Digitally mapping fertile spaces, teaching deep permaculture, all becoming co-stewards: Plymouth’s special social power at work

We have long been in touch with, and celebrants of, the city of Plymouth and its remarkable capacities for networking between its social and civic groupings (see our archive). We really enjoyed the video above, highlighting the Permaculture-led initiative titled Growing With Nature (report PDF is here).

This initiative was explicitly a “collaboratory” - a concept we have long championed here - and involved (from the report’s opening):

the Plymouth City Council and Partners Green Minds project, Food Plymouth (the city’s local sustainable food partnership), Plymouth Octopus Project (POP - Plymouth’s VCS infrastructure organisation), and The Data Place digital mapping team…

Connecting individuals and community groups with Plymouth’s green and blue spaces and each other, mapping spaces and initiatives, supporting growing projects with people and nature in mind, facilitating action and capability building around preparing community groups for engaging in co-stewardship of natural spaces were key aims.

That’s just an example of how Plymouth is effective at “network weaving”, seeking out and integrating nearby talents and specialisms into a larger project.

The best characters in the video above are the council-employed horticulturalists, who are self-confessedly used to keeping their parklands and grasses in perfect trim, and experienced a turn-around in their thinking from this course - "letting things grow a little brings animals back into the parkland”.