Global Gardens 2024

This year has been a busy, productive and fun year at Global Gardens - despite the challenges of the weather!

Volunteer Sessions @Global Gardens

In total, we hosted 45 Weds Volunteer Garden sessions and 47 Saturday Volunteer Garden sessions. According to our records volunteers totalled over 1,194 hours of volunteering! We harvested over half a tonne of fruits and veggies - including over 38kg of tomatoes, 65kg of potatoes and 41kg of apples. Thanks to support from the National Community Lottery Fund in Wales, we are delighted that these sessions will be continuing into 2025.

Volunteer sessions aim to support community-based learning around food growing whilst also fostering community and nature connectedness. Facilitated by Bethan on a Wednesday and John and Manon on a Saturday, with the support of Project Coordinator, Poppy the sessions cover a range of activities from seed sowing to planting out, harvesting and composting. There are also occasionally opportunities to get involved in carpentry and landscaping. Our aim is to make sure there is a range of gardening activities on offer to suit different energy needs of volunteers.

Huge thanks to all our fabulous volunteers particularly our core team of Nick, Elly, Kate, Ruth, Skye, Guy, Tash, Adrian, Kerry, Charlie, Sharon and Sarah.

Veg Growing @Global Gardens in 2024

It was a very wet start to the season this year and quite a few of our seedlings got damaged by slugs. However, we did not let them get us down! Shout out to Simon @Pipes beer for kindly supplying us with beer for our slug traps and volunteer Elly for being our beer runner! Although the summer never quite fully materialised into the halcyon days of 2022, we had some decent periods of sunshine and managed to bring in a decent range of veggies, flowers and fruits.

Highlights of our growing year include:

-A productive year of tomato growing in our polytunnel (varieties included Pink Georgian, Ailsa Craig, Black Cherry, Ostrava, Golden Sunrise and Gardener's Delight) and potatoes (varieties included Sarpo and Maris Peer).

-Participating in the outdoor blight resistant tomato trials and dwarf french bean trials with the UK and Ireland Seed Sovereignty Programme.

-A good crop of Squash (Uchi Kuri) and Butternut squash.

-Finally a decent crop of Kale (after several attempts that were wiped out by slugs!)

Developing our Sensory Therapeutic Garden @Global Gardens

This year at the volunteer sessions, we focussed efforts in the early part of the year on developing a sensory therapeutic garden area thanks to support from Grow Wild via the Community Fund. We installed two trellises, built two raised beds with the support of Keep Wales Tidy and Project Officer Gareth, completed installation of an accessible footpath to the raised beds, with support from Gareth, Jeff of Caerphilly Minidiggers and landscaper Tom Pellowe and cleared an area subject to flytipping ready for planting up with native hedgerows in the new year.

We also hosted two design workshops facilitated by artist and illustrator Valentine Gigandet where volunteers and members of the local community could get involved in the plant selection for the sensory therapeutic garden. Valentine Gigandet supported development of a beautiful sign for the garden, based upon the discussions and artwork created in the workshops. One of our volunteers Elly then made the sign using Sweet Chestnut sourced locally, laser cut thanks to Fab Lab at Cardiff Met. You can find out more about our approach to designing the sensory therapeutic garden area in our blog here. Elly also supported fabrication of two more signs for the garden illustrated by Valentine Gigandet - one of the fruit trees in our community orchard and one for our composting area.

Grow Your Own @Global Gardens

This year we hosted 8 workshops supporting community based learning about food growing. This included:

-Crop Planning with community grower Poppy Nicol.

-Pruning with biodynamic tutor Kai Lange.

-Salad growing through the year with Sophie Bolton, Cardiff Salad Garden.

-Weeds as indicators, Weeds as food with food grower and director of charity Ediculture Stephen Watts.

-Permaculture Design and Principles with Sally Hughes.

-Composting with Compost Mentis.

-Summer pruning with food grower and director of charity Ediculture Stephen Watts.

-Fermenting with Laure Bautrais of Absorb Health.

Contributing to a community growing network

As part of the Edible Cardiff and Social Farms and Gardens Wales network we try to support other fledgling and established community gardens and other related projects and initiatives where possible. This year we hosted visits from other community growing projects Greening Maindee, Newport, TinShed, Newport, Cardiff University Geography Department and Community Foundation Wales. We also hosted a community action day for local organisation ACT Cardiff with the support of Business in the Community Cymru. Many thanks for the help they gave filling our raised beds with compost! This collaboration also led to a a series of growing sessions for young learners not in employment or eduction hosted at the garden.

