Community growing at its best
This month we’re sharing practical ways to reduce plastic use in the garden and highlighting exciting research into plastic pollution in amateur gardening.
We also look back at a fantastic discussion on community growing at Gardeners' World Live, celebrate our work with refugee communities in Coventry, and introduce Emma, our new community engagement officer in Shropshire.
We hope you enjoy catching up on Garden Organic activity in communities and find plenty of inspiration to get involved.
Plastic Free July 🔗
All gardeners will encounter plastic at some stage, from pots and wheelbarrows to water butts. Plastic Free July is a shared global movement that helps millions of people reduce plastic waste through simple, everyday choices and be part of the solution to plastic pollution. We’re always checking the plastic we buy is recycled or recyclable. Better still, we try to reduce the amount of plastic we buy in the first place and reuse the pots and containers we already have.
You can find lots of advice on our website about how you can reduce your plastic use:
How you can reduce your plastic use:
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Plastics in the garden
In principle, organic growing uses non-renewable resources, such as plastic, as little as possible. However, any gardener will encounter plastic at some stage, from pots to wheelbarrows and waterbutts. We discuss different types of plastic, and how to be mindful of the amount you use.
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Seven ways to reduce your garden plastic use
Growing organically doesn’t stop at pesticides and plants – it also includes plastic.
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Our research on plastic pollution
We’ve teamed up with Coventry University for a citizen science project to discover more about plastic contamination in soils.
The charity will also be hosting a webinar on 15 July, 12.30-1.30pm with Coventry University’s Centre for Agroecology and Water Resilience. The Centre will be discussing recent research on plastics in amateur gardening, alongside Garden Organic volunteers, with practical actions we can all take to reduce plastic use.
Community session at Gardeners’ World Live 🔗
We were thrilled to welcome volunteers and colleagues to a special ‘Community Growing’ session on Garden Organic’s Grow Your Own Stage at the Birmingham NEC. We know community growing can change neighbourhoods for the better - delivering lifelong wellbeing benefits and playing a real role in responding to environmental challenges at local level. But it isn't always easy. We heard from people with hands on experience, alongside those working with land, planning and decision-making.
The panel included:
- Terena Plowright – Greening Campaign
- Louise Troy – Semilong Community Garden (Grow Cook Eat) West Northamptonshire
- Rhian Palmer – Green for All, Coventry City Council
- Jyan Dutton - The People's Patch (Groundwork) Coventry
Carriers of Hope 🔗
Our research manager Dr Anton Rosenfeld recently delivered our first on-the-plot training session at the Growing Roots Allotment in Coventry, working with Coventry Refugee charity Carriers of Hope. We sowed calaloo, dudi, methi, achocha, oca, stem lettuce, Indian mustard and sharks fin melon.
Growing Roots is a welcoming and hands-on project supporting asylum seekers, refugees, and newly arrived communities in Coventry to access green outdoor space, improve their wellbeing, and build new skills. Based at our allotment in Earlsdon, the project offers a safe and inclusive environment where people can connect with nature, each other, and their new community.
With funding from National Lottery Awards for All, we will be delivering a training session on the last Saturday of each month over the next year. Participants will learn about organic food cultivation in the UK climate. These sessions provide practical, hands-on experience in agriculture and horticulture, while also creating opportunities to grow culturally familiar crops that are often difficult to access locally. This not only supports healthy eating, but also helps people maintain a connection to home through food and shared traditions.
Welcome Emma - our new community engagement officer in Shropshire 🔗
“At the end of May, I had the pleasure of joining Garden Organic and my first event was Go Wild in Worthen. It was a fantastic celebration of nature, bringing together local wildlife groups, families and community organisations to help people connect with the natural world.
From meeting other experts and exploring exhibits to seeing Fleur, the barn owl, up close, it was wonderful to see so many people of all ages engaging with wildlife and learning more about the species and habitats on their doorstep. I took along some of my own compost and friendly critters and had lots of fun exploring with microscopes and magnifying glasses and talking all things compost.
More recently, I have been supporting the Grove School allotment project through my role with Shropshire Good Food Partnership. Working alongside Geoff Turner, one of Shropshire's Master Composters and Rachel Phillips-Street (GO Project Coordinator), students have been learning how to grow food using a range of different techniques. They also explored composting (hot bin and the more traditional version), soil health and sustainable gardening.
The project has been funded through the Veolia and Shropshire Council EnviroGrant scheme and is already producing fantastic results, with pupils growing a wide variety of crops while developing practical skills, confidence and a stronger connection to food and nature. All of these students had Master Composter sessions earlier in the year.
Get involved! 🔗
If you’d like to get involved promoting organic growing in your community then please get in touch by emailing our communities team.
If we haven’t got a funded programme in your area, you can sign up to our ‘UK-wide network’ to become part of our active network, and we’ll support you with webinars, newsletters and links to the most up to date educational resources and engagement tools.