Bulwell community garden project shortlisted for Severn Trent Gold Award

Iris Wallace, one of BFG's youth volunteers, applying compost to the plants in BFG's Buzzy Bee border.placeholder image
Iris Wallace, one of BFG's youth volunteers, applying compost to the plants in BFG's Buzzy Bee border.

The Bulwell Forest Garden (BFG) community project is celebrating after being shortlisted for the chance to win £20,000 in funding from the Severn Trent Community Fund.

The group, based on Austin Street in Bulwell, will use the cash to set up a new community composting club.

BFG has been running for 10 years as a community food growing project with regular activities and workshops for all.

If BFG receives the new funding from the Severn Trent Community Fund, which awards grant money to improve community wellbeing and help communities care for nature – it means the garden can embark upon an exciting new community composting initiative to enable the local community to turn their kitchen waste into valuable plant food.

Iris Wallace, one of BFG's youth volunteers, applying compost to the plants in BFG's Buzzy Bee border.placeholder image
Iris Wallace, one of BFG's youth volunteers, applying compost to the plants in BFG's Buzzy Bee border.

As well as creating a valuable product from recycled materials, this initiative will help to reduce carbon and methane emissions, and the application of the compost onto the gardens will help to lock the carbon into the soil.

Jo Swann, educational gardener, said: “We’re delighted that we’ve been shortlisted for the Severn Trent Community Fund.

"Now we need our local community to vote for us online here in the gold award section.

"If successful we’ll be able to press on with our plans to educate and enable 200 local households to get composting.

"This is important because at a very local grassroots level, it allows local people to take positive action in tackling the huge challenges of climate change .”

The award is part of £10 million Severn Trent is giving away over five years through its community fund to support local projects, charities and community groups.

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