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PEAS PARK
New billboard by Gerry Davis.
Spring & St. Patrick’s fair, 19 March 2016.
Phil Allen splitting logs and making the best apple juice with his press.
Planning for the future….
PeasPark Autumn Fair
It was time to celebrate another successful season at PeasPark on Saturday 3 October. If the weather hasn’t been kind to us this season, other things have, and it has been a great year. We’ve tackled monster slugs, mutant chooks and learned 100 ways to cook courgettes. While there will be plenty happening over the winter, it is a great opportunity to get together to share what we have achieved, while welcoming the new friends we have made during the year. Thanks to all who contributed.
All photographs by Pablo Mandresa
The event was in partnership with Skegoneill and Glandore Common Purpose; Hope Fellowship Church and Let Youth Lead.and funded by The Limestone Trust.
Temporary Places > community garden > PEAS PARK
PeasPark (along with our our fabulous artichokes, in their prime.) has featured in The Guardian online article about interfaces in North Belfast by @PeterKGeoghegan
Will Belfast ever have a Berlin Wall moment and tear down its ‘peace walls’
Alongside other initiatives in the area, including the opening of Alexandra Park gates to allow better access to green space in the area, PeasPark was given as an example of change for the better despite the challenges that exist.
“But macro-political tensions can impinge on attempts to build relationships at street level. At Skegoneill Avenue in North Belfast, loyalist paramilitary flags fly from lamp-posts, even though the streets are mostly mixed and even include Belfast’s synagogue. In the shadow of an Ulster Volunteer Force [flag], lettuce and spinach sprout in Peas Park, a community garden created by local residents. Chickens cluck happily beside a shipping container that has been turned into a shop.
“People just independently started doing stuff,” says Callie Persic, an ebullient American who came to Belfast 20 years ago for her PhD in anthropology and stayed. The garden is particularly popular with young people. In September, there is a harvest day with food, music and face painting.
Peas Park, however, has not escaped Belfast territoriality. Earlier this summer, a fence was erected around the garden. “People have been saying to us, ‘You must feel safer now there is a fence,’” says Persic. “But I felt like, why are we putting up a gate at an interface?”
Temporary Places > community garden > PEAS PARK
Strictly Come Gardening- Keeep Growing!
The brand new poster at PeasPark is by one of our gardeners and chief irrigation engineer, Daniel. Inspired by one of the season’s great successes, a humble £2.50 artichoke root from B+Q, it captures the spirit of the garden;unusual, resilient and hard to ignore. Daniel is big fan of ‘Strictly’, which is why he wants the garden to ‘keeep growing!’
![DSC_0634[1]](http://temporaryplaces.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/DSC_06341.jpg)
Temporary Places > community garden > PEAS PARK
Containerage
One of the things the DOE Challenge Fund helped to fund was a container at PeasPark. It is a great asset;, tools can be stored and we can hide from the rain, when we want to. It has also allowed us to install a secure water supply (although we didn’t need it that much this year.) It is, of course, no ordinary container having been designed by artist Duncan Ross, assisted by Gerry and John (who are about to become two of our artists in residence at PeasPark), a LOT of tea and some Jaffa Cakes. Fair to say it has taken a while, but it looks amazing and the view from the #64 bus is great.
Take a look at how it developed. News Story: Once there was a box...
Temporary Places > community garden > PEAS PARK
We’re reorganising the website, just very slowly; be patient. This is the third season at PeasPark and we’re growing. As well as the billboard, we have a beautiful pagoda and a unique container.
See the news page for more information and follow @peasparkbelfast
We’re looking for new gardeners for our 2016 programme, which will begin with free introductory workshops.
Exciting things to come. Email for more details
Temporary Places > community garden > PEAS PARK
New Billboard for PeasPark
Non Natives: Eimear Campbell 2015
The new poster at PeasPark is by Eimear Campbell, a recent graduate in Photography at Ulster University.
Eimear spent some time at the garden and in the area in December 2014 as part of her studies, producing the work ‘Escape’
The poster is one of an ongoing series at PeasPark, which reflect, amongst other things, the changing seasons, the growing community (in all senses) and the opportunities sprouting from this little piece of urban green.
Temporary Places > community garden > PEAS PARK
Same Place: New Name
Skegoneill/Glandore Community Garden is now officially Peas Park. Working with Artist, Martin Carter, the members of Skegoneill/Glandore Afterschools designed a sign that will let everyone know where they are.
The activity was part of a programme, funded by the Challenge Fund (financed by the plastic bag levy) through Northern Ireland Environment Link. It aims to work with local residents in creative ways to improve the built environment and support biodiversity.
