Case studies

Community Growing and Glasgow Wood Recycling

Glasgow Landscape Architects ERZ in partnership with Glasgow Wood Recycling, are providing fantastically designed reclaimed wood kits that allow gardening areas to flourish in otherwise unused and derelict spaces.

The main driving force behind the projects is to create dynamic, vibrant and visually appealing spaces for Glasgow residents to grow their own produce in a community environment. Alongside communities, the projects are now envisioned and created between ERZ, who specialise in urban landscape design and their main kit contractors, Glasgow Wood Recycling.

The projects have been a great success at a number of locations around Glasgow, including at Greyfriars Garden in the Merchant City; at Gartnavel Hospital - a site available to long-stay patients, and the Possil Concrete Garden that won a coveted Scottish Design Award, and was subsequently described by the judges as a “beacon of hope for the future”. With the plans being created and designed by ERZ, the work has been commissioned to the Glasgow Wood Recycling workshop where the team of tradesmen work alongside a number of volunteers to start creating the planters, shelters and growing spaces necessary for projects. The modular design of the installation is easily translated to the process of wood recycling, with GWR using a mixture of reclaimed timber and reclaimed whisky barrels to create the planting spaces needed for the large-scale projects. The projects are also designed to be mobile, and if the space is needed for development the whole infrastructure can be moved to a new plot.

The projects seek to help bring communities together, engage them in growing and planting and help educate about sustainable growth, with the reward of fresh produce at the end of the day. The projects have also allowed workshops to take place, such as ‘Winter Planting’ and ‘Wildlife and Weeds’, which have been successful in providing further education for the community. It has also been suggested as a great outdoor learning environment for school pupils, as sustainable and healthy living becomes ever more prevalent. Being able to divert wood from landfill and being able to recycle it in such a way to create vibrant spaces is fundamental to what GWR seeks to achieve.

The partnership with ERZ has allowed GWR to show social enterprise exhibiting its aptitude and skill in creating large-scale projects whilst still maintaining a high level of quality and value. All of this allowing the partnership between the organisations to flourish, much like the gardens themselves…