It was unused and unwanted, full of remnants of things past. Not much use to anyone. A local community group decided to rework the land and make it open and clear once more. A Secret Garden was planted. People were inspired to see how much could grow in such a small space. A vision of health and vibrancy for the community was born.

Alan Kenny took this project forward and established a beautiful food-growing garden. In 2016, Grounded Enterprises was adopted as a name to take this vision into the future, developing a local food project, working with community volunteers from all backgrounds. There have been many growing spaces established since, including a pilot space on a disused car park roof…

At the Secret Garden, many people have learned growing skills, and there have been strong links with Bethany and St Clements Primary Schools and St Clements Church, who have an agreement for use of the Secret Garden.

In 2017, a fire saw our shed burn down and a fox ate all the chickens, but again the community rose up and out of the ashes came a purpose built ‘off grid’ shack with a compost toilet, store, solar and lounge/kitchen. This is used for community groups, school children and training.

In October 2015, we established a growing space at a disused greenhouse in the New Forest, which was 40x20metres. Food was brought into town and sold to cafes, individuals and a box scheme. It was a beautiful tranquil space that we visited twice a week and took over 200 volunteers to work at. It was a great three years of experience and development, but the workload was too great so in October 2018, a decision was made to put our focus and efforts on the Boscombe and Bournemouth area, to establish food-growing in the community…

In 2019, we added bee-keeping to our work. Since then, 10 beehives have been set up on the Sovereign Centre roof and eight colonies of bees established.

In January 2020, we were granted charity status as Grounded Community. So we said goodbye to Grounded Enterprises. The new community focus brings exciting plans to educate local people in food-growing, to establish swap shops, composting facilities, mushroom growing, food distribution and demonstrate growing with renewable technology across our Secret Garden sites.

In the next ten years, we want to see hundreds of local people learn to grow their own food and regain the skills that have been lost through past generations. Skills to grow, store and prepare and to consume food that is local and seasonal and chemical free.

We are always on the look out for new spaces and new people interested in growing and gathering around food. Join in the story as it unfolds…