HEALTHY LIVING CENTRE - THE GROWING COMMUNITY PROJECT

Healthy Living Centre Dartford is working to develop a thriving food growing network across the borough, connecting with schools, community groups and passionate growers to encourage a relationship with where our food comes from. Utilising unused space to grow food, we aim to promote community cohesion through enjoyment of food – growing, cooking and eating – and providing opportunities for community action to encourage biodiversity, share skills, knowledge, resources, and access to fresh food and healthy exercise in the outdoors.

Our partners include Dartford Science and Technology College, The Galaxy Trust, Wentworth Primary School, Our Lady’s Catholic School, Friends of the Earth, Spirit’s Rest, Big Barn and Planet Dartford. If you are interested in finding out more, or joining our volunteer team, contact us at growingcommunity@hlcdartford. org.uk or call 01322 311265. Dartford Growing Community can also be found on Facebook.

Frances Jones joined our team at the beginning of March, bringing her expertise in horticulture to support the Growing Community Project, and is the contributor for this month’s Dartford Living article.

March – April

This month brings a new start for many things, including myself! At the start of March, I took on the position of project lead for the Growing Community initiative. Being from a Horticultural background, a gardener by trade, the first thing I wanted to do was get my gardening boots on and get to work!

My first port of call was at our Community Garden in Cedar Road, getting things in shape ready for the growing season ahead, and preparing ground for gardening club sessions. The herb garden was cleared of weeds, plants moved to make room and then some new perennial varieties added, all labelled so people can see what they are.

The flower bed by the entrance was weeded and some new decorative perennial plants introduced - Geraniums, Sedums, Daisies and annual bedding to add a bit of colour. The raised bed was also weeded, and Gladioli bulbs planted for summer.

I was given a new plot and have taken over the maintenance of this, as well as another raised bed. These will both be used for Gardening

Club growing. Our Wednesday Gardening club is going well, and membership has grown. Each week I go through various horticultural practices, explaining the different methods used and why, starting from ground clearing and seed sowing through to planting. In March we took part in the RHS Big Seed Sow, and each week we spend time discussing how seeds germinate, how they grow, when is the best time to pot on and when best to plant them outside or to sow directly into the soil. As well as meetings with various members of staff in school settings regarding growing spaces, we have taken part in site visits around Dartford and assisted with volunteer days for local school and community projects. The first being the Food Forest project at Dartford Science and Technology College. During the first session we helped to build raised beds and clear brush to make space for the new greenhouse. At the second volunteer day at DSTC we helped to create a new wildlife pond and fill the raised bed with layers of topsoil and mushroom compost.

During our Easter Family Activity Day at Tree Estate Community Centre, Growing Community set up a seed sowing stall, where people attending could learn how to sow seeds. We had saved up cardboard tubes to make pots and supplied those along with compost and

Runner Bean, Pea and Sunflower seeds. The Gardening Club team are having a competition to see who can grow the tallest sunflower and the most productive legume plants!

With May upon us there’s no rest for the wicked… we’ve lots of projects in the pipeline, and numerous jobs to do on the allotment. We’re raising vegetable seedlings to share in our seedling swaps and to encourage “growing your own” at home.

Tending to *“Ann’s plot” is next on my list of projects, and we’re taking on an additional plot, which will increase the amount of fresh, homegrown food Healthy Living Centre Dartford will have available to use in its cookery projects and community lunch clubs. And once our tadpoles have made their way out of the pond, that will be getting a facelift too!

We’d really like to grow our volunteer team –we know there are many people in Dartford who support environmental and food growing projects. If you have some time to spare, how about joining us to get Dartford growing?

“An addiction to gardening is not all bad when you consider all the other choices in life”.

*The late chairperson of Healthy Living Centre Dartford, Councillor Ann Allen MBE, was a passionate grower and loved tending her plot in the gardens – not only enjoying the fruit of her labours but getting some much needed “away” time and healthy exercise. That little patch will always be a monument to Ann’s support and dedication to Healthy Living Centre Dartford.