Welcome to Petworth Community Gardens new website, ‘Growing for All’
Who we are
We are an established community garden in Petworth, set up in 2005 inspired by Garden Organics ‘Organic Food for All’ scheme, and have carried out many activities and projects there since then.
Our initial aim
- Was to enable local people with limited means to be able to access free fresh organic fruit and vegetables.
Current aims include
- Promoting Healthy Life Styles
- Care for The Environment
- Celebrating Peoples Abilities
- Delivering Social and Therapeutic horticulture sessions
- Representing The Community
- A Place of Play and Learning
In the beginning
We started as a small voluntary community group working with a mixture of people from all walks of life; older people, children, adults with learning difficulties, people with physical, mental, family or social challenges, and other interested locals, and working together in a group, creating a wheelchair accessible community garden on a double allotment in Petworth.
Weekly activities
Each session, we learnt organic gardening, shared the tasks according to need and ability, enjoyed the social benefits of a regular group, shared seasonal soup and salad and each took away a share of our abundant harvest.
Developments
We have developed and grown over the years, creating wheelchair accessible; paths, raised beds, activity shed and compost toilet, along with sensory and wildlife gardens and ponds, and taken on a new allotment and polytunnel for our Sussex Community Foundation funded ‘Living larder’ project.
Other developments include:
- Sessions for children with special needs,
- Wild about wildlife projects for adults with learning difficulties,
- Sensory and therapeutic sessions for wheelchair users with more specific needs.
- ‘Learn and Grow’ sessions
- ‘Plot to Plate’ cookery sessions; where we take the harvest to our local cookery school ‘SuJoCo’ and are taught how to cook simple and delicious meals which we enjoy together for lunch.
- Men’s Shed project; for local men to create beautiful rural crafts together.
- Community Outreach: over the years we have been asked by many groups and individuals for help with setting up new projects. We have helped to set up two schools a carehome and a community farm project in the Petworth area, and have supported eight other groups with inspiration, permaculture design and fundraising advice as part of our National Lottery ‘Local Food’ funded project
- New Website: this website is a further resource to be used by anyone interested in community gardening, and is here to give inspiration and a range of advice, hints and tips on setting up successful new community garden projects, that can sustain into the future, bringing the many and varied wonderful benefits to communities wherever you are.
- Book: A year in the life of our community garden, (coming soon)
If you are thinking of setting up a new project, and have the seed of an idea for something in your community, our wish is that we can help to offer inspiration and advice as to the optimum growing conditions, so that your project can grow and flourish well into the future.
