How the ‘Backyard Project’ came about

The Backyard Project started from a realisation within the Environmental Projects Team that in Lancashire there are over 160,000 back yards. This equates to over 2 square miles of land that the people of Lancashire have access to every day. In order to harness this potential, the County Council Environmental Projects Team decided to set about developing a garden demonstrating how a relatively small space (6m X 4m) can support a range of features that enhance biodiversity and sustainability, helping to improve the wider local environment.

The Projects Team began to look for suitable partners to help them achieve this idea. As the biggest concentration of backyards is in East Lancashire, it seemed the best idea was to approach Elevate, a major regeneration agency in that area. They thought it was a great idea too and so a partnership was born.

The next step was to get some exciting designs; the Partners approached Myerscough College and in partnership with them organised a design competition amongst the Garden Design students. This approach had the added advantage of giving new designers a chance to get their work known. The winner of the competition was Alison Wood, whose garden has been created at India Street.

A booklet containing all the designs from the competition has been printed (4.6mb)

With a fabulous design now available the Partners started looking for a suitable place to build the garden. Luckily Harvest Housing had just the place, a blank canvas of a backyard and an enthusiasm to try something a bit different. Again Myerscough were contacted and their Constructing the Future taskforce, a vocational training programme, was drafted in to construct the garden, with funding from the Environmental Projects Team and Elevate. They’ve valiantly battled some appalling weather – the wettest summer on record – to create a fabulous garden. View pictures of the garden under construction. With plants provided by the permaculture project at Offshoots, we hope this will become a truly sustainable, community garden.

An Open Day at 18 India Street launched the garden on the 7th September. View pictures on the finished garden. If you would like to view the garden please contact Harvest Housing on 01254 879356.