Great news for the Social Farms & Gardens project ‘Growing Resilience’ this month, as additional funding from the lottery is confirmed. This important funding will enable the charity to expand the project, supporting even more community gardens in Northern Ireland to garden and grow together...
Community Gardening has transformed community work in Northern Ireland over the past 15 years, and is capable of much more, even in uncertain funding circumstances. SF&G is uniquely placed to gather evidence about what works and what is needed.
We have had a staff member in Northern Ireland since 2011, and since then we have worked with many of the new and established community growing projects in Northern Ireland. We are involved in several ongoing projects:
- Our 'Growing Resilience: Digging Deeper' project aims to increase social capital and resilience in the community growing sector.
- The Outdoor Wellbeing Network for Northern Ireland helps to develop and promote green care in Northern Ireland.
During the past five years we have:
- Focused on capacity-building by advising allotment and community garden groups, organising training and facilitating visits to established sites.
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Convened the biannual Northern Ireland Allotment and Community Garden Forum, bringing together a range of stakeholders from Northern Ireland and the South - councils and local authorities, government agencies, NGOs and allotment and community garden representatives - to meet, share ideas, get to know each other and find out what's going on around the country
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Stimulated cooperation between statutory agencies and the community sector, for example through the workplace allotments at Parliament buildings
See below for a map view or list of local community growing sites, as well as local news, events and case studies. There are lots of useful information resources available for Northern Ireland community growers on our Resources page.
You can also get useful information via the SF&G Northern Ireland Facebook page: 
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
| City / County | |
|---|---|
| The Well Garden | Carrickfergus |
| Walled Garden | Dungannon |
| Willowbank Organic Producers Ltd | Dungannon |
Get Involved
If you want to know more about our work in Northern Ireland or want information as a community grower yourself, you can contact:
Northern Ireland Development Coordinator - Patricia Wallace patricia@farmgarden.org.uk
Growing Resilience Project Officer - Miriam Turley miriam@farmgarden.org.uk
Growing Resilience Project Coordinator (Derry/Londonderry) - Conor O'Kane conor@farmgarden.org.uk
We work with Community Gardens Ireland (CG Ireland), a voluntary organisation that was created in 2011 as an online support network. Visit their website.
Latest news
We are delighted to announce that Social Farms & Gardens has been selected to lead the 'Growing Care Farming' Project.
This project is part of the £10m Children and Nature Programme being supported by Defra, funded by the Department of Education and managed by Natural England, which...
Upcoming events
No current events for this region/project
Useful Case Studies
The Northern Ireland team working with the Belfast Food Network recently made a fruitful connection between a social and therapeutic horticulture project and a local café, strengthening local supply chain connections, and bringing lovely fresh veg...
Our member groups provide the inspiration for these videos, created as part of our Tyfu Pobl programme in Wales but of interest to viewers across the UK, which shows our members in action and illustrate how our support has helped in their development...