The climate resilient garden at Rooted

Our Community Researcher, Maja, recently visited Rooted Community Food’s allotment to find out more about their Climate Resilient Garden, a project supported through the Blue Heart Community Fund. She was given a guided tour by project manager Sally.

The project came at a point when Rooted had volunteers and momentum but needed something defined. The Community Fund gave them a framework, but the direction was shaped by the group. In the first session they sat down together and asked what they wanted to explore. Volunteers went away to research different ideas and came back ready to test them. “We learned so much,” Sally said. “It far exceeded our expectations… it was a real learning journey.”

What followed was practical experimentation. They tried mulching and found that even in the height of summer the soil underneath stayed cool and moist. They tested olive oil pots as a low-cost irrigation method. A volunteer introduced the idea of a keyhole garden after researching its origins, and the group mapped it out on the ground before building it with reclaimed bricks.

Flooding was part of the wider context, but it was not the starting point. Sally spoke about how overwhelming climate messaging can feel. At Rooted, the focus was on shared activity. Gardening became the space where conversations could happen naturally rather than being imposed. The awareness of risk sits there, but it is woven into something tangible.

When asked what resilience means in practice, Sally’s answer was straightforward. “I could call up 30 people and know they would all be here.” The strength lies in relationships built over time. The garden sessions created regular points of connection, and that consistency matters. The collaboration with Blue Heart felt supportive. The blogging approach allowed them to record progress as it happened, “capturing all the little special bits… in real time,” rather than summarising everything at the end. The format has since shaped how Rooted think about future funding bids and training.

Collaboration beyond the allotment was another thread. Rooted already works closely with Sanctuary. A connection with Devonshire Collective led to a short film being shown at the Towner, extending the reach of the project beyond the site itself.

Sally reflected that there is potential for funders to play a stronger role in linking projects that already share common ground. Training and sustainability also surfaced. Much of the work runs on instinct and
goodwill, but supporting volunteers well requires investment in skills, particularly around trauma-informed practice and neurodiversity.

The Climate Resilient Garden was not delivered to a community. It was shaped with one. The funding provided structure, but the learning, decisions and momentum came from the people involved.

Read about the project in the Blue Heart blog on Rooted’s website.