About the Community Garden

Aims

The Ruskin Park Community Garden is a space run by volunteers to grow fruit and veg. The aim is to provide a hub of education and enthusiasm for growing vegetables, promoting inner city gardening to reduce the carbon output involved in food production and transport.

Anyone is welcome to our weekly sessions where volunteers can learn how to grow veg by doing. There are plenty of benefits to be gained from being outdoors, learning practical new skills, meeting friendly faces and hopefully having fun! Not to mention the satisfaction of watching your work pay off over time and getting to enjoy the fresh produce.

Our ethos is sustainability – reduce, reuse, recycle – and inclusiveness – we want garden users to reflect the diversity of the neighbourhood – to foster a community spirit, welcoming all no matter what their background or experience of gardening.

What we do

The garden is managed by an informal group of volunteer gardening enthusiasts, who are accountable to Friends of Ruskin Park. At least one experienced gardener will be there every Saturday from 12pm until 3pm when our gates are open for drop-in gardening sessions. We do whatever is needed on the day: planting, weeding, watering, clearing, harvesting and keeping pests away.

We work to a planting plan agreed at the beginning of the year based on the principles of organic gardening and crop rotation.

Funding

We raise money through the Friends of Ruskin Park for different projects and activities. This has included making improvements to our facilities and hosting popular workshops such as wreath-making at Christmas time or on topics such as propagation. Our funders have included the Postcode Local Trust and the National Lottery Community Fund. We have also raised funds through sales of Ruskin Park honey from our apiary.