Volunteering

We need help with all sorts of gardening and construction tasks all through the year. On Mondays, Dan leads volunteers in a whole range of gardening tasks. His speciality is herbs, so if you’re interested in finding out more about how to grow and use herbs, Monday is a good day for you. On Wednesdays, Steven leads volunteers in construction tasks to improve and maintain the site. So if you’d like to hone your DIY skills, learn how to put to recycle materials and build garden furniture and compost bins, this is a good day to attend. On Fridays, Otley college lecturer Ric Staines is a reknowned horticulturist of long experience. Visit on Friday if you’d like to know all about growing veg or pruning fruit trees. Ric is also running free gardening courses on Fridays. Please contact Horticultural Project Co-ordinator Susannah Robirosa on 07530 407 302 to book your place, or for any other enquiries relating to the project.

Situated on Maidenhall Allotments, with Ipswich docks and the Orwell Bridge in view, the People’s Community Garden is an inspiring outdoor resource with a whole range of activities on offer. There are growing plots where we grow vegetables in rotation both for volunteers to take home at the end of the day, and to supply local lunch clubs, community shops and food co-operatives. There is a herb circle full of interesting medicinal herbs, which we can make into relaxing herbal teas for post-digging refreshment. There is also a heritage orchard with local varieties of fruit. We hope to develop this area into a Permaculture showcase with the help of design students. The Wildlife Area has been sown with wildflower seed for what we hope will be a beautiful meadow come the summer. We have also developed wildlife habitats for the rare Common Lizard, in residence on site, and piled up logs to keep the Stag Beetles happy. There is a wonderful variety of birdlife that visits the garden and we have found deer tracks in the snow.

The People’s Community Garden will help you get fitter and feel better -  as well as being a friendly environment to make new friends and learn new skills. There are a variety of tasks on offer to suit your ability and level of fitness. You can build up from easy weeding and hoeing tasks in the Sensory Garden, or potting on seedlings in the polytunnel, to digging on the growing plots, progressing to hardcore muck-shovelling and compost-turning. This will really raise your heartbeat each week and tone every muscle. A light warm-up session is good idea to prepare yourself, and our professional staff will take you through your paces, after a Health & Safety induction.

In the growing season, your efforts will be rewarded with fresh produce you can pick yourself, according to what you feel like cooking for dinner in the evening – a bunch of fresh basil to accompany a fresh tomato sauce, perhaps, or freshly dug potatoes to accompany a meat or fish dish.

You can stay just a few hours, or for the whole day, with friendly experienced staff on hand to help and advise you. There is a fully accessible composting toilet on site, disabled parking facilities and a cabin where we meet in bad weather to warm up and have a cuppa.

The Community Garden is a truly rewarding project to get involved with, guaranteed to make you feel healthier and happier.