Calling all community growers in Plymouth! Whether you’re growing in a garden, school, park or community space, there’s an exciting nationwide weekend of activity coming up to help raise awareness of what you do and how your communities can get involved.
Good to Grow 2022 is a national weekend of action from Friday 22 to Monday 25 April for edible gardens to celebrate and prepare for the new growing season, promote their activities and encourage people to volunteer.
What’s in it for you as a community growing project?
If you’re linked to a garden or growing space, you can register the space for free on the Good to Grow website. Don’t worry if you’re running a very small space – anyone growing food in at least one square metre or more is eligible to join. You’ll get access to helpful resources for promoting your garden and for hosting activities, and will even be able to track your garden’s activity through our useful Harvest-ometer!
You’ll also be able to mark your garden as open to volunteers on Good to Grow’s garden map. This makes it easy for volunteers in your local area to come and help out on the Good to Grow weekend and throughout the year. You can read more about the benefits here.
Sign me up for Good to Grow 2022 – and beyond!
If you haven’t yet registered your garden as a member, it’s free and takes five minutes here. We’d love to know you’re on board so do drop us an email to let you know, too, and we’ll help spread the word.
I don’t run a project but I’d like to volunteer for one – what can I do?
Gardens and growing spaces across the UK have already started populating the Good to Grow map with their plans for activities and events so keep checking the Good to Grow map. Alternatively, get directly in touch with your nearest gardent to express your interest.
The story behind Good to Grow
Before Good to Grow was The Big Dig Day. The Big Dig Day started as an event run by Capital Growth in 2012 to engage volunteers in local food growing projects. Funding was also received to roll this out across the UK , recruiting 7,500 new volunteers to take part in community gardening. These local networks continue to recruit and engage volunteers locally.
In 2019 the Big Dig Day took place on Saturday the 27th of April. The day went national with over 100 gardens participating from across the UK. People could use the interactive map to find a garden to volunteer with for the Big Dig day. Activities, hours and locations varied so that volunteers could find the right garden for them.
Since the Big Dig was first launched in 2012, a growing number of gardens have been adopting a ‘no dig’ approach to food growing and to reflect that we surveyed our members to find a new name that was more inclusive and representative of our network. After a great debate and lots of ideas, Good to Grow was voted in as the overwhelming favourite.
