Workshop 3: what to do with the compost

A massive part of the plan for the Maiden Lane Food Loop has always been to get more food and flowers growing on the estate, so that residents can see that the compost produced from their food waste is being put to good use.

We ran a workshop yesterday to see what residents would like to grow on the estate, and where. We have talked to Camden Council’s housing department, and have identified 5 areas that could be used for food growing on the estate. So we started off the workshop with a tour round the estate, to see what ideas people had for a greener Maiden Lane.

We talked about various ways in which people could grow food – using their balconies; putting large grow bags on paved areas; using existing greenspace and hanging baskets; even putting allotments on top of the community centre! We had some really fantastic input and ideas from residents.

Next up, we asked people to imagine what Maiden Lane could be like in 5 years, and to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. Rachel and Matthias from Studio Loop.ph provided us with some ‘fortune cookies’ that gave residents a new identity, an area to work with and tracing paper and pictures to get creative.

The session they ran was great, and we’ll be running another workshop in the next few months to decide exactly what we’ll be growing and where. In the meantime, residents were given some bulbs and seedlings to told to get planting!