Abbey Gardens presents 'Grow Green E15'

From "People Powered Stratford & West Ham"

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Proposed budget

GBP 19,500

Description

UPDATED FEBRUARY 2025

'Grow Green E15' was a free and inclusive program of family events, fitness classes, gardening workshops and seasonal celebrations for all ages hosted in Abbey Gardens from March - October; creating frequent opportunities for everyone to come together to celebrate, learn, have fun and grow the gardens. Providing learning and connection opportunities for all ages.

Our People Powered Places Funding has enabled us to plan, promote and host a range of activites in Abbey Gardens. It's enabled us to fund a small team of consistent support and presence in the gardens, and has given us great foundations and set up to continue the events and activities with support of volunteers we've met over the summer.

Our gardens have never looks so well maintained and had such a regular stream of visitors over a season. Our weekly gardening sessions, held every Sunday afternoon, have welcomed new gardeners into the garden and made the gardens look incredibly kept and more blooming than ever! With new wildflower meadows, SweetPea teepeas, new fence planters and fruit trees just some of the new additions. We build a new greenhouse and a pond within the gardens.

Our Spring Festival welcomed Spring back into the garden with games, music and celebrations!

Our Arts and Crafts day welcomed people into the gardens to get inspired by nature and get creative. Getting hands dirty with clay, and vegetable watercolours.

World Bee Day had the gardens buzzing with educational bee treasure hunts, candle making workshops, tiny dancers and bee talks.

Our Work Out with Elliot classes invited a local trainer to run personal training sessions that had young and old sweating in the sun. We'll be returning getting active sessions this July with some yoga in the garden sessions every Wednesday.

The rest of the summer saw evening yoga sessions, a Fiber Festival, and the continuation of the Gardening workshops each week.

The autumn will concluded with a harvest celebration on Apple Day where we pressed and juiced apples together as a community.

We learnt a lot along the way about communicating, engaging with our community and introducing volunteers to the gardens. That we plan on improving and optimising for events in future. We're so grateful to have met the people and new networks we've made throughout this process.

It's been magical to see the gardens so full of life and flourishing and bringing lots of joy to existing community and those discovering us this year!

See you in the gardens soon

The Abbey Gardens Team.

ORIGINAL PROPOSAL:

GARDENING WORKSHOPS

MARCH - OCT

Weekly gardening sessions open to all led by an experienced gardener. Including foraging and harvesting from the gardens as a community. For all ages from Toddlers to Centurians across the borough. Creating intergenerational connections.

SEASONAL COMMUNITY EVENTS

MAY-OCT

Community hosted cultural, creative and social events through the year. Come together to relax and connect in the gardens, with refreshments entertainment, and good vibes only.

ACTIVE IN THE GARDENS: FITNESS CLASSES, YOGA, TEA , MINDFULNESS

MAY - JULY

Opportunities to move together outdoors. Yoga and fitness classes for the community finishing with fresh tea / salad from the gardens.

STREET PLANTERS AND WATER BUTTS

ONGOING

Offsite water butts collecting water; to water community planters to bring greenery and nature into our streets.

WHAT THE MONEY WILL BE SPENT ON:

Local paid opportunities: Gardener, Project & Community Outreach Manager
Workshops materials and facilitators
Family events: materials & entertainment costs
Active in the gardens sessions: instructors and equipment
Water butts and planters hard costs

Our project aims to create a vibrant green space for the community to come together and enjoy!

Comments(6)

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Profile of T Nasrin

Posted by:T Nasrin

3 years ago

These gardens have been a lifeline for me during a very difficult period of my life. Also huge credit to Spring Gardens Cafe for injecting life and soul into the gardens, making every visit a pleasant and friendly encounter. It’s a beautiful breath of fresh air in this urban jungle

Posted by:unknown author

3 years ago

I am really happy to support Newham residents and community gardens, streets back yard garden's and inspired others to join us.

Profile of Stephen Shiell

Posted by:Stephen Shiell

3 years ago

Over the last two years I've really got to know Abbey Gardens by working there, and being friends and supporting the garden, and them supporting a project I'm involved in. It's one of the most vibrant and amazing spaces with such a great energy, the cafe the ethos, the growing, the space is one of the best jewels in Newham and massively important for the climate emergency and for the young residents of Newham. I encourage you to vote and support this garden!

Profile of Nontando Mpofu

Posted by:Nontando Mpofu

3 years ago

Lovley community garden. Visiting from Waltham Forest

Profile of Macrina Hanganu

Posted by:Macrina Hanganu

3 years ago

Showing my support for this application! Abbey Gardens gave me a sense of community and helped me meet new people when I had just moved into the area. Having a space to garden has been invaluable to my wellbeing and mental health as well. Some of the areas around Stratford can feel very newly developed and quite impersonal, so it's really important to have spaces like these where people can get creative and have some input in shaping their environment. Empowering and gives a sense of belonging and groundedness. Thanks guys and I hope the application goes well!!

Profile of Ned Lamb

Posted by:Ned Lamb

3 years ago

I would like to support this important application. Since moving back to the area in 2019, Abbey Gardens - and Spring Cafe - has been a lovely (and rare) place to enjoy locally. It has often meant that on a Saturdays and Sundays we’ve avoided spending our time (and sometimes money) in other boroughs. Somethung we want to do less of. We’ve also enjoyed bringing friends and family to Abbey Gardens too. We would love to be able to do more activities there and would hope that this funding would allow more people to enjoy it too. We really want to see local organisations, initiatives and businesses thrive - particularly those that do such a good job of building a sense of community, and Newham needs this now more than ever.