Our Garden
Tucked away at the back of the Likewise Community Hub, we have a lovely outdoor space. In 2022, we embarked upon a project to transform the use of this space so that it better serves our community. We have been working with community members from the local area and beyond to begin to ignite some more life into the space.
Our vision is for the garden to transform into a thriving green haven that provides meaningful ways of connecting to people and nature, builds community resilience and cultivates an inclusive sense of belonging.
We want the space to…
- Support community well-being by providing an accessible, safe and supportive garden space which people can enjoy, participate and learn in.
- Be a home to a diverse array of plants and animals, creating thriving ecological webs.
- Creating opportunities for therapeutic gardening and gardening skills.
- Grow food for our community and to build sustainable, local food networks.
- Provide a place of sanctuary and peace for people and that individuals feel able to use – particularly those with less access to green space.
Where have we got to so far?
We spent Autumn of 2022 working with the team at the Garden of Earthly Delights in Hackney to develop some wooden structures and planters for our garden. We did this over a series of around 10 community woodworking workshops and we have created some beautiful and colourful outputs as a result. We started planting from Spring 2023 and now have an abundance of vegetables, herbs and flowers. By 2024, we had planted wine cap mushrooms and continued our efforts to increase the biodiversity within our little haven here at Likewise.
We now have a lovely greenhouse, more growing spaces, lots of new habitats and have rejuvenated our pond. Throughout the last 2 years, we have delivered gardening courses, nature connection sessions and have held weekly drop-in garden sessions for folk to get their hands in the soil and to collectively tend to the space. The garden is being utilised more by staff, placements students, volunteers and community members as a result of the project.
Fancy getting involved?
Garden Guardians
We’re really lucky to have a great garden space at the Likewise Hub and we would like to build a community of caretakers who tend to the space.
We’re looking for folk to join our ‘Garden Guardians’ volunteer team. We are currently running some relaxed drop-in gardening sessions every Friday afternoon, from 1.30-3.30pm. You don’t need to sign up in advance, but if you’re new to the space we’ll ask you for a few details when you get here. You can also do this in advance by clicking the ‘sign up’ button below.
During the sessions, we spend time enjoying the garden, tending to it and enjoy having some time to check in with one another and socialise together.
No previous gardening experience is necessary – if you’re interested in all things green and have time, energy or skills to offer, we’d love you to join us.
Please contact the Likewise Hub via telephone, pop in to the Likewise Community centre or email garden@likewise.org.uk to indicate interest.
Donations
We are seeking donations of garden materials/ tools/equipment for our garden. This could include things like rakes, spades, seedling trays, pots, trowels, sand, compost ….
Please drop an email to garden@likewise.org.uk if you have anything you think we may find useful!
Seeking donations and sourcing second-hand equipment wherever possible reduces the carbon footprint of this project which we are very keen to keep as low as possible.
