Free event - Reserve your space here.

Empty Common Community Garden in Cambridge started life as derelict, weed-infested plot at the end of the Empty Common Allotments in Trumpington – land which nobody wanted. Permaculture gardener Charlotte Synge joined forces with fellow gardeners to reclaim this land and turn it into a productive, community garden, where anyone can learn skills and everyone shares in the food produced – including the local wildlife! But when filmmaker Michelle Golder visited the garden in August 2018, the project was beginning to feel the effects of climate change, which threatens the entire food system upon which we all depend. As the climate warms, can community gardening help feed us and bring us together, while still protecting nature?

This event includes a screening of Back to the Garden? the short documentary Michelle and Charlotte made, as well as a panel discussion on organic gardening and how the practice of productive gardening benefits all sorts of people as well as the planet.

Speakers include:

Felicity Clarke of the Global Sustainability Institute, ARU who oversees Edible Gardens on campus for staff and students, as a Workplace Health & Wellbeing champion;

Charlotte Synge, co-founder of Empty Common Community Garden, boat person, and permaculture educator;

Ruth Wood, Project Co-ordinator and Horticultural Therapist for the Cyrenians Allotment Project, which works with homeless people to teach gardening skills and grow organic produce.

Panel Chair: Michelle Golder, writer, film-maker, producer, and radio presenter for Cambridge 105’s The 7th Generation Show.