RHS London in Bloom Award 2022
Winner of RHS London in Bloom Award 2022 – category ‘Its your neighborhood’ – Level 5 ‘Outstanding’
Volunteers make an important contribution to our work; we always welcome volunteers at all of our sites. If you would like to know more email volunteering@cultivatelondon.org.
Using our combined years of experience working with local communities in London through horticulture & urban green spaces, we provide practical consultation for community groups and engagement consultation for commercial organisations, alongside workshops and sessions for community engagement at your site or at any one of the ones we manage.
We work with several community groups to provide on the ground horticultural skills, expertise and mentoring for their green spaces including design and development of the growing spaces, ongoing maintenance, yearly growing plans, community engagement plans and activities, seasonal events.
THRIVING COMMUNITIES
With funding received from Hounslow Thriving Communities programme we are working with several groups across the borough to enhance community engagement by developing growing spaces and improving wellbeing for individuals and groups. From March 2022 we will be working with community groups, schools, NHS early intervention teams. This programme will run until November 2022.
Some of the groups we have worked with previously on this programme in 2021 are St Lukes Church, Redwood Estate residents, Isleworth Town School, Woodbridge School, Heron Way Allotment, Afghan centre. We continue to be a point of contact for these groups should they need advice on their sites.
DIG SITE, HANWELL
Our newest community garden. We got the keys in late 2022 and got started with volunteer sessions. We also had some amazing corporate groups helping us to tackle the site which was untended for several years. Now in 2023, we are hosting our volunteer day on Mondays starting on 6th February from 10 – 3 pm.
Free to join in and no experience or booking is necessary.
Older sites where we maintain a light touch approach with the community.
In spring 2019, the team transformed this once thriving community garden back to its former glory and then continued to manage the garden over the following seasons, , whilst providing weekly sessions for local community members to enable them to make the best use of their green space, grow food that can supply the community café in the centre and/or to take home and use. The intention is that the community will eventually take over full control of the space. We are currently looking at the best way to facilitate this.
In spring 2019, the team transformed this once thriving community garden back to its former glory and then continued to manage the garden over the following seasons, , whilst providing weekly sessions for local community members to enable them to make the best use of their green space, grow food that can supply the community café in the centre and/or to take home and use. The intention is that the community will eventually take over full control of the space. We are currently looking at the best way to facilitate this.
Work here started in April 2018 and has been very successful for the community, we continue to over- see this garden on a regular basis and it is a great example of community ‘buy in’ demonstrating that these spaces can have longevity.
Community Volunteering
Volunteers make an important contribution to our work; we always welcome volunteers at all our sites.
The Salopian Garden, 689a London Road, TW7 4ES
Every Wednesday 10 – 4 pm. Drop in, meet some new people. We have strong cohort of regulars and new people joining all the time – no experience necessary, just a can-do attitude!
Berrymede Community Gardens, Acton Gardens Primary school, 232 Osborne Rd, London W3 8SN
The beds are located in the playgrounds of the 3 buildings of the Acton Gardens Primary school (formerly Berrymede), the drop-in sessions are outside lessons times: Saturdays 11:30 – 14:30 and Tuesdays 3-5pm (during summer 4-6pm plus an extra session on Thursdays).
All level of experience are welcome. For more info contact communitygardens@cultivatelondon.org.
Dean Gardens, Ealing W13
During Spring and Summer this year we will be working with Ealing Council to deliver their community programme in Dean Gardens, Ealing, W13 9BG. Open to all, the sessions are designed to help the community engage with their local park, meet their neighbours and help to generally improve the park. – The sessions will be run bi-weekly starting on Tuesday 19th April 2022 – Time 11 am – 1 pm.
Health and Wellbeing
Through increased physical activity and access to green spaces our work helps the community by:
- Reducing isolation and promoting wellbeing: we bring people together for group activities in community settings, including initiatives targeted at isolated men and women, young mothers and older people.
- Creating healthier neighbourhoods: we involve people in improving their local parks and green spaces, creating routes for walking and cycling and using green infrastructure to tackle air pollution.
- Encouraging physical activity: we encourage people to be more active by taking part in practical conservation volunteering, and we use sport and physical activity in many of our youth programmes.
- Enabling healthier eating: we give people the chance to learn about and grow their own food in a sociable setting, demonstrate healthier cooking and broaden people’s culinary choices.
We work with a variety of local partners to deliver projects at the Salopian Garden that help create healthier, greener places to live, and run community activities that encourage healthier living and support people through practical volunteering to improve their wellbeing and manage health conditions.
Salopian Outdoor Kitchen
Our garden and outdoor kitchen and cooking facilities at the Salopian Garden have been improved. We can now run enhanced projects to learn hands-on how to link food growing to healthy eating, helping people of all ages learn about and access fresh produce, and gain skills critical to a healthy lifestyle.
Thank you to Hounslow Thriving Communities who made this latest improvement possible.
Many of our community members can benefit from the ‘field to fork’ experience we offer at the Salopian Garden. We will create areas specifically designed to be accessible to children, elderly community members, wheelchair users and others with limited mobility. We want everyone who would like to take part in on-site cooking activities to be able to do so.
There is no better way to build community than through growing, cooking and eating food together.
As we open post pandemic, we hope to welcome back some of the community café people from Soup4Lunch to enjoy our newly improved space.
