Tyfu Dyfi - Community Growing Sites

Tyfu Dyfi – Community Growing Sites

Tyfu Dyfi has some resources available to support the development of a number of growing sites in or near residential areas within the Dyfi Biosphere. If you would like to express your interest and suggest one or more sites for the project’s consideration, please read the following.

In Tyfu Dyfi, we aim to increase the number of community growing sites in the Dyfi Biosphere area

Note that our interpretation of the term ‘growing site’ is broad, encompassing anything from community gardens, allotments, to forest gardens, community orchards, ideas for food forests, etc.

What we are looking for is a good selection of ideas for growing sites that involve and have the wholehearted support of the local community. The proposals we support must be capable of being sustained beyond the end of the Tyfu Dyfi project in June 2023.

We can help establish new sites or enhance existing sites. Exactly what support we provide will depend on the specific site requirements, examples of the kind of help we can potentially provide are:

Training, eg, of volunteer gardeners
Costs related to site works, eg, polytunnel/greenhouse, raised beds, composter, fences, water pipes, wheel barrows, etc
Costs of materials, eg, compost, gravel, etc
Help with leasing costs

Note that we are not excluding household gardens; we have the option of running training sessions and workshops suitable for people to attend and acquire skills for use in their own gardens, as well as in community sites

EoI form

Access the Expression of Interest Form

If you are still interested in having your idea for a community growing site considered by the Tyfu Dyfi team, click on the button to the left – this links to a short Google form which, if you fill it in, should give us enough information to be able to conduct an initial assessment of whether your suggestion is something we might support. You may not have much detail yet - that's ok - we'd still like to hear from you! Please get something in by the Mon 7th Feb 2022 if you can, though this is not a final deadline and the call will remain open.

NOTE: The call is now CLOSED. There maybe future calls depending on the progress of the project.

What happens next?

The relevant members of the Tyfu Dyfi consortium will meet regularly to assess the Expressions of Interest we receive and select which growing sites we are going to support.

The selection criteria we apply in the above process will be apparent as you fill the form in, but in summary, we are looking primarily for growing sites that:

Enjoy strong community support and which will attract strong community involvement
Will be sustained and have an existence long after the Tyfu Dyfi project
Are accessible and are in (or very close to) residential areas;
Have clear land ownership, a supportive landowner and no rights of way problems, planning restrictions, service issues. etc
Are value for money
Are a suitable size and safe for the proposed activities
Have wider support beyond the immediate residential community, eg, other community groups, businesses, schools
Contribute to wider green infrastructure

Once we have considered your expression of interest, we will get in touch to let you know the outcome, for those sites we select for Tyfu Dyfi support, we will most likely require further information and discussion.