Early reports from our pilot questionnaire are hinting at interesting results to come….

We wrote to a sample of our mentored household in August 2010 to trial our new questionnaires before launching this autumn. It’s part of our partnership with Coventry University to discover the health, environmental and social impact of the Master Gardener Programme. Click here to read the full story…

The results of the full research are pending. So in the meantime, some unofficial but interesting quotes from the pilot!

We’re reaching individuals, couples, families – with main benefits for joining the programme described as:

“Delicious fruit and veg! The kids love it too and a real sense of achievement”

“Growing more in our small patch”

“Nudged me into organic gardening”

“To benefit from the advice, working with someone and the encouragement”

Master Gardeners described as:

“…kind, helpful and inspiring”

“…extremely supportive without putting undue pressure on me!”

Most households reported growing more food – a greater range, and with increased knowledge of food growing! While space and time reported as limiting factors…

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Clare works with two school groups just over the border, South Haringey Infant and Junior Schools.

She runs a session with the Junior School every Friday afternoon. They are taking part in the Real Bread Campaign’s ‘Bake Your Lawn’ project growing wheat to mill and bake a loaf from (1m2 of wheat is all you need for a loaf!).

They also cover sustainability issues by recycling pots and harvesting rainwater – while the children are keen to try the vegetables they have grown themselves.

Clare has also written the lovely ‘New River Garden Newsletter’ (pictured) to celebrate what the children have achieved and to engage parents in what they’ve been up to.

Clare writes:

“Today we are weeding, watering and eating some things that we grew. We are eating radishes and lettuce which we grew from seed. We decided the radishes tasted sweet and peppery at the same time. Some of us were surprised that we like them.”

“While visiting the garden 5SW saw two swans and a worm. 5J saw a spider with 8 legs, a ladybird with six, a duck with two and a snail with none! One group found a bone – we think it was from someone who hadn’t handed in their homework on time.”

Ensuring that the adults within a school community feel connected with the food growing in that school is vital for success. Holiday watering rotas, old tools, extra pairs of hands during gardening sessions to support Clare and the children, and manpower on work days all come from the parent body, so Clare’s newsletter is an impressive way of including them in the fun.

Vicky is truly passionate about the difference food growing has made in her own life and the impact that it can have on the lives of the children and families she works with. She’s a budding food growing activist and I am proud to announce that Vicky has just been nominated for an Islington Mayor’s Civic Award for her community work.

Vicky completed a horticulture qualification in 2006 and over the past four years has become more involved in the sector both voluntarily and professionally. She has her green fingers in many pies and even when employed professionally she makes sure she’s constantly passing on the food growing message.  She’s on a mission to use food growing, sharing and cooking produce to reconnect children to nature and the bigger picture of food production.

Vicky’s been involved with Toffee Park Adventure Playground since 2006.  She believes passionately that Toffee Park is a lifeline for the local children and families who use the space. It’s a place where children can experience safe natural play and their fantastic food growing space has been really important. Last year they had a spectacular crop of pumpkins, great herbs and salads. The girls like to make their own ‘perfume’ from peppermint, the kids are really into the wormery and love using the worm tea on the plots, they harvest rain water and make leaf mould for mulch.

This year they made jams and cordials from their fruit bushes and have recently planted pear and cherry trees. They also take binoculars over to the small park nearby to do some urban bird watching, she’s doing everything she can to connect these city kids to nature.

Vicky teaching seed sowing Vittoria Primary School

Vicky works at a couple of local primary schools supporting their food growing and wildlife spaces helping with planting plans, the design of a new wildlife space, she also reaches out to the wider school community by offering seed sowing and other growing support to families and has recruited a number of households this way.  Vicky also runs the Whitecross Goes Green Gardening Club with Chris Kimberley and supports 5 households new to food growing including the legendary Pearl who ate her first ever crop of tomatoes with extreme pride and joy last Autumn. Vicky’s work with Pearl hasn’t just been horticultural, the ongoing contact around food growing has been an amazing social support for Pearl too.

Since diving head first into organic food growing Vicky’s life has changed. She looks at food in a new way, “I’ve grown with this Master Gardener programme. I’m looking at eating in a different way. My family’s involved, my brother in law was inspired to get an allotment and now we learn from each other. It’s been a really healthy experience learning more and learning how to pass it on with support from the Master Gardeners.”

Vicky waxed lyrical about the Crown Prince pumpkin her brother in law grew this year calling it ‘truly heavenly’ and its seeds are being distributed to friends and family to get it on the plates of as many people as possible. Vicky’s passion is infectious because she’s loving what she’s doing so much, encouraging and supporting her communities from the formal role she plays in the projects mentioned to informal chats with neighbours. She manages to squeeze food growing into any topic.

