An Islington charity has started a fundraising campaign to buy a milk float and turn it into a mobile potting shed and nature classroom.

Islington Gazette: An Islington-based charity has started a fundraising campaign to buy a milk float and turn it into a mobile potting shed and nature classroom.An Islington-based charity has started a fundraising campaign to buy a milk float and turn it into a mobile potting shed and nature classroom. (Image: Archant)

The Octopus Community Network, a group of community centres in Islington, hopes to tour housing estates to run pop-up green workshops in the environmentally-friendly vehicle as part of its “Urban Wild Places” gardening project.

People on the borough’s estates will then be able to turn patches of wasteland into community veg gardens.

Urban Wild Places development manager Julie Parish said: “The milk float will provide us with the means to effectively run pop-up gardening workshops and growing sessions on the doorstep, which we believe will maximise the number of people who can engage, especially those who are isolated or have limited mobility.

“Many of the housing estates that we are engaging with in Islington do not have community centre facilities on site or nearby, so the provision of workshops and practical workspace can be a challenge. The transportation and distribution of ‘growing kits’ – including the tools and equipment needed to create the gardens – would also provide the much needed on-site ‘potting shed’.”

The milk float will also help the charity hold pop-up community events and street parties on housing estates.

To date, the charity has set up community gardens on eight Islington estates including Harvist, Bemerton and Hilldrop. Activities organised by the charity include beekeeping, bushcrafting and looking after frogs, as well as bug hunts, pond-dipping and tree identification.

The charity already has its sights set on a milk float named “Bluebell”, currently owned by musician Paul Thompson, who recently completed the longest journey ever made by milk float in his tour around the British Isles.

In total, the charity will need £15,659 to purchase the vehicle and transform it into a “Gro-Mobile”. At the time of publication, the charity had raised £3,680 of its target.

“We really need all the help and support we can get to make the rest of the total,” Ms Kent said.

For more information and to make a donation visit the charity’s crowdfunding page.