Environment

Skip Garden: a mobile, sustainable temporary restaurant

Skip Garden: a mobile, sustainable temporary restaurant
Amongst the crops grown at the Skip Garden are apples, pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, ginger and chillies
Amongst the crops grown at the Skip Garden are apples, pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, ginger and chillies
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Amongst the crops grown at the Skip Garden are apples, pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, ginger and chillies
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Amongst the crops grown at the Skip Garden are apples, pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, ginger and chillies
People from the local community help out at the Skip Garden
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People from the local community help out at the Skip Garden
The Skip Garden runs a program of events
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The Skip Garden runs a program of events
The crops grown at the Skip Garden are used to create meals at the Skip Garden Kitchen resteraunt
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The crops grown at the Skip Garden are used to create meals at the Skip Garden Kitchen resteraunt
The Skip Garden is located in the King's Cross area of London
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The Skip Garden is located in the King's Cross area of London
The Skip Garden is designed to be movable so that it can vacate a piece of land easily when the land is required for development purposes
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The Skip Garden is designed to be movable so that it can vacate a piece of land easily when the land is required for development purposes
The Skip Garden is located in an area designated for future development, thus animating the space in the meantime
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The Skip Garden is located in an area designated for future development, thus animating the space in the meantime
There is a chicken coop built around a silver birch tree
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There is a chicken coop built around a silver birch tree
There is a cool-store made using bags of earth
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There is a cool-store made using bags of earth
The Glass House is made using recyled glass windows
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The Glass House is made using recyled glass windows
An awning provides shelter for visitors
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An awning provides shelter for visitors
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A community space, garden and kitchen in the King's Cross area of London is feeding its customers with food grown in skips (aka dumpsters). The Skip Garden is designed to be easily moved around unused development spaces. It is built with recycled materials and employs organic farming techniques.

King's Cross is undergoing large-scale redevelopment, and the Skip Garden takes advantage of this by setting up on areas of land that are earmarked for development but that are currently unused. It has recently moved to its third home in the area, adjacent to the King's Cross Pond Club freshwater swimming pond.

Created by educational charity Global Generation in collaboration with the Bartlett School of Architecture, the Skip Garden has seven new structures at its new location, which Global Generation says is its "most exciting" to date. It is described by the King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership as a project that has become far more than simply a moveable vegetable garden built in skips.

The structures are built using a variety of reclaimed materials, such as sash windows, railway sleepers and coffee sacks. Amongst the structures are a Greywater Dining Scape that provides a wetland dining area and is claimed to be the "first large-scale commercial reed bed water filtration scape in London."

The crops grown at the Skip Garden are used to create meals at the Skip Garden Kitchen resteraunt
The crops grown at the Skip Garden are used to create meals at the Skip Garden Kitchen resteraunt

There is also a Chicken Coop built around a silver birch tree, and until recently there was a Hydroponic Hedge used to grow herbs. The Hydroponic Hedge utilized suspended upcycled wine bottles held in place by 3D-printed bottle holders.

Amongst the crops grown on-site are apple trees, pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, ginger and chillies. Polytunnels made with water pipes and polythene are used to aid the growing process. In addition, growing is aided with the use of aerobic and worm composting, comfrey juice fertilizer (from the comfrey plant), companion and rotational planting, rainwater harvesting and beekeeping.

Once ripe, the produce that is grown is used in the Skip Garden Kitchen to create seasonal dishes. Young people from the local community are involved in creating the menu, cooking and serving the food. The Skip Garden also runs a program of events that includes twilight dining experiences, family gardening sessions and lunchtime talks.

The Skip Garden runs a program of events
The Skip Garden runs a program of events

The Skip Garden and the Skip Garden Kitchen are open between 10am and 4pm from Tuesday to Saturday.

Sources: Skip Garden, King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership

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1 comment
1 comment
VictoriasViewpoint
Good idea, yucky name!