Other elements of the programme include the design of raised bed labels, featuring some of the creepy crawlies that are an essential part of the garden and the purchase and redesign of a shipping container which will be used to store tools and add even more art to the garden.
Temporary Places > community garden > PEAS PARK
Temporary Places > community garden > PEAS PARK
PEAS PARK invites everyone who is interested in gardening, young or old, experienced or as a total newcomer, to join us to develop the garden.
Supported through the Challenge Fund, the community garden – or with its new name PEAS PARK- currently undergoes a face- and soil lift which will make the site a much better and colourful place for everyone to enjoy.
PEAS PARK is an open space for the neighbourhood and the wider community at the Skegoneill/Glandore Avenue roundabout, North Belfast.
YOU CAN GROW HERE vegetables, flowers, herbs, potatoes…. by having your own raised bed, for which you are responsible and harvest the crop.
YOU CAN GROW HERE to share a raised bed or more with others, as a family or with friends
YOU CAN GROW HERE as part of a loose collective, who wants to develop PEAS PARK into an exciting place.
If you are interested or just want to have a look and talk to someone, you can either call around on Saturdays between 12-2pm or contact: garden[at]pssquared.org
It would be great if you help to grow the garden.
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Temporary Places > community garden > PEAS PARK
Temporary Places is a community and art project in North Belfast at two interface areas, New Lodge and Skegoneill/ Glandore. It started in 2013 and was organised by New Lodge Arts, PS² and Skegoneill & Glandore Common Purpose. ‘Temporary Places’ was and still is a project about social and urban regeneration, partly through familiar strategies and activities and partly through more unorthodox, direct and creative interventions. It is an art and community project for all residents and the wider community.
Background
The initial, six month long project took place in an around temporary spaces in each area.
– an empty shop, Culture Shop, in New Lodge
– a container hub in Glandore Avenue
– a community garden as additional project.
Both sites are at interfaces and are used as surprising, flexible, neutral and open place for art programmes, actions, interventions,
happenings and fun. As small and colourful landmarks, these temporary spaces serve as artist hub, community centre and basis for
explorations and interventions within the area. The programme and activities incorporated interests, desiresand existing cultural practices
of the communities i.e. crafts, games, sports, computing… Using different degrees of participation, these interests were explored,
broadened and translated into clear projects, with a strong focus on creativity, development of skills, team working and shared ownership.
Temporary Places’ worked on two locations, the Culture Shop at the Ashton Centre, 5 Churchill Street, Belfast and the container hub and community garden at the roundabout Glandore Avenue/ Skegoneill Avenue and consisted of three different strands
Culture Shop
A former shopping unit at the Ashton Centre is/ was reclaimed as workplace and studio for artists and cultural workers.
After an open call and selection process, four artists were chosen to use the space for one month each. The culture shop was seen as an
open and publicly exposed place of creative production, be it installation, film, happening, social actions, short initiatives and more.
The work invited and encouraged participation of the neighbourhood and radiated to its surroundings. This was done through workshops,
opening hours, active collaborations with individuals or community groups. Culture shop was a test for artists and the surrounding
community alike and an experiment in new forms of participation, local creative skills, empowerment, the relevance of art and its social
responsibilities.
Project artists: Joanna Hopkins, Laura O’Connor, Mairead Dunne, Duncan Ross, Yvonne Kenna
Container hub
The container hub at the roundabout Glandore Avenue/ Skegoneill made use of and empty site opposite an existing container shop
(Sina’s shop). A small container which served as a small landmark, meeting place and storage was placed in April and painted in a series
of workshops by young people. In July, a 30ft office container arrived and was set next to the community garden. It has/had a generator,
tables and seats and is/was used for workshops, making it an ideal neutral and exciting temporary place, in the midst of wildlife and
visible for everyone.
Project artists: Charlotte Bosanquet, Duncan Ross, Paddy Bloomer, Philip Hession
Temporary Places > community garden > PEAS PARK
Although the garden was not part of the initial project and application, it was quickly realized that this empty wasteland was ideal for a
community garden. To clear the site and work together on a garden project was seen as a natural starting point for change and
community initiative in and with the neighbourhood: a visible sign for change. Currently there are about 10 commited garderners and
families involved in this very much community driven, non organisational project. Through time- and more children- parts of the site
became an adventure playground (with a tepee), wildlife area and BBQ corner.
All involved want to continue and expand the community garden/ adventure playground and started consultion meetings.
Project artist: Anne-Marie Dillon
Temporary Places project is supported by Belfast City Council’s Creative Legacies II programme, part of the Belfast PEACE III Plan by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund through the PEACE III Programme.