Perth Community Farm: WHAT WE DO

TEACHING AND EVENT SPACE

Right from the start, we've seen teaching as our farm's main community role - teaching by demonstration rather than by lecture. It's much more powerful for most people to see gardening techniques and ideas in practice and try them out themselves than just to read about them. We run our own classes in skills for sustainable living: current classes on Eventbrite here. Please ask if you think the space might be suitable for an event you have in mind yourself.

Sowing seeds on a gardening class - helping people to take those important first steps

We kept half of our larger tunnel open so that we could run events like this one by Perth Seed Savers

It's even a big enough space for teaching shed-building with excellent light for woodwork. After gardening, woodwork is probably one of the most useful skills you could pick up, wood being such a big part of our everyday infrastructure.

The tunnel and new shelter also made a brilliant wedding venue!

FOOD GROWING

Our aim is to show people how to feed themselves rather to grow tons of food and supply Perth directly with fruit and veg, so we're nothing like as intensive as a market garden. We grow as wide a range of food as we can to show people what's possible: common crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers and potatoes and also some more unusual ones too, such as asparagus, keffir lime, turmeric and a wealth of culinary and medicinal herbs. People are surprised that we grow grapes - but they're not that difficult...

We share out what we grow amongst our volunteer helpers, surpluses go to local projects like the Letham Hub

THERAPEUTIC GARDENING

Over the years, we've been approached by a number of local Occupational Therapists and have had a lot of valuable volunteering input from them and their patients. It's amazing just how helpful it has been for people to get out onto the land and spend time with others gardening - particularly in the aftermath of the Covid lockdown.

COMMUNITY RESOURCE

As well as being a community resource for events and activities our farm is also a miniature nature reserve in its own right. We have allowed an area to the back of the farm to regenerate naturally after it was cut down to the ground about ten years ago. It's been amazing to follow the resurgence of a huge diversity of plants and it's now home to a range of birds, bats, hedgehogs, bees and insects. We plan to build on that diversity with a pond and a wildlife corridor around the edge of the farm.

NETWORKING - BUILDING RESILIENT LOCAL COMMUNITIES

Perth Community Farm is part of a growing network of gardens, small holdings and other projects where people are exploring how to live sustainably, researching and developing ideas and techniques, and sharing skills and results. As we connect with more and more people our network becomes stronger and stronger.