Hendon Regenerative Culture Garden

Hendon Regenerative Culture Garden (HRCG) is not for profit, it is based around several plots of land within Corporation Road Allotments, Sunderland, North East England.

It comprises:

Wildlife Pond (30 M2)
Cordon apple trees
Wildflower Area
Chicken Coop
Forest Garden
Poly tunnel
8 no. raised-beds approx. 3.6 x 1.2 x .600 Mts
Large decking area

It is open to the public on open days

The aim of HRCG is to become a permaculture Learning And Network Demonstration (LAND) site. Demonstrating Permaculture Ethics & Principles showing what can be achieved by groups if given land to manage for the wellbeing of local communities - both human & wildlife communities - (Earth Care, People Care, Fair Shares).
For instance using the ethic of Earth Care inspires us to grow wildflowers and create habitats for wildlife. Using the People Care ethic we see that people enjoy being in a safe natural environment, both learning and helping with the growing of fruit & vegetables.
The Fair Shares ethic reminds us that there are within our communities people who through no fault of their own are struggling to feed themselves, and that some of the food we produce could help them enormously.

The heart of any garden should be it’s compost heap, at HRCG we are learning techniques developed by Elaine Ingham’s Soil Foodweb Approach which shows in detail how to create compost that has lots of beneficial micro-organisms in it, while limiting pathogens & less-desired organisms. It also shows how we can maximise the carbon storage capacity of the soil, so mitigating the effects of carbon & other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We hope to encourage the local community to drop-off food waste, inspiring other gardens to form community composting schemes, to facilitate this we have signed-up with ShareWaste.

These concepts are meant to inspire a conversation about the potential use of some of the most fertile land available to inner city areas - allotments. Planting fruit trees shows that we have an eye on food security looking at an uncertain future, when we may once again see thousands of orchards being developed across the country as they once were, helping to feed a growing global population with fewer resources.