Volunteer Photographers & Surveyors – Get Growing Trail 2026 

The Get Growing  Trail returns over the weekend of 12 & 13 September 2026, opening the gates to some of Bristol’s most inspiring fruit and veg gardens. We’re looking for volunteers to help us capture the weekend and understand its impact. You can volunteer as a photographer, a surveyor, or do both. 

Whether you’re interested in photography, chatting to people, supporting community food growing, or simply exploring some of Bristol’s hidden green spaces, we’d love to have you involved. 

Photography 

Help capture the atmosphere of the Trail by visiting one or more gardens and taking informal photos of the spaces, activities, volunteers and visitors. These images are more than just snapshots – they help community growers celebrate and share their work, and showcase the power of local food growing across Bristol. 

We’ll upload the photos to our Flickr photo library, where participating gardens and others working in sustainable food can use them (with full photographer credit). 

Surveying

Help us understand the impact of the Trail by talking to visitors and growers and inviting them to complete a short feedback survey. You can also help with simple visitor counts or observations if needed. 

If you’re interested, there’s also the opportunity to support after the event, helping analyse results and identifying key themes to feed into our evaluation, which helps shape future events and secure future funding. 

What’s involved 

• Visit one or more gardens on Saturday 12 and/or Sunday 13 September – you can choose the locations and times that suit you. 

• Volunteer as a photographer, surveyor, or combine both roles during your visit. 

• Share your photos and/or completed surveys with us after the event. 

• Optional: help with survey data entry and analysis in the following weeks. 

A full list of participating gardens is available bristolgoodfood.org/ggt. In the meantime, you can browse previous years’ gardens to get a flavour of what to expect. 

Who can volunteer? 

Anyone! We’re looking for friendly, enthusiastic people who enjoy community spaces and want to support local food growing. 

No qualifications or specialist equipment needed, although you will need to download an app for the surveys. Whether you’re a beginner with a phone camera, an experienced photographer, someone who enjoys chatting with people, or you’re interested in community research and evaluation, we’ll provide a short briefing and all the guidance you need. 

It’s a great opportunity to discover Bristol’s edible gardens, gain experience, meet like-minded people, and help celebrate and strengthen the city’s community food-growing movement.