Sheffield group head calls for collaboration between different plans for old park nurseries
Two visions for future of former Norton Nurseries in Graves Park
The head of a Sheffield food organisation has said he wants to collaborate with a park Friends group over rival plans to regenerate former nursery land.
Sheffield City Council is currently running a public consultation about the use of part of the old Norton Nurseries in Graves Park. A survey, available online at https://haveyoursay.sheffield.gov.uk/norton-nursery-restoration, runs until September 20.
The Friends of Graves Park have been working long-term on a project to extend the Chantreyland wildlife meadow and arboretum that they have created on part of the former Norton Nurseries site.
They have been lobbying the council to expand their work in the area, where there were once council glasshouses growing plants for city parks. The council currently uses part of the site for parks department vehicles and as a temporary store for waste collected from its open spaces.
Social enterprise Food Works have also put forward a plan to expand their food-growing project, which started two years ago in one of the remaining old nursery glasshouses. They grow fruit and vegetables and use surplus food that would go to waste to produce meals, both for community cafes and to reheat at home.
Food Works chief executive officer Rene Meijer said it is possible that both projects could co-exist. He said he would be keen to explore a collaboration with the Friends group.
“We’re not necessarily looking at getting the piece of land, per se. We’re just looking to connect the nursery to the piece of land,” he said.
“We’ve got eight tennis court-sized glasshouses here where people used to come in every day to buy bedding plants when the council was growing bedding plants here.
“And we’re trying to create a better food system for Sheffield here by growing nature-friendly plants.
“We share those out with schools, and we’d love for people to come in again, like they used to, buy nature-friendly food plants, promote gardening at home, run workshops, and just connect all the good stuff we’re doing here in the nurseries to the general public, which we can’t do now.
“So we’re not necessarily looking to use any of the space in this piece of land that’s going back to public use.
“We’re looking at a very small footprint building that would allow us to connect that space to the nurseries, have a space to run workshops, and have a space to do plant sales and stuff like that.”
Food Works have 500 active volunteers who work on various projects.
Rene said he wants to get everyone in Sheffield to grow food.
“We want kids in schools to grow food and learn about food. We’d love every neighbourhood in the city to have a community food-growing club where people can connect, where people can get access to food.
“What we’re hoping to do in the nurseries and have started to do is to raise lots of nature-friendly plants in here with companion plants so that you can grow those without pesticides, use peat-free compost, and all that good stuff to basically support a city of food growers.
“The other thing that we’re doing here that we’re wanting to do here is, in combination with the Carver Fields, is to grow more fresh produce that we can use in our kitchen.”
Food Works run a community market garden and ‘food forest’ on Carver Fields on Hagg Lane in Crosspool.
“We produce 60,000 meals per year that people all across the city but we could produce probably 10,000 or 20,000 more meals a year if we have the space at Carver Fields that would be run with the support of the nurseries, where we raise the seedlings and then the seedlings are planted to harvest at the Carver Fields, and that harvest goes to our kitchens to cook with,” he said.
“That would allow us to cook a lot more meals but also that would mean, on average, all of our meals will be more healthy because rather than just cooking with the random surplus that we get, we can make sure that every meal also has fresh, local, nature-friendly produce in it and have a higher vegetable content, and so the meals will be more and be better.”
Rene said of the Friends group plans: “I think we’re wanting the same thing. We’re wanting this amazing space that was created for the people of Sheffield.
“This amazing space could do so much good for the city and and it should do a lot more good for the city.
“I think that’s exactly what we’re trying to achieve here in our way. And I think that’s what the Friends of Graves Park are trying to achieve in their way.
“And so if ultimately we’re wanting the same thing with this space for the people of Sheffield, there has to be a way to do that together.”
Rene said one of the challenges at Norton Nurseries is getting people on site because there is no public access.
“The other challenge is that the greenhouses aren’t always a safe, healthy space for people to be in for a long time. It gets very hot in the summer, gets very cold in the winter,” he said.
“So the idea of inviting a class of kids to come down and have two hours of workshop about how food works — well, you can’t do that in here.
“There isn’t the space and also kids will be overheated at the end of it.“
What that space would allow us to do is have better quality space to get more people — kids, but also just the general public — to come in and have a high-quality space in which they could connect with what we’re doing, learn about food, take things home – whether that is new skills, whether that is plants – and just connect the city to the nurseries and all that it’s trying to do.”