Holloway harvest! Today Fin, Sid, Katy and Tom popped over to the guerrilla garden we created on Holloway and at Calton Gardens to see what had grown. There were a few carrots and loads of lettuce, as well as a massive crop of lemon-balm and fennel. We haven’t been particularly good at maintaining this site so it was great to see that some things had grown.

Trees had prevented half of the planter getting much light so next time we’ll plant some hardier plants there. The herbs in particular did well so we might plant some more of them. We heard from a local resident that some boys had used the patch on Holloway ‘as a long jump’ so that might explain why it hadn’t grown that well! Next time we’ll garden somewhere a little more obviously separated from a footpath.

You may remember a couple of weeks ago we ‘ambushed’ the judges of South West in Bloom as they came to judge one of Transition Bath’s guerrilla gardens. You may have even seen the massive picture of Becky and Rachael dressed as guerrilla warriors in the article in which the stunt was featured in the Bath Chronicle. Well the video of our stunt is now online! Check it out above.

Green Vision were last night featured on ITV West news! Yesterday we performed a little stunt for the national judges of Britain in Bloom, who were judging one of Bath’s (many!) guerrilla gardens. Finlay dressed as a news reporter, reporting on the ‘guerrilla conflict’ between Green Vision and neglected land in the city. Rachael, Becky and Tom dressed as guerrilla fighters, tending the plot in the background while the news report was ongoing.

ITV West news turned up to film us doing this, shots from which were used when our friend Iva, of Transition Bath, was interviewed about guerrilla gardening in the city live later that evening. See the feature above!

This morning Iva of Transition Bath was interviewed on BBC Radio Somerset about the work of Transition Bath and about guerrilla gardening. She mentioned Green Vision several times, talking about our stunts for the judges of Britain in Bloom and our guerrilla gardening in the city. Thanks, Iva!

Our stunt for the judges of Southwest In Bloom was covered extensively in the Bath Chronicle this week. Page 8 of the Chron featured a huge picture of Becky and Rachael of Green Vision dressed as guerrillas, hiding among the vegetables on Gravel Walk. An extract of the article follows:

So is Bath the blooming best?

Green-fingered young people impressed the judges of a regional gardening competition – by ambushing them and performing a mock news broadcast.

Members of Transition Bath, a charity run by volunteers who aim to make Bath a more sustainable city, and Green Vision, a youth gardening group, put on the display for South West in Bloom judges this week.

Two of the Green Vision members dressed as guerrilla gardeners, while Transition member Iva Carrdus, who has been helping to develop community vegetable patches and gardens throughout Bath, played the role of a news broadcaster, talking about the work the two groups were doing together.

Although Green Vision aren’t exactly a ‘youth gardening group’ and it wasn’t Iva that played the role of the news broadcaster, it’s still nice to be featured! Read the full article about the Bath In Bloom judging here.

This week Green Vision surprised the judges of Southwest In Bloom as they judged the cities Guerrilla Gardens with a mock news broadcast. Pretending to report on the investigation of the ‘ongoing battle’ by ‘United Nations envoys’ (the judges), we dressed as Guerrilla Fighters, a war correspondent and cameraman to surprise them.

Our stunt lasted a few minutes and both bemused and amused the judges. They were very warm in their praise of the spirit behind the guerrilla gardening Green Vision has been doing - and they loved how cheeky the stunt was.

The five of us taking part - Becky, Rachael, Fin and Tom, along with Iva of Transition Bath - were invited to the Mayor’s Parlour afterwards with other people involved in Bath In Bloom. It seemed a little odd to enter such lavish surroundings, being praised for supposedly illicit activities! Even the mayor of Bath loves Guerrilla Gardening!

Spy the post about guerrilla gardening Hedgemead Park with Transition Bath last week? Iva of Transition Bath has produced this awesome timelapse video of the two-day initial work. Well worth a watch!