While gathering stories for quarterly reporting, it was great to talk in depth with Master Gardeners about their projects. Here’s an exerpt about the terrific work that Stella and Friday are doing with one of their groups:

Stella Maravanyika and her husband and fellow Master Gardener, Friday, have their own growing plot at Cope House in EC1 where they live.

Originally Stella was approached by the housing association to be involved in a befriending scheme to support other residents in the sheltered housing and she suggested food growing activity as a useful social tool. They liked the idea and put in 10 small plots which have proved so successful that the housing association is repeating the scheme on another local estate.

Stella and Friday have one of the small plots on the estate which can be shady and plagued by squirrels, but have produced lots of fresh, organic veg over the year. They give advice and support to the other growers and gardening alongside neighbours has really strengthened friendships in the block. Throughout the summer, plot holders work side by side and Stella and Friday are always on hand to support the other growers. The new group registration form records these regularly supported plot holders as ‘households’.

Moreover, there has also been lots of interest generated in food growing amongst the other residents and a flat terrace area has also been colonised with planters. Stella has great co-opting skills. When someone from outside the growing group comments that something isn’t being done the right way, she grabs them, tells them they are just what the growers need to help them and gets them involved. Impressive inclusive coercion!

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Read more about latest achievement from Islington Master Gardeners

Read about summer achievements

It has been a spectacular year for Chris (locally known as “The Tomato Man”) Kimberley. A string of awards has celebrated Chris’s work this year culminating in the 2010 Volunteer of the Year Award from Volunteer Action Islington. His work with the Whitecross Goes Green Gardening Club has changed his life and made a huge impact on his community.

Chris has lived on the Peabody Estate in EC1 for 10 years. The Whitecross Estate Gardening Club which he runs along with fellow Master Gardener Vicky Cunningham was founded in 2009 by a small group of neighbours with a common interest in creating a greener environment for their friends and families. Volunteer led, they are recruiting residents from 5-50 years old and have benefitted from an Edible Islington grant and support from the Peabody Estates to build new planters and buy tools and soil to increase the food growing on the estate.

The Gardening Club is working with residents to grow fruit and vegetables organically to both educate about the joys of home grown food but also to get people invested in their community. They have also sold seedlings at Whitecross Street Mark and Chris has been offering horticultural advice to members of the public from the stall. He’s also been offering new residents window boxes to grow their own salad / herbs; a lovely welcome to a new home, to be offered the chance to literally put down roots.

Chris has osteoarthritis and prior to getting involved with the Gardening Club and the community centre earlier this year he admits he spent a lot of time indoors trapped by the physical constraints of his illness. Since starting the club and becoming a Master Gardener his outlook on life has changed completely and helping and supporting others learn to grow has placed him firmly in the centre of the community. One long time resident stopped to speak to Chris in the Summer having seen him gardening every day and said that the planting and having regular faces active in the communal areas of the estate had made him feel safer around the estate.

The planting and the growing activities on the estate has started to change the way people are with each other on the estate, as Chris says, “I want more people involved, I want more people to enjoy what I’m enjoying and the way it’s changed my life.”

Winter hasn’t slowed him down either, on 5th December he’ll be handing out window boxes planted with bulbs to the first 28 residents who come to collect them. The gardening club will be planting them up over the next couple of weekends.

The Whitecross Goes Green club also won an RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood Level 2 Award and an Islington in Bloom 3rd place Silver Gilt Award in the Community Gardens category. Vicky and Chris personally both won awards from Islington in Bloom Container Gardening Category for their work making the borough a greener place and Chris has also won recognition from Peabody Estates for his voluntary work. Peabody Estates are so impressed with the fledgling project and it’s effect on the community that they are putting more funding towards 10 new planters to be spread across 3 areas of the estate.

Last but not least Chris won 1st prize for his first ever victoria sponge (certificate proudly displayed above) at the Islington Horticultural Show in September.

Has 15 years commercial and academic experience growing in the US and Caribbean and with typical humility has approached growing in the UK as a novice as he is new to gardening in four seasons! He has many years experience in vocational training of young and adult learners and has worked voluntarily with many diverse groups teaching gardening.

Ian has been working with several amazing organisations in Haringey and I’ve seen his Time Bank statement – hundreds of hours credits and not a single debit.

He has been working with Back 2 Earth is an environmental and community regeneration charity aiming to develop a local food culture. He has been gardening, advising, planning, teaching and supporting the projects.  Living Under One Sun community allotment aims to create intergenerational and intercultural growing teams to encourage social cohesion. They work with single mothers, older residents, substance support programmes and anyone who wants to be involved, using organic gardening to strengthen the local community. Ian has been preparing educational material for them, running workshops, offering growing advice and support.

