22 April 2024. Happy Earth Day from the WBI team! We wrapped up the final gardening session for our research project funded by Natural England at the Milton Piece Allotment in Portsmouth, where our migrant volunteers joined in the community gardening.
What better way to celebrate our planet than being outdoors, connecting with nature and each other? Thanks to our collaboration with Portsmouth City Council, we spent the day on the Milton Piece Allotment to conclude the planting stage of our Seed Corn Research project, funded by Natural England.
As a warm welcome, our collaborator and Ethnic Grow project officer, Runi Ahmed, offered us a tour of the sprawling allotment, divided into well-tended plots, green houses, wooden huts and a nature watch area that has recently been created with the help of volunteers.
It was a real pleasure to have our funder, Natural England’s Mandy Preece, come for a visit and share some happy stories of growing raspberries on her grandparents’ farm.
Many participants expressed their desire to continue community gardening by joining the weekly group run by the Portsmouth City Council.
“It is such a lovely thing, coming here. You get to meet and talk to other people, while helping each other take care of the plants. There’s a real sense of belonging.”- Nusirat
From the therapeutic benefits of being immersed in lush greenery, to the opportunity to practise organic farming, there are many incentives to volunteer in a community garden.
These community green spots are a real sanctuary for wellbeing, especially for those lacking their own gardens at home. They are also a reminder of how beautiful and rich nature can be, if we all do our small bit of tending to promote its growth.
We are very pleased that our project served to inspire more environmental engagement at the grassroots level. Stay in touch for more updates on the topic of community gardening and its impact on local climate action, as we roll our project report out!
