Location: The Kymin, Beach Road, Penarth CF64 1JX

Aim: To create a community garden in this 5 acre steeply sloping dell, which is a public open space

The Kymin Community Gardens project is being delivered through a collaboration of Penarth Growing Community, Gwyrddio Penarth Greening, Friends of the Kymin, The Vale of Glamorgan Council Parks Department and a group of Volunteers.

Penarth Growing Community (PGC) is a Gwyrddio Penarth Greening (GPG) project that developed from a community-wide event held in January 2020 to gather ideas on how Penarth could take action locally to tackle the climate and nature crises. 

Community interest in growing and accessing local, sustainable food, and developing community connections and resilience through this, has grown hugely over the last 18 months and PGC has been working with the local councils (Town and County) as well as other organisations to identify suitable growing sites. 

This has been a challenge in Penarth as suitable land is hard to find. We feel that the Kymin is a perfect location as it will allow us to develop local wildlife-friendly food growing opportunities for current and new volunteers to get involved in and support.  

Uncertainty around ownership has led to significant neglect over the last few years so local residents have come together to form Friends of the Kymin and are looking to engage with the community; and encourage the idea of developing local growing as well as sites for protecting and enhancing nature. The Vale Council have now confirmed they will hold The Kymin as a community asset. 

As part of the learning pathway, I want to explore a range of frameworks. So for design I”m going to explore GOBRADIME as the design process.

“A concise, step-by-step process for making a clear and tangible plan for your garden.” HJF

We are stewards of this land for a brief moment. We are making a garden for the community. It’s about medicine for our broken relationship with the Earth. and ‘healing stories which allow us to imagine a different relationship, in which people and land are good for each other’ Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Identify personal and collective goals

What do you want to accomplish and why?

We intend to create a community garden in this easily accessible public open space, focussing on local food, organic growing and permaculture.

The site has become neglected. We can enliven the site for the benefit of local people, visitors and nature. 

We will use permaculture techniques to integrate our wild-life friendly, organic food growing into the ecosystem, maintaining the quiet woodland feel and creating a food forest to complement the main growing space. We will discourage use of pesticides, promoting other alternatives e.g companion planting.

We have seen a rise in interest in local green space, foraging, being in the wild and growing. We know that being out in nature helps people feel well.

> develop local wildlife-friendly food growing opportunities for current and new volunteers to get involved in and support

As we develop and install the site we will:

> Increase the biodiversity of the area with plants

> Create opportunities for people to reconnect, spend time together, learning and exploring 

> Increase the number of local people and visitors who enjoy nature through open sessions, events and workshops

> Promote The Kymin as a place where people can step out into the wild on their doorstep

> Weave the Five Ways to Wellbeing (connect, be active, take notice, learn, give) through our work

> Use findings of research on how access to a garden improves wellbeing as a guide

> Work to identify many of the plants and species that are present, enlisting the LNP 

> Apply for the LNP grant to purchase ID guides, binoculars, wildlife cameras

> Submit records to the Local Environmental Record Centre SEWBReC to contribute to species monitoring 

> Share that learning through guided walks and foraging events 

> Involve volunteers from our established groups (26 people), plus 120+ people signed up to gardens network and 149 members of Friends of the Kymin

> Engage people who live and work nearby through promotion, using social media and face to face networks as well as local media and tourism outlets to encourage the many visitors to the pier and esplanade to visit

> Get on the jobcentre list for work experience and volunteering and engage with GVS

This is the survey aspect of the design process:

includes finding and cooperating with nature’s patterns and cycles

reading the land

watch where the eater drains and where it collects

soil

shade, where the moss grows, where the mushrooms are

identify plants

what do you see?

how do you want to change it?

what is the most effective and ecological way to proceed? ref to Looby patterns and cycles and 

Basemap goes here

This is the place for sector maps

and land use, legal and other constraints, relationships withe Friends and Neighbours

Limiting factors here, barriers

make lists of the resources that are available:

money, plants, labour, garden supplies, building materials, access to facilities, informations and support from experts (LNP)

garage and toilets

KWT garden pack

resources in the waste stream

balance of using waste and new materials, things have to look nice in this public open space

sector map for resources – make a copy of your base map and note resources such as water, sun, compost, manure, wood piles, neighbours, volunteers

what do you have? what do you need? flow of resources in and out of the project, identify functions you are trying to fulfil, before buying something, see how you can innovate/create

SWOT

limiting factors

cohesive plan

use boundaries and resources available to meet the goals you have in mind

First, do nothing. least change for the greatest effect

how is everything affecting everything else?

what are the yields? how can they be improved?

places for elements/plants/structures

if nothing was here, what would i bring in?

what is here now that i need to remove?

find connections, think about relationships

This is the place for zones and sectors

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A clear, deliberate action plan.

keep a garden journal

what data do you need to record? climate, yield, growth rates, volunteer time, no of participants

record successes, failures, mistakes, problems

Problem: dealing in the greenhouse

SWOT

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