Through the community and greenspace surveys we carried out in 2019, we identified a preferred site for the development of a Neighbourhood Garden for Hutchison. There are several potential sites in the estate, but this site is particularly well suited due to its size, location, solar aspect, and being over seen by a ring of tenements.
The potential site is an area of greenspace managed by the council within a ring of tenements between Hutchison Medway, and Hutchison Avenue. The site can be accessed by a path on Hutchison Medway.
The video below shows how the garden might look, though the actual design may vary if we go ahead and build the garden.
The Neighbourhood Garden would include a large community shed which would support the garden but also community greenspace projects across Hutchison, and provide a location for other community activities. There would be up to thirty five raised beds which could be managed individually by growers, or as a group. A community orchard would be planted around the perimeter of the garden. The fence around the site would be renovated with gates installed (if households want them) so that residents living around the site could access it directly.
In November 2020, we carried out a postal survey of the 63 households which live around the preferred community garden site. Due to the Covid restrictions, we asked households to return a SAE postcard to us indicating either: ‘I support the proposed community garden’; ‘I need to find out more’, ‘I don’t support the use of the space for a community garden’. We received 22 responses giving their support for the proposed project, we did not receive any negative responses, or requests for more information.
– Hutchison Garden Development Schedule Report (3.2Mb)
Edible Estates have developed similar neighbourhood gardens in similar sites at Magdalene and Lochend.
