Andy Stickland & Ryan Huws
I grew up in Plymouth as a lad. I was away teaching agriculture, and farming up in North Devon. Basically, we couldn’t stay there, so we ended up in a council flat… This is kind of the people’s land. No one really owns it, as such. Like, it’s the council’s, but it’s underused… We have a Facebook page and we’re Wingfield Road Community Gardens. We get a lot of nice comments and donations of plants over the years. – Andy Stickland
In my free time I do quite a lot of work for Plantlife International. I’ve done some very, sort of, basic woodland videos. I do regular voluntary stuff also for the National Trust at Cothele [House]. I’m also really interested in natural history. – Andy
In the future, I hope for generally people living in harmony and not just for the betterment of themselves. All sounds a little bit pie in the sky, but I really do believe that there is a need for for that… where people will be having a lot more time in 100 years time to not have this obsession with what could be, perhaps, the Protestant work ethic. Where work is not everything.
That isn’t how life should be, but I do think it is going to take a bit of getting to, because we have human nature, which means that people really do… have lost connection with their neighbour. I don’t mean that in some silly way, but they really don’t know either, don’t want to know, how difficult it is for their neighbour. So, I want there to be more chance for people to really get the togetherness, and, it sounds all very sort of pie in the sky! – Andy
I work for Plymouth Community Homes, and my job is a Community Development Officer. And part of my role has been supporting community gardens. Andy, got in touch with me, many, many moons ago about this plot of land. His idea was to start a community garden. So we got to it, and we got some money together. Built a shed built, a greenhouse, had a few Open Days, to get people to come along and get involved. – Ryan Huws
In my free time, I do gardening myself. Not so much vegetable gardening. It’s more of a flower garden now. So I’m lucky really to have a job where I can come here and do stuff. Stuff that I like. But I think you never are a gardener because you… I mean because there’s always something new to learn. You’re never qualified. I don’t think “Yeah” – there’s always something you don’t know. It’s absolutely never ending subject. – Ryan
I’m hoping [in the future] that… I just feel, that, there’s a bit of a movement now in terms of humanity, getting more in touch with the planet and the value of the animals, nature or just life in general. And we will be more appreciative in terms of where our food comes from, how we treat the environment. And so for of all these people in 100 years’ time, 100 years, who are listening to this, I hope they would have got there because we are just starting. So maybe, maybe they won’t? Maybe they’ll go the other way, and bomb it all to bits – but that’s my hope. – Ryan