ABOUT
Global Gardens Project is a community growing project based in Cardiff.
Our vision is to create a growing space that supports community-based sharing of food and cultures.
We have an allotment site where we are cultivating an organic kitchen garden, celebrating crops from around the world.
The crops grown are used in our quarterly community suppers and shared within the local community.
We also have a mobile pizza oven which is available for community events.
NEWS
January 26, 2020
Today we had a bird-watching workshop at the garden, as part of the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch (25-27 January 2020).
The RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch is one of the biggest citizen science projects in the world. Every year around half a million people in the UK set aside one hour to watch-out for birds in their garden or local green space. Information gathered from the weekend is used to gather information about bird populations and distribution...
December 22, 2019
2019 has been a busy time at Global Gardens. From sowing seeds, planting out, watering in and harvesting at the plot. Writing, weaving and dyeing fabric in the greenhouse. To cracking on with some infrastructural improvements - including installation of a compost toilet and commencement of construction of the Global Gardens kitchen/classroom.
Land-based Arts and Crafts
This year we hosted a series...
December 21, 2019
This year, from May to October, I had the wonderful opportunity to write about the Global Gardens Project, producing a piece of work each month – some flash fictions (very short stories) and some prose poems. What I found out in the process was that it is hard to put into words what this project does for all the people involved – but I tried to capture it anyway, and in fact I enjoyed the challenge.
From natural dye workshops to sharing suppe...
December 19, 2019
Having set out the foundations, the next step of the build was to assemble the trusses. Hugo's design is based upon six modules connected together by a frame running across the length of the building.
Carpenter-in-resident William Williams got to work on chopping the wood ready for assembly. Big thanks to Made in Roath for letting us use the sheltered workshop space at Braevel Street. We then moved the wood to the Global Gardens site ready f...
November 28, 2019
This month we have been working on laying the foundations for the new Global Gardens structure designed by architect Hugo Keene of QORA. This structure will be used as a learning space for cooking and other activities at the garden.
Model of the kitchen/classroom structure
Under the guidance of Hugo and with the support of William Williams, carpenter-in-resident, the first step of the build was to mark out the footprint of the structure.
Wil...
October 5, 2019
I’m not sure what I expected turning up to a ‘stool’ making workshop at Global Gardens. I’ve had a lot of fun at the other workshops they’ve organised, like willow weaving, salad growing, and the introduction to permaculture session, but I was also asked on the sign-up sheet whether I had any experiences with wood working, and green wood working in particular. *gulp*. Apart from my lopsided birdhouses in year 9 DT and helping my dad with the...
September 23, 2019
This weekend artist Cat Lewis of Colourfield joined us at Global Gardens to lead a workshop on berries and nut inks.
Cat encouraged us to collect a range of leaves and berries at the garden and experiment with them as inks. We harvested blackberries, elderberries and grapes as well as weld and woad leaves from the dye patch.
Plants in the dye patch: Weld, Woad and Madder
We macerated the berries and leaves, adding water and/or alcohol to the p...
September 7, 2019
On the last day of August, while the weather went wild – thrashing rain one minute, scorching sun the next - we sat inside the greenhouse for our third Global Gardens creative writing workshop.
This time round, I asked our small group of writers to focus on the theme of ‘making the ugly beautiful’, with the idea that things usually seen as unpleasant, repellent or unwanted can be viewed in other lights.
This is an idea that has started to emer...
September 1, 2019
Anthotypes and cyanotypes are a type of photographic printing invented in the mid 19th century by the scientist and the Renaissance man of the day sir John Herschel. It was the time when lots of other printing processes and indeed photography itself were being elaborated.
What is anthotype printing?
Anthotype prints. The print on the left is made using beetroot juice, and the print on the right is made with a mixture of tumeric, raspberry, str...
August 2, 2019
Dear Lovely People who gathered to cook and eat at the last Global Gardens workshop and supper on 29 July:
I really enjoyed being with you all, and wanted to follow up with some thoughts and reminders about what we cooked together celebrating the mid-summer glut.
We talked about cucumbers and courgettes.
We showed how salting and letting them sit concentrated flavour.
We showed how both can be eaten raw or cooked.
We made a raw grated courgette s...