He has also signed up to Age Concern’s Intergenerational Gardening Project and has been involved in planning meetings with the Council as they prepare to launch this scheme in Haringey.

When Ian couldn’t make the North London training day in August he visited our South London group instead and he said something really lovely to me about how much he’d enjoyed meeting and talking to the greater Master Gardener community. Even someone with his depth and breadth of knowledge enjoyed having access to the cumulative experience and knowledge of the group. In Ian’s words, “We are collectively Master Gardeners”.

I’m also pleased to say that Ian’s work and knowledge has so impressed that he’s now working for some of the organisations he was volunteering for. He now supports and advises at the award winning Parkside growing space in Islington.

Peter has been doing sterling work supporting his local communities at Harold Laski House, St Luke’s Trust and Cope House giving the residents and growers advice and support. In addition to this there were a couple of things Peter told me about that I need to pass on:

Ginger beer plants!!!! Not so much a plant but a live culture which you can make huge quantities of homemade ginger beer from. The one I bought from Ebay is winging its way to Peter now as he’d been looking for one for a while and isn’t online.

Marrow rum. I have no idea what to do with marrows and this sounds like a pretty good suggestion. Has anyone ever tried it? This is an untested recipe but I’d be very interested in hearing if it works.

Ingredients:

* I large ripe marrow with hard skin

* 3-5 lbs of demerara sugar

* Activated wine yeast (bread yeast would do at a pinch)

* Juice of an orange

Method:

1. Slice off stalk end of the marrow with a bread knife. Saving enough to use as a lid. Remove all pith and seeds.

2. Pack the cavity with demerara sugar.

3. Pour over previously activated yeast and the juice of an orange.

4. Replace top of marrow, seal with sellotape.

5. Hang marrow in a muslin bag, cut end uppermost in a warm place.

6. After 3 wks marrow may show signs of leaking out. Either make a hole in bottom of marrow and run liquid into fermenting jar. Fit airlock, let ferment out. You can if you wish add a few raisins to fermenting jar. Syphon off and bottle.

My visit was rewarded with a bottle of his 2009 plum wine made with London foraged plums that grow on the estate but no-one ever picks.  I’m very much looking forward to trying it, thank you Peter.

Master Gardener Caroline is a passionate grower, but spends a lot of time at her desk.

“My maiden voyage was a council event to meet the public. I felt a bit nervous until biting the bullet. I talked to some 20 people and gave out information, discovering it’s not embarrassing to sell an idea if it comes free!

“My first two households are thoroughly charming. Neither familiar with growing, but everyone can do it if shown how and pitfalls to avoid, like buying seed potatoes. One had bought the usual dozen, but didn’t realise 25 potatoes grow from each, so two or three is plenty. I made a list of plants for small spaces and containers, but not with small yields. They were surprised what you can grow!

“My other family was so pleased with a few spare plants I donated. It’s been really enjoyable. I didn’t know it would be so nice.”

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Vicky Cunningham is impressively combining her youth and play work with Master Gardening. On a scorching hot July 10th Vicky ran a stall at the Vittoria Primary School Fete ably assisted by her junior gardener Rhiannon Cunningham. Together they taught around 15 children how to sow seeds and chatted to their parents about the Master Gardener programme. Many of the children took home sown pots of Pak Choi, Lettuce, Chard and Leaf Beet.

Top tip from Vicky – laminated stall decoration was held in place with Blu Tack but it was so hot that it melted, so we’re advocating sellotape for extreme heat.

I also want to send huge congratulations to Vicky as she is involved with growing projects with St Luke’s Primary School and Toffee Park Adventure Playground both of which have just been awarded Gold medals from the London Children’s Flower Society for their growing. The LCFS competition allows children to grow flowers, vegetables and herbs from seed. Best of luck for the eagerly awaited Islington in Bloom results which are due soon.

Vicky has also signed up three new households and though we’re not mentioning names as that would be indiscreet, Vicky may be supporting one of our oldest householders so far who has just planted her first seeds ever at the age 79. Result! A happy householder is getting great joy from her fledgling herb garden which is sprouting as we speak and Vicky is rightly proud of the impact of her support on this lady’s life.

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Find your local Master Gardener

Rhiannon Cunningham

Fledgling growers

tigers love lettuce too

Islington Master Gardeners, Ian and Laura Burrow, are passionate growers. They support a fabulous growing space with fellow growers that brings the local community together. More details to follow…