Crewe is a railway town in Cheshire, with a long history of transport industry. Then Cheshire Wildlife Trust appointed Andy, a community organiser, and he began to listen to the local people about what they wanted to do about nature in their area.

He met with a volunteer from Incredible Edible. “The Incredible Edible team in Crewe consists of one person, who is a volunteer and has developed four community food growing spaces across Crewe with no budget” – impressive stuff!

They discussed the plans to create a food hedgerow at Caritas, explore the Right to Grow possibility for Crewe (see what Hull have achieved here!), and the development of a site at St Peters Church.

Incredible Edible has a vision to “create kind, confident and connected communities through the power of food.” Anyone can join or start a local group and if you sign up for free to their website, you can log in and access dozens of resources.

Back in Crewe, their plan for St Peters Church has to take into account the fact that the church has limited grounds and most of that is hardstanding. They say that “The potential for this space has truly been realised with the development of raised beds, flower beds, a seating area and even working with the next-door neighbour to harbour their water from the drainpipe and feed into a water butt so there is a sustainable source of water for the beds.”

But they are not stopping there. “Next up at the Caritas Centre in Crewe which is a religious community centre, where raised beds have been installed and an edible hedgerow is due to be planted in the new year, the trees producing fruits and nuts that can be enjoyed by the local community and wildlife. Additionally, a bid is currently in for another site in Crewe to transform an area of hardstanding to a community growing area which will benefit the local community and wildlife.”

You can discover more about how The Wildlife Trusts are working with Incredible Edible, plus The Women’s Institute and Garden Organic, at their site here. The Coronation Gardens for Food and Nature initiative is a campaign to encourage and inspire everyone to grow food in a wildlife-friendly way.