Our story
Barracks Lane Community Garden is a beautiful green space at the heart of our vibrant community in Oxford. The garden has charitable status, and is run by members of the community for everyone to use.
Our Wild Edges project was supported by the Trust for Oxfordshire's Environment (TOE), with funding from Grundon Waste Management Ltd. The project had two main arms:
1. It allowed Ruth, our gardener, to create a new planting scheme focused on pollinator-friendly plants, with advice from Wild Oxfordshire, our county's Local Nature Partnership.
2. It allowed us to replace the pillars that form the structure of our raised beds with new ones made with recycled plastic.
The raised beds make the garden more attractive as well as being prime growing spots. As we welcome people from all around the community, it's important to have a nice, relaxing space that's well kept and looks beautiful – we want everyone to enjoy it!
We're also the base for social groups to meet. It can be booked out and we have facilities including a bread oven, pizza oven, wood-burning stove and compost loo.
We run events such as our Summer Fun Day, and provide all kinds of resources on our website for making and doing when you're in the garden.
Our advice
You can get so much from a small space. We designed our raised beds with wildlife in mind, but you can grow beautiful plants that are also pollinator and wildlife friendly, smell great, or are edible, depending on what works best for you.
There's more to plants than meets the eye. They can have a big environmental impact due to their origin and transport, so we are careful to get them from a local nursery where they are grown from seed or bulb.
A community garden isn't just about growing! We host events and open up the space for people to use. Many people don't have a garden so this provides a social space where local people can enjoy all sorts of activities.
Our metrics
More pollinators.
Number of events hosted.
