GLOBAL GARDENS 2022

2022 has been a year of expansion and exploration at Global Gardens both in terms of the people involved in the project and our programme of activities. This blog presents an overview of what we've got up to at the gardens this year.

Volunteer Garden Sessions

The Global Gardens Volunteer Garden Sessions have continued to be the backbone of the project - enabled thanks to support from the National Lottery Community Fund. These sessions are the time when we maintain and enhance the community garden space as well as sharing cups of tea - and occasionally home-made cake! Alongside the regular Saturday and Wednesday morning sessions (10am-1pm), we introduced a Thursday evening session for the summer to make the most of the longer days and keep on top of the watering. This was particularly important given the dry weather of the summer!

This year, Saturday sessions were led by John, Manon and Poppy. Wednesday sessions were led by Bethan and Thursday sessions were led by John. In total, we hosted 99 sessions (44 Saturday and 42 Wednesday sessions and 13 Thursday sessions) totalling 1,700 volunteer hours.

Alongside the regular Saturday Volunteer Garden Sessions, we were joined by over 70 students via the Global Gardens Cardiff University Student Volunteer Group. The student group have worked really hard this year to manage the orchard area and create an accessible social space within the orchard. They also got involved in other garden activities including turning the compost heap and planting fruit trees.

Ella and Cara were Lead Student Volunteers for the academic year of 2021-2022. Both medics, in their role, they brought a shared interest in social prescribing to the garden. This led to creation of the Global Gardens Social Prescribing Working Group, supported with mentoring from Isla Fisher, Grow Cardiff thanks to funding from Social Farms and Gardens Wales. We were thrilled that Cara and Ella received recognition of their stellar work as Lead Student Volunteers - they were awarded Volunteering Group of the Year 2021/2022 prize at this year’s Cardiff University Societies and Volunteering Awards. For the academic year 2022-2023, Ella moved on to pastures new as she became a fully qualified Doctor. We are lucky that Cara decided to continue her role alongside new Lead Student Volunteers Pax and Abby.

Crops of the Year

This year in the kitchen garden, we grew a range of crops. Highlights in the veg garden included: early Broad beans, three varieties of Kale (Green Curly, Red Curly, Cavalo Nero and Red Russian), Chard, Garlic, Potatoes and Squash. In the polytunnel, we grew a range of Winter salads this year, as well as Tomatoes and Chillies into the summer. Chilli and Tomato seeds were mainly supplied from Chris Fowler a.k.a. Welsh Dragon Chilli. In the fruit patch, we harvested Blackcurrants, Jostaberries, Raspberries, Apples, Pears and Plums. It was a particularly good year for Currants and Pears. Yum!

This autumn we sowed a lot of broad beans for overwintering and an early 2023 crop and as a green manure. We also sowed an area of rye – with the plan of harvesting and processing grain for our first Global Gardens loaf next year!

In total, we estimate that we harvested around 180kgs kilos of veg this year. However, this was what was recorded and we think a lot of extra produced was taken home before we managed to weigh it! Next year we are keen to develop a better system of capturing how much produce we have grown.

Pulses Festival

We were delighted to take part in the UK and Ireland Seed Sovereignty Programme Seed Exchanges where we trialled a range of French beans and 10 varieties of peas. The trials culminated in a #PeasPlease Pulses Festival which included a series of community chef collaborations. Chefs included: Herbivore, Vaida @OneSmallSpoon, Setondji's Sunshine Kitchen and Uncle Pali. As part of the Good Food Cardiff Autumn Festival we also hosted a workshop on plant-based proteins and thenutritional benefits of pulses with dietician Steph. The Pulses Festival was supported by My Food Community, Food Sense Wales, as well as the UK and Ireland Seed Sovereignty Programme.

Workshops and Courses

Alongside our regular Volunteer Garden Sessions, we hosted 23 workshops and 1 course at the garden that were attended by 252 people - including the Fruit Tree Care and Climate Action series -and one Ediculture course , thanks to support from the the National Lottery Community Fund 'Together for Our Planet' Programme.