Dundee Big Grow
In Dundee, food is central to addressing local climate justice as well as its impact on greenhouse emissions. As well as increasing access to more affordable, nutritious food we want more of it to be grown sustainably and support soil and biodiversity. Through the Big Grow 1.0 and 2.0 we are working with communities that can showcase and promote sustainable lifestyles through real life experiences across all neighbourhoods.
We’ve engaged with over 100 Dundee households to become part of an exciting city-wide challenge to learn and develop their very own food growing space and cook with local fruit and veg. They are supplied with a personalised growing kit, tools and materials as well as one to one advice and support.
Each of these growing spaces are an example of how to be climate friendly, increase biodiversity and attract pollinators. We showcase how food can be grown in all types of spaces, from backies to allotments, window sills to streets and by all types of families, with different backgrounds and from different areas.
The 100 “growers” have also taken part in an ongoing programme of food growing, cooking and sustainability workshops throughout the seasons (basic gardening skills, outdoor cooking, urban foraging, plant medicine, citizen science, etc.) to develop the skills and experience to pioneer sustainable growing and using fresh and home grown fruit and vegetable with affordable healthy ingredients and food that could be going to waste.
Especially popular are our community food events, including “Big Bake Off Harvest Festivals” and tastings with local produce, food that could go to waste and foraged food, a big realisation of this project has been how important it is to feel part of a community and the friendship and learning that happens between the participants themselves. The fruit, veg, herbs and edible flowers we have grown have been used for Pizza Parties to Tapas Evenings, Barbeques to Mocktails and Sassy Salads to Italian fun evenings, a relaxed, fun and informative way to enjoy our garden!
Meet The Growers
We had such an amazing time with the growers and were constantly inspired by their enthusiasm. We wanted to try to capture some of that and made a series of short videos to focus on the many ways they embraced the project…and of course to show off their produce!
Our amazing gallery of Big Growers shows just a snapshot of some of the things we got up to over the growing year. We love to celebrate our happy Growers and the amazing ways they have grown their plants and their gorgeous harvests. After all that’s what it is all about and when you sit down to eat your own home grown, fresh chemical-free veggies for tea there is no better feeling!
Learn, Meet & Grow
Throughout the year we run a series of (usually) free workshops. These are aimed to be fun and informative and help to build connections between people and gardening and nature. Our topics cover a huge range of activities and we always try to make sure we are building up our Big Grower’s skills so it may be all about garden layout, pest control, compost, soil fertility, cooking, preserving…..you name it. Have a look at the Workshop Resources for more information on the various topics we have covered. Head on over to our ‘What’s on’ page to book a place on our current workshop series.
Newsletters
We asked all our Big Growers to sign up to our monthly newsletter. This is a great way to keep in touch and to share all the latest from the Big Grow community. We cover monthly growing tips and showcase how people are getting on in their growing spaces plus events and workshops and free supplies of plants and equipment.
2025 Newsletters
2024 Newsletters