CG - LET'S GO LET'S GROW

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Comment by Mike Wohl on January 31, 2010 at 2:38am

Tips & Tutorials
1st published on website - cityleaf.co.uk.
Growing ideas – that’s what City Leaf is all about.


* Top Tips for a Successful Community Food Growing Project
By Mike Wohl, Let’s Go Let’s Grow - Westminster, London
This is my experience and through chatting with others over 10 months


1. Find a patron: somebody with good local connections; who knows the movers and shakers; who is well liked; and has an interest in growing vegetables.

2. Create a portfolio and carry it with you at all times. Door knock people in the immediate area. Your portfolio speaks for itself. You then don’t need to try and persuade someone – the pictures tell their own story. This is far more useful than leaflets, websites.
At the start of Let’s Go, Let’s Grow, I just included images of similar projects existing already – it let people know what could be achieved.


3. Sign up for Project Dirt. Don’t waste time building a website. Even if you have a techy person, it’s not really worth it – Project Dirt does most of things we need and it’s free. It also provides a ready made audience, plus essential regular new content. If you really want your own website name, you can buy a URL and direct to the Project Dirt site.


4. Leaflets and posters are a waste of time - people are bombarded by them and good ones are too costly.


5. Be realistic about the land owner. Get provisional consent from the landlord if possible, but push early to get a formal agreement - the landlord is often busy and your project will be low priority. Ask them how they would feel in principal about a local food growing group. And remember – they will pay much more attention to you when you already have an external offer of money / grant.


6. Get an expert on funding applications to read your drafts - in community matters, it’s not what you say but how you say it, sadly. The exact same set of proposals said one way will get money, said another way will get nothing.


7. Start husbanding the surrounding area. Get a high visibility jacket, maybe with your logo on it. Start to look after and care for the area surrounding the place you’re interested in.Get any broken lights fixed, graffitti cleaned. No one will challenge you if you pick up some empty pizza cartons or beer cans – but everyone will notice and subconsciously assume that you have got consent already.


8. Having a brand is critical. Let’s Go, Let’s Grow has a motivational component and a hook like a pop song. It was never punted as saving the planet or about food miles – it was have fun, be healthy and save money.


9. Don’t bother with steering groups or a management committee. Try to find one person who has the growing bug to help drive it through.


10. Expect negativism, ridicule and continuous blocks and setbacks. The secret of success is the ability to confront repeated failures and disappointments with ever increasing optimism ( super-optimism, I call it ) and persist persist persist.
good luck!

Comment by Mike Wohl on January 31, 2010 at 2:35am

Tips & Tutorials
1st published on website - cityleaf.co.uk.
Growing ideas – that’s what City Leaf is all about.


* Top Tips for a Successful Community Food Growing Project


By Mike Wohl, Let’s Go Let’s Grow - Westminster, London
This is my experience and through chatting with others over 10 months


1. Find a patron: somebody with good local connections; who knows the movers and shakers; who is well liked; and has an interest in growing vegetables.

2. Create a portfolio and carry it with you at all times. Door knock people in the immediate area. Your portfolio speaks for itself. You then don’t need to try and persuade someone – the pictures tell their own story. This is far more useful than leaflets, websites.
At the start of Let’s Go, Let’s Grow, I just included images of similar projects existing already – it let people know what could be achieved.


3. Sign up for Project Dirt. Don’t waste time building a website. Even if you have a techy person, it’s not really worth it – Project Dirt does most of things we need and it’s free. It also provides a ready made audience, plus essential regular new content. If you really want your own website name, you can buy a URL and direct to the Project Dirt site.


4. Leaflets and posters are a waste of time - people are bombarded by them and good ones are too costly.


5. Be realistic about the land owner. Get provisional consent from the landlord if possible, but push early to get a formal agreement - the landlord is often busy and your project will be low priority. Ask them how they would feel in principal about a local food growing group. And remember – they will pay much more attention to you when you already have an external offer of money / grant.


6. Get an expert on funding applications to read your drafts - in community matters, it’s not what you say but how you say it, sadly. The exact same set of proposals said one way will get money, said another way will get nothing.


7. Start husbanding the surrounding area. Get a high visibility jacket, maybe with your logo on it. Start to look after and care for the area surrounding the place you’re interested in.Get any broken lights fixed, graffitti cleaned. No one will challenge you if you pick up some empty pizza cartons or beer cans – but everyone will notice and subconsciously assume that you have got consent already.


8. Having a brand is critical. Let’s Go, Let’s Grow has a motivational component and a hook like a pop song. It was never punted as saving the planet or about food miles – it was have fun, be healthy and save money.


9. Don’t bother with steering groups or a management committee. Try to find one person who has the growing bug to help drive it through.


10. Expect negativism, ridicule and continuous blocks and setbacks. The secret of success is the ability to confront repeated failures and disappointments with ever increasing optimism ( super-optimism, I call it ) and persist persist persist.
good luck!

Comment by Mike Wohl on October 13, 2009 at 12:21am

Comment by Mike Wohl on September 30, 2009 at 11:16pm

Comment by Mike Wohl on September 30, 2009 at 11:08pm

Comment by Mike Wohl on September 9, 2009 at 9:02am

Comment by Mike Wohl on September 1, 2009 at 6:12pm

Thanks Karen, it is true. People are delighted and surprised at the results. It does wonders for self esteem, and a real sense of well being and acheivement is evident. They are happy and confident to speak to neighbours in a way that never happened before. They bring friends and relatives to look at their produce too!!!

Comment by karen on September 1, 2009 at 1:21pm

Its good to see people managing to grow food, brings them self worth

Comment by Mike Wohl on August 31, 2009 at 11:26pm

Comment by Mike Wohl on August 31, 2009 at 11:25pm

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