involved with activities.”

“Everything we do has been inside the building, so we’ve had to ask people to come in to get involved in activities.”

Community sitting socialising in the centre's garden.

The garden is a relaxing place to sit and socialise. Image copyright: Stephanie Sharkey Avon Wildlife Trust

Amber wanted to bring this ethos into their outdoor space. She and her team had a “useless” space beside the building, so they decided to build a garden which is now used for activities and as a place to socialise and connect with nature.

The garden is filled with flowers and herbs that attract bees, birds and other wildlife. It is designed for wheelchairs and frames, making it accessible to all. “We have a lady who loves the garden,” said Helen, a volunteer at the Centre. “She can sit here in the summer and she likes being in the sun and looking at the flowers.”

The gardening group also grows vegetables which the community centre chefs use for their weekly lunch club, where older people can come together for a three-course meal.

“We grow vegetables and herbs that our chefs can use in the food and that can go back into feeding our community as well,” Amber said. “It’s a really nice full circle that we’ve got.

“We’re growing together, we’re harvesting that food together and then we’re making meals out of that food together.”

Several people gather together in a community garden.

Photo credit: Avon Wildlife Trust

The Centre has benefited from the support of Avon Wildlife Trust, who helped them run an open day, offered advice and supported funding applications for the raised beds.

“It’s enabled us to get further out into the community,” Amber said. “We have a bed that we maintain and populate in the park as well and that’s got loads more people from the community involved in gardening with us.” If you’re based in Bristol and want to get involved with the community garden, please speak to Amber or Jack.

Their contact details can be found here.

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Except where noted and excluding images, company and organisation logos, this work is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) Licence

Please attribute as: “Nextdoor Nature (2022-2024) by The Wildlife Trusts funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, licensed under CC BY 40