The Homebaked Community Landscape Design course started in spring 2017, led by Andrea Ku of b4biodiversity. Students who attended the course would receive a qualification in ‘Conservation Skills’ on completion of the course in August 2017, as well as helping to design and create a community green space for our high street.
The aim of the course is to learn about practical landscape design and building and designing as a group the Homebaked HomeSquare, a little pocket park piece of land on Oakfield Rd just a few steps away from our bakery.
Work began by measuring out the site, analysing the soil, learning more about the local area through mapping and genius loci, talking to local people about their views of the area and finding out their plans and ideas for the area.
The team also visited public spaces in Liverpool city centre to learn about what works there, why, how they were built and what plants were used and why.
Designs were then made by the team; both hand drawn and in 3d using Jenga blocks and from this work the team decided to work with pallets as a building material. The design will consist of steps, planters, seating and a house structure on the top of the container on site.
The students met and worked with Architect Nicoals Henninger, Paul who is leading 3 local apprentices, Bradley, Leanne and David, who are building the new elements for the public square before moving on to th flat above the bakery, to design and build the planters.
The team have also learnt about garden management, maintenance of tools and how to use power tools to build the planters and prep them for staining.
Plants for the new site will be purchased from JA Jones, (a supplier of landscape plants based in Southport) when the planters are ready. Because of the variation of light and shade, students have chosen a mixture of deciduous and evergreen climbers, seasonal bulbs, ferns, scented plants, herbs and seasonal colour.
Alongside the course, the students also volunteered and began working on Home Farm with Sam Jones, which will operate from the site, growing micro greens both for use in the bakery and to be sold commercially.
