gardening in the community
In this issue, David talks more about how this transformative project was delivered and the positive effect it had on prisoners.
We had been given a disused space behind the wash house within the grounds of the prison in which to garden, with a steep grassy slope to one side and gravel and lack of light for most for the day on the other.
I wanted the prisoners who had applied to do The Landscape Academy course to have a say in how they used the space, my feeling being that if they came up with the ideas, they would be more likely to engage and invest in the project as well as the ongoing maintenance of the garden. I saw the development of the garden as a group effort for a common goal - a chance to be outside, to exercise meaningfully, work on bettering the prison facilities, and learn new skills. The goal for me was to deliver a course that didn’t make the students feel as if they were being forced to learn.
When I say we were starting from nothing, I really mean nothing and an order had to be placed for wheelbarrows, spades, forks, and secateurs.
The original large, raised bed at the top of the slope was far too big to use successfully and conveniently, so the first thing we did as a group was to remove around six tonnes of top soil from the bed to pile at the bottom of the slope. It was a bit of double handling but the space was awkward in shape so there was no other way. We removed the weeds and any large stones and barrowed it to the bottom of the slope, trying not to slip and coup the barrow, which indeed happened, but that was all part of the fun.
After the area was cleared, we the used the original sleepers to make a raised flower bed and to help level off the rest of the area. This allowed us to then order five shiny new steel raised beds which were ideal in size and height for growing comfortably. After filling the beds with manure, compost, and topsoil, the area was put to gravel creating a clean, practical, and pretty new vegetable garden.
We were fortunate enough to have three aluminium glasshouses which, if required, could be heated and that was a great bonus. The glasshouses are usually only used to house the bedding plants which come in the spring for the containers and hanging baskets around the prison, but I was able to hijack them before the bedding plugs arrived so the class could start seed sowing.
Growing vegetables would cover a wide range of topics from the course as seed sowing covers a part of propagation and crop selection, and environmental control could be covered in the use of the greenhouses. Pest and disease management and simple plant biology would all be investigated while growing plants from seed.
There is also the social interaction and cooperation which the project brought: working with each other, looking out for each other's seedlings, and feeling a sense of accomplishment and pride when the first shoots appear.
I asked the students what they wanted to grow and tatties was clearly a favourite, closely followed by peas and carrots. When I suggested crops such as salad leaves, beetroot, radish, and cucumber, their faces went sour as these types of vegetables wouldn’t suit their tastes, or perhaps they didn’t know how to prepare them. That led on to a somewhat defeatist comment from one of the students who thought it was pointless anyway. When I asked why, he said, “We won’t get to cook them anyway or take them up to our cell”.
Sadly, that was true, they can’t use what they grow! Even though it was grown in the prison, it can’t be used in the prison. It got me thinking: if they can’t take the produce to the cells or cook in the halls, then we would just have to grow things that the students could eat straight from the garden!
Peas would be ideal for eating in the garden straight from the plant, so we grew sugar snap and mangetout, and an amazing number of tomatoes - ‘Sungold’, 'Gardener’s Delight’, and ‘Tumbler' to name a few, all sweet-tasting garden favourites. We even planted peppers and chillis, only to be told that we shouldn't be growing chillis as they could potentially be weaponised - it was a learning experience for me too.
We also planted soft fruits such as raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and rhubarb - all fruits which could be easily grown, eaten, and appreciated by the prisoners within the garden and we sourced dwarf varieties of apple, pears, plums, and cherries at about four foot tall.
It was all hands to the trowels as we geared up for the official opening of the garden - there would be officials in attendance that we wanted to impress. The final tasks were to lay the path, plant the herbaceous borders, complete the archway, paint the trellis and new fence, install the prisoner-made benches, find a home for the wormery, and to top it off we built a raised pond, and added fish!
The garden was officially opened by Deputy Governor Lillian Burns as a therapeutic space to educate and help improve the mental health of the user.
The building of the garden was not without its challenges but seven months later, that disused and forgotten space behind the wash house has been transformed into a beautifully functioning garden which benefits both prisoners and staff.
All prisoner students on the course had a hand in creating a garden which served as a tool for education and the development of new skills, through a shared vision and, for some, a newly shared interest and appreciation for horticulture and the power of gardening – even on the inside!
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If you have a project you’d like to tell the rest of Scotland about, do get in touch at mail@scotlandgrowsmagazine.com.