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Wilder Diaries: Good to Grow Week with St Thomas Community Garden

Lin Ziyang

We heard from Clemence from St Thomas Community Garden who co-organised 'Good to Grow Week' to encourage people to get involved with their local community garden. Read the latest Wilder Diary to find out how it went...

Back in April 2024, St Thomas Community Garden co-organised Good to Grow Week activities along with Zero Miles Gardens CIC and Refugee Support Devon Allotment. Good to Grow Week is organised by the Good to Grow Network, to get people involved in their local community garden. Each year, the Good to Grow Network invite gardens to celebrate the new growing season by opening their doors to volunteers and community members to help out in their local garden, while supporting and enjoying all of the valuable community spaces around the UK. Good to Grow Week is also a great way to get the garden ready for the growing season.

The teams from St Thomas Community Garden, Zero Miles Gardens CIC and Refugee Support Devon Allotment ran three open days across the week, showcasing the wonderful work going on at each of their gardens. While Clemence said it was a challenge to coordinate everybody’s schedules to run the events, everyone involved was incredibly helpful and the week was a huge success!

A stall with lots of small plants for sale, people gathered around looking at them

Maresa Bossano

The final open day took place at St Thomas Community Garden and was a fun-filled day of cooking demonstrations, live music, wildlife spotting and of course plant sales. There were numerous stalls to purchase plants from the garden including tomatoes, pepper, chilli, cucumber, courgettes, herbs, and kale, and all the money will go directly back into the garden. There were also seeds from Exeter Seed Bank so that people could start their own growing journeys from the very beginning.

A woman cooking galettes under a gazebo in a garden

Lin Ziyang

Joh from the garden cooked up some delicious Breton Galettes using a range of herbs from the garden – parsley, chives, fennel, mint, coriander, kale, sorrel and more – to make a tasty vegan filling. The galettes stall was packed the whole afternoon, and people especially enjoyed the fresh herbs. There was live music throughout the afternoon from Fraich'Airs which had the garden filled with dancing.

A table with some wildlife ID guides, magnifying pots, butterfly nets

Maresa Bossano

Devon Wildlife Trust lent the garden some wildlife observation kits which meant the children, and some curious adults, spent the afternoon getting up close with moths, woodlice and snails around the garden.

So how do you put together an event like this? The group had some funding to run the events, in particular from St Thomas Community Association. But Clemence credits the success of Good to Grow Week to the wonderful partner organisations and all the garden volunteers who helped make the week so special.

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