Brent Council

Brent Housing sites are maintained on a four-weekly visit schedule throughout the year. During each visit, our team will complete a range of grounds-maintenance tasks as needed. This includes grass cutting during the growing season, shrub maintenance as required, and hedge cutting twice a year — with hedge cutting carried out only outside the bird-nesting period (March to August). We will also undertake weed management and leaf clearance when required.

 The dates shown indicate the start of a seven-day window in which the visit will take place. Please note that all schedules are weather-dependent and may be subject to change.

Whether the table says “Not Applicable” or “Last Season” the team hasn’t yet visited this season. Where we are unable to perform work for reasons beyond our control, ie cars parked on grass, then it will still show the date we visited.

We wanted to deliver something a little different for the community in Brent. We already knew that there is a positive “family” ethic in the borough, with people from all walks of life and ethnic backgrounds coming together and helping each other to enhance the wonderful green spaces that the London Borough of Brent has to offer. With this in mind, we wanted the pocket farm to be as diverse and inclusive as possible, teaching new skills to young and old alike.

We also wanted to create volunteering opportunities for the entire community, whilst reusing materials that would otherwise go to land fill. This project allows us to encourage wildlife and attract pollinators, whilst also supporting the local community.

The ideal space would be secure, have power and water, buildings, and be close to the Park’s other amenities. What we needed to find was a site that needed some TLC and to help restore it. This seemed a huge challenge initially, but the perfect location was discovered at the old bowling green at Roundwood Park, which had not been used for a number of years.

Our vision came to life, and our ideas for developing the farm were submitted to the Authority as part of our wider CSR Plan.

Our aim is to:

Provide opportunities to support community education;

Change behaviours around recycling and encourage people to make sustainable choices;

Provide a hands-on facility that enables people to see where food comes from, helping them to understand the importance of nature in providing food, and how making sustainable choices helps to support vital eco-systems;

Showcase recycling initiatives and demonstrate the process. Rather than placing something in a bin and not knowing what will happen to it afterwards, the Farm provides an opportunity to see and understand the full cycle.

Our teams will provide support and instruction demonstrating the various contract operations required to maintain a healthy farm. These will include planting, harvesting, creating habitats and recycling.

“Cook what we grow” in partnership with local community kitchen projects will support nutritional education for local people and we will share the fruits of our labours using the “From Brent to The Bowl” cook book as our blueprint for recipes.

Opportunities

You do not need to be a specialist to support this project. We need volunteers, people with specialist skills such as carpentry, and would welcome donations of items that you would usually take to the local tip, for example old tyres, unwanted pallets etc. 

If you are interested and would like to get involved, please call our local offices or complete the ‘contact us’ form on our website to get more information. Together we can give something back to the community.