Transition Bath have gained permission from Bath & North East Somerset council to guerrilla garden a large, prominent site in Hedgemead Park, Bath and Green Vision have been helping out. The site used to be filled with roses but was due to be grassed over having become rather overgrown. Transition Bath is reclaiming the circle of land overlooking London Road, planning to grow an attractive range of vegetables there.

Luci, Henry and Katy wait for Iva of Transtion Bath to set up her time-lapse shot of the site. This picture shows the circle of weeds (in the background) before we cleared it. A picture was taken every thirty seconds to produce a video showing the transformation; we’ll post it online when it is completed.

We’re going again on Sunday to help finish clearing and to start planting. Everyone is welcome; visit Transition Bath’s website for more information or view the Facebook event.

Today was Green Vision’s best attended meeting to date, with 15 young citizens packing out Jika Jika. This was a sign of our schools visits paying off - six attendees (from 3 different schools) had met us at one of the visits.

Top agenda item was the Youth Climate Summit, which is now only a month away. There are now 14 confirmed speakers on the first day, including the two keynote speakers: Mark Lynas and Rob Hopkins. The workshops on the second day are diverse and creative, the latest confirmation being from a company leading a workshop creative improvised climate change musical! The summit is now full, with 120 young people from 10 schools attending.

We also discussed facilitation training for existing members of Green Vision. This will be used on the first day of the summit. Although each speaker has a 50-minute slot, only 30 minutes of that will be occupied with speaking. The remainder will be ‘open space’ discussion time, designed to enable reflection on and brainstorming around the issues raised in the talk. Forty young people will be trained professionally in facilitation for this purpose. 

We also discussed guerrilla gardening. Transition Bath have gained permission from the council to guerrilla garden a large, prominent plot in Hedgemead Park and Green Vision is going to help them out. The first event is tomorrow closely followed by one on Sunday. Everyone is welcome!

Three members of Green Vision are together applying to appear on Channel 4’s documentary series on youth campaigning, Battlefront. Camille, Mimi and Rachael made this awesome video as part of the application. Their proposed campaign is about guerrilla gardening and springs from the work Green Vision has been doing locally.

We’ve been trying to get our food-waste reuse project off the ground for a while now and we’re now making rapid progress! Tomorrow (1st June) we are meeting with Foodcycle, a national organisation that co-ordinates hubs around the country (such as the one we visited in Bristol) to discuss setting one up in Bath. Their expertise, financing streams and insurance would make the whole process a lot easier!

Although on hold due to exams, the pop-up cinema idea is still on the table. Just Do It is a soon-to-be-released film about the more rebellious side of the climate movement, following groups involved in civil disobedience; it’s one of our top choices of films to show. We’re going to investigate whether we could borrow solar panels and a large battery so we can power the showing from 100% renewable energy.

Phew, that’s a long update! I haven’t even mentioned our talk of a pop-up shop/arts centre and considering formalising Green Vision into a limited (not-for-profit) company. This is very exciting stuff but all still in early stages - expect more news soon.

If you’d like to get involved in anything mentioned here, or want more information, please contact tom@greenvisionmovement.org.uk or jamie@greenvisionmovement.org.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!

Green Vision’s very own Camille, Mimi and Rachael are applying for Battlefront, a channel four show about young campaigners. Their proposed campaign springs from Green Vision’s guerrilla gardening. Good luck guys!

connectthedots:

Audition video for Battlefront, a channel 4 program which follows youth campainers in the UK. Very cringy…

May Day Guerrilla Gardening - more photos. Thanks to Will Neaverson for taking them!

Today Green Vision went Guerrilla Gardening, leaving our latest mark on one of Bath’s less well kept areas. We left a raised bed containing carrots and peas as well as a small vegetable and herb garden, pictured above. More than 15 people attended, including Lyn from Transition Bath who offered us invaluable advice.

The neighbours were very supporting, with the kind people at no 5 offering us chocolate digestives! Hopefully they’ll enjoy the communal garden and perhaps water it from time to time.

More photos will be uploaded to the Green Vision site soon.