Planting day on the estate

Yesterday we had our first planting day on the estate! We’ve recently got the first batch of compost produced from Maiden Lane food waste, and to celebrate we had a day where we gave away compost and free plants. We had over 120 purple sprouting broccoli, ying yang beans, climbing green beans, perpetual spinach and tomato plants – grown by SEED, and snapped up by residents:

The community centre roof has recently been cleared, and some of the planters refilled with fertile new topsoil. Throughout the day, about 30 residents came to help us mix in compost and plant in them. We had some fantastic advice from Chris who works at City Leaf, who knows everything there is to know about plants and growing, and who was around all day to provide personalized advice to residents.

We also built a raised planter as an example of the new growing spaces that could be created on the roof.

Fabulous new advertising campaign

While the election was going on, we cooked up a whole batch of new communications materials for the estate, informing residents about the food waste scheme. Firstly, there’s an updated leaflet for residents (including info about how to join the new texting service):

There’s also stickers for the recycling bins and main refuse bins:

…and also a sign, that the owners of the shop on Maiden Lane have kindly agreed to put up. This was suggested in the recent discussion groups, and we’ve been able to make it happen very quickly; action research…in action! More on the way, soon.

Sorry for the wrong bags…

In the focus groups last week, all of the residents consistently complained about the new, smaller caddy liners which are being distributed on the estate. We spoke to the service provider, ELCRP, and apparently they were provided to them in error. ELCRP have got the old, bigger bags back, and have distributed these notes around the estate:

This is one of the advantages of using action research methods; you can respond very quickly to problems and issues and get them sorted out.

Listening to the residents

Over the last few weeks we’ve been holding discussion groups with three different groups of residents – varying from people who use their green caddies all the time, to those who haven’t started using the food waste scheme yet. We’ve talked to 30 people from various parts of the estate and it’s been really useful. We asked people how they felt about the food waste scheme; whether it was working well; whether it was a good idea; how they felt about food waste; and a whole plethora of other questions!

We got a lot of information from the residents, and some really great suggestions for how the scheme could be improved. Some residents suggested central drop-off bins next to the existing recycling bins; others wanted to change various ways that the service is being run. All very interesting stuff, and over the next few weeks we’ll see what it will be possible to implement.