Anything grows - Dandelion set to sow, grow and share in Levenmouth during 2022
The Leven Programme is delighted to announce that in partnership with OnFife, that we have been awarded funding from the Scottish Government to host one of 13 ‘Unexpected Gardens’ that will be springing up across the country during 2022 as part of the Dandelion programme.
The Dandelion programme, is an innovative new initiative inviting people all over the country to get growing, sharing and celebrating food, music, and ideas with their communities.
Dandelion aims to demonstrate the power of collective action in a Scotland-wide ‘grow your own’ initiative. Rooted in Scotland, with an international outlook and sustainability at its heart, the Dandelion programme follows the arc of the growing season, from April to September 2022, and will culminate in hundreds of Harvest Festivals across Scotland – reimagining the cultural celebration of harvest for the 21st century, led by the next generations of producers, musicians and growers.
The programme will see gardens and growing spring up across Scotland in unexpected places, from the Borders to the Highlands and Islands, in urban, rural, and remote locations. Dandelion will show that even the unlikeliest place can bloom, through individual or community action.
The Levenmouth Unexpected Garden will host a specially curated programme of cultural events, working with dedicated emerging creative producers and musicians in residence, while growing produce with community partners for the local area.
At the centre of Dandelion, sit the Cubes of Perpetual Light, miniature vertical farms created to foster accelerated growing by combining design craft, traditional horticultural expertise, and technological innovation. The cubes will appear in the Unexpected Gardens and other locations across the country, hosting new music commissions by Scottish and international artists – that emanate from inside the cubes - fusing innovative artistic and scientific practice together in stunning objects symbolic of Dandelion’s wider programme.
Running alongside the public programme, Dandelion will engage with the next generation of growers, with 100,000 children and young people being invited to participate in The Dandelion School Growing Initiative which will see 200 specially adapted growing cubes distributed to 100 secondary schools, working in partnership with 400 feeder primary schools. Pupils will become citizen scientists in the largest community-led growing experiment ever undertaken in Scotland, comparing future farming techniques with traditional growing. Children and their families will later share the food they have produced, alongside art, live music, and stories, at hundreds of playground Harvest Festivals.