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Grass Roots Oldham, in Greater Manchester, has won the RHS and BBC The One Show’s Growing Together Award 2024 for Community Gardening which celebrates the transformative impact of growing together.
Unveiled as the winner on The One Show, Grass Roots Oldham has spent the last two years giving life to a previously derelict and unloved space, turning it into a vibrant and thriving community hub complete with fruit and vegetable growing facilities and 166 tree orchard on a one acre site. Situated in an urban landscape of dense housing, roads and motorways, the space provides a green oasis for local people.
People from all backgrounds are invited to get involved, with Grass Roots addressing transport costs, providing shared meals, and accommodating children to ensure that anyone, no matter their circumstances, can join in and connect with the community. The space is used for healing and recovery, learning and homeschooling and as a place to forge connections in a new country
Beyond horticultural training the group also offers nature conservation workshops, forest school activities, animal husbandry – including chickens, goats, and bees – bike riding and even paddle sports on the adjacent Rochdale Canal to promote physical health, mental wellness, and environmental consciousness which help in creating a thriving haven for people and wildlife.
Victoria Holden who runs the Grass Roots Oldham Project, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have won the Growing Together Award 2024. The Grass Roots Oldham project is a shining example of what communities can achieve when we have access to land. We’ve transformed a once derelict green space into a vibrant, inclusive area that truly embodies community spirit. By utilising and improving green space, we nurture social enterprises and cultivate a variety of community activities for everyone to enjoy. It’s amazing what we can accomplish when we come together”.
Joining this year’s winner, were runners up, Campy Growers in Dundee, and Camberwell Triangle Gardeners in London.
Campy Growers has created a community market garden from a derelict council nursery site. The largest community growing space in Dundee, it welcomes volunteers from all backgrounds to inspire future growers. The group aims to advance health and wellbeing for the community by providing access to growing opportunities and fresh local produce, and hosting land-based educational programmes and courses. Campy Growers also provide fresh food for distribution and make donations of fresh produce to local community kitchens and charities.
Camberwell Triangle Gardeners, situated in the centre of a housing estate had been previously neglected. Littered with rubbish and fly tipping it also attracted anti-social behaviour. A collective of residents worked hard to transform the space and it is now home to allotment beds, edible and native hedging, and bug hotels. The group, which consists of first-time plot holders, hosts growing workshops for the community and with 90% of residents not benefitting from a garden, the space provides a green haven for local people and valuable access to land to grow food.
Pak Ling Wan, Community Programme Manager at the RHS, said: “This year’s competition has once again shown how gardening is being used to convene and connect sometimes disparate communities across the country. We’re certain that this year’s winner and runners up will inspire people to see the potential in a neighbouring patch of land to help build local resilience and bring about change.”
Tayshan Hayden-Smith, community activist, garden designer and competition judge, added: “Community, community, community. I can’t express the importance of community enough – and it is within community gardens where connections with both each other and nature can be cultivated and fostered. All finalists had taken unloved, local patches of land and transformed them into flourishing green spaces to benefit their wider communities, encouraging people to get involved. It wasn’t easy choosing between finalists, but it was Grass Roots Oldham whose transformation of an underused space continues to evolve to meet the social and environmental needs of the local community – with people’s mental and physical health very much at the fore when engaging, designing and activating space. It’s an impressive feat considering it’s only been open for just two years.”
The competition, now in its second year, shines a light on community gardening groups across the UK that have transformed a previously unused space into an inspiring green one for the benefit of local people and those trying gardening for the first time.
The competition entries were judged by a panel from the RHS and the BBC, including community activist and garden activator Tayshan Hayden-Smith who helped create the Grenfell Garden of Peace in North Kensington. The panel assessed the entries based on the creativity and design of the transformed space and positive impact it has had on the local community.
2024’s winning garden will receive £1,000 in National Garden Gift Vouchers while runners up will receive £100 National Garden Gift Vouchers.
To find out more about the RHS and BBC The One Show Growing Together Award 2024 for Community Gardening and read more about the winner and runners up visit: www.rhs.org.uk/get-involved/community-gardening/news/articles/inspiring-new-growers-competition
