History
Diggin’ It is an Organic Gardening project managed by Routeways Centre Ltd, a registered charity in Plymouth. Routeways was established in August 1997 as an amalgamation of a number of community benefit economic regeneration projects that had previously been managed by Plymouth City Council. In May 2000 Routeways Centre Limited achieved charitable status with newly agreed charitable objects. In May 2003 Routeways was awarded Investors in People accreditation and in January 2006 awarded Chartermark accreditation. Diggin’ It was conceived, created and is currently blooming under the Routeways’ umbrella, being successful in gaining three years’ funding in the summer of 2006, with a “birth” day of November 1st 2006.
Plymouth City Council have provided around 2.5 acres of land, which was previously unused, overgrown allotment land. After being approached with the idea for the project, the Allotments’ Officer, Carol Moore showed us the potential site. It was perfect, being situated less than a mile from the city centre, enabling everyone to get to it either by foot or public transport.
After several years of planning, researching and making contacts with a wide range of agencies and organisations, a three-year business plan was drawn up and approved by Routeways board of Trustees. At the time this was completed, the Big Lottery was introducing its new Reaching Communities programme, and Routeways spent many hours working on a bid to fund them over the first three years of the project.
In July 2006 The Big Lottery notified Routeways that it had been successful, and so Routeways was able to start their recruitment process.
After successfully recruiting a Project Leader, Head Gardener and Assistant Gardener, the team of three set to work clearing the sloping site of its 8feet high brambles! Plymouth City Council helped by bringing in machines to make the work easier, and teams from BTCV also helped to drag the mountains of cut brambles away.
Four months of rain prevented headway in the landscaping of the site, which became a muddy boggy, grey place to be, with no shelter until Plymouth City Council donated an 8’ x 6’ ticket shed! At least the team could escape the elements!
To start with, on a lower part of the site which hadn’t been so badly covered in brambles, and to get something growing instead of waiting for the weather to change, the team brought in some help and created several narrow beds, in which they planted lettuce, garlic, onions, chard, beetroot and broad beans – it was great to see that a garden had at least been attempted!
Whilst that part of the garden looked after itself, the team watched the rain come down and then one day, received a call to say that the polytunnel was on its way! Whilst causing some consternation (the landscaping hadn’t been done yet) it also brought a great sense of excitement – at last, somewhere dry to hide from the rain and cold, somewhere to sit down and best of all, somewhere to grow!
A quick decision was made to level the area where the polytunnel was to go, and diggers were called in to do the business. Kelvin, our polytunnel man arrived, and a fantastic job he did too, completely erecting the 50’ x 20’ polytunnel practically single-handedly within a week!
The rain continued for four months, and during that time we saw the installation of electricity, mains water, drainage pipes, the positioning of our portacabin, our storage unit for our tools and equipment and eventually, after the rain had stopped, along came our potting shed!
Terraces, paths, raised beds, wildlife areas, a large pond, a sensory garden, a composting toilet and many volunteers and beneficiaries later, in just twelve months, we were astonished by what we had achieved. We are now selling produce to our neighbours, ourselves, green-grocers, Routeways’ staff and in fact, anybody that wants to buy them!
We are planning our sustainability for the future, contacting restaurants that are interested in purchasing fresh, locally, organically grown vegetables as well as thinking about possibilities such as a veg-box scheme.Please let us know what you think? Would you like to buy from us? Please contact us to let us know!
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