Cash Grants to Improve Residential Areas

Gorton Growing Together

£1,900 to run hanging basket and window box workshops.

Gorton Growing Together is a partnership between Gorton Wardens, the Monastery of St. Francis & Gorton Trust and local community groups. They offer activities at their Debdale community allotment that involve and benefit the people of Gorton.

Gardening is one of the healthiest, most satisfying and sociable activities people can engage in, so with this is mind and a desire to involve local people in mutually beneficial experiences that would lead to dialogue and friendly relationships. Gorton Growing Together wanted to run a taster series of hanging basket and window box workshops. These would not only help brighten up the area but more importantly would bring people together and inspire them to take the skills they gained into their own gardens.

To do this they originally thought they would need £2,600 but David Gray of Gorton Growing Together found better value materials locally, including cheaper, locally made compost from Fairfield Composting. They managed to do the whole scheme for just £1,900 which they were awarded from the City Council's Cash grants programme.

The project was a huge success with dozens of workshops taking place at the Community Allotment, residential homes, youth groups and various community venues throughout Gorton. The people involved were all residents of the local area and included ex-offenders, young people at risk of becoming involved in crime and the victims of crime. By working and learning together people felt able to discuss their fear of crime and offenders and potential offenders learned the true impact of crime on ordinary people.

David is involved in working with and bringing the community together, so was delighted when an opportunity to involve asylum seekers and other local people in one of the workshops arose that would give people a chance to get to know each other and share experiences. Handling plants reminded people of the gardens they had known in their countries of origin, while the aroma of herbs led to discussions about cooking among different cultures. There were some obvious expressions of sadness from those who no longer had a garden, but the prospect of being able to grow familiar plants from home here in England seemed a cheerful prospect to quite a few participants. While there was no surprise that things like potatoes, onions and carrots are grown locally, some people were astonished to learn that Debdale plot holders also grow plums, sweet corn, peppers, grapes and melons. One asylum seeker who worked on the community allotment even managed to grow coffee! This workshop continued a Gorton tradition that began when the parents and grandparents of current allotment holders came to the area as refugees in the aftermath of World War Two.

This simple approach to sharing skills between asylum seekers and members of the host community provided a wonderful insight into the benefits of sharing ideas and helped develop empathy between the participants.