Forest School @Global Gardens

Thanks to support from the Millennium Stadium Charitable Trust and Hubbub  we have continued to offer monthly sessions for local families. Our forest school session leader Johana Hartwig worked with different local practitioners to offer a diverse programme of gardening, foraging, cooking and creative activities. They aim to support child-led and nature-based learning and play as well as community and nature connection.

-January: We made St. Bridget's 'Imbolc' crosses, did the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch, woodchipped an area of the forest school space and shared jacket potatoes.

-February: We planted some kale cuttings, painting with mud, shared popcorn and hot chocolate.

-March: We weaved hurdles to define the family kitchen garden space and shared chard noodle -soup.April:Making spring crowns and wild garlic pizza.

-May: We did some more eco-weaving on a loom and made elderflower fritters

-June: We woodchipped an area for the kitchen garden, made wooden 'cookies' and twizzle sticks.

-July: We did some finger weaving and and made blackcurrant buckwheat pancakes.

-August: We made hot chocolate clay cups and pitta bread with broad bean hummus.

-September: We made pouches from recycled bed sheets and apple and blackberry fruit compote.

-November: We made paper lanterns and a pumkin and black bean soup.

-December: We made christmas tree decorations using silver birch and hazel and roasted sweet chestnuts on the fire.

We have also been supporting our local primary school Ysgol Mynydd Bychan to use the space on a weekly basis for forest school and local nursery Y Pelican to also use the space for forest school inspired sessions.

Huge thanks to the forest school leaders, our funders and all the local families for getting involved! Watch this space for our programme of activities soon to be launched for 2025.

The Birth Partner Project @Global Gardens

Thanks to funding from the National Community Lottery Fund in Wales, we hosted 10 monthly sessions in partnership with The Birth Partner Project (TBPP) at the garden this year. TBPP is a charity that provides volunteer birth partners to support women seeking sanctuary who would otherwise face pregnancy, birth and early motherhood alone.

Sessions were focussed around supporting mama and child well-being. You can find out more about TBPP and the amazing work they do in this short film shot on location at Global Gardens Project.

We made a range of herbal remedies at the sessions as well as just spending time together in the garden, whilst children played in the forest school space supported by our forest school leader. Herbal remedies we made, many of which are are inspired by the work of Herbalists without Borders based in Bristol, included:

-Fire Cider Vinegar

-Nettle soup and wild garlic pesto

-Calendula Healing Balm

-Cinnamon energy balls

-Golden milk

-Mother's milk tea - as lactogogues fennel and fenugreek support breast milk production!

We also harvested damask rose, shared rose tea and crafted together in the space with the support of Making and Mending Club facilitator Cat Lewis. We are thrilled that further funding to continue working in parternship with TBPP into 2025.

Community Cooking @Global Gardens

Thanks to support from Cardiff Council Shared Prosperity Fund, Hubbub and Food Cardiff we hosted a number of community food events at the garden. This included:

-A Pizza Party in August celebrating 8 years of community growing in Gabalfa, where we fired up our cob oven and made wood-fired pizza with garden toppings.

-An Apple Day hosted at Global Gardens in collaboration with Orchard Cardiff where we juiced locally harvested apples, learnt about how to make apple cider vinegar and shared more wood-fired pizza.

-An #EatYourPumpkin event supported by Hubbub where we made Squash soup and Squash dumplings with Setondji Sunshine Kitchen.

-A Persian cooking event where we meet Baghali Polo (Broad bean and Dill rice) with artist and chef Sahar Saki. Check out her recipe for here.

Storm Darragh meant that we had to unfortunately cancel our final event planned for 2024, the Winter Warmer. However, we are planning some events in 2025 enjoying cookery - including a Wassail in February 2025 with storyteller Cath Little and wood-fired rye bread! Do sign up to our e-newslettter to keep up to date with our events planned in to the future.

Composting @Global Gardens

Over the last year, we have continued to work with Waterloo Tea on Whitchurch Road to collect and compost their coffee grinds and tea. We have also started collecting coffee grinds to compost from Alex Gooch also on Whitchurch Road and are very appreciateive of the bread they offer in exchange, which we have been sharing at the Volunteer Garden sessions. An example of creating a closed loop exchange economy right in the heart of Cardiff!

Session Leader John has been leading on composting in the garden and with the support of volunteers, we have been creating some beautiful black gold this year! Looking under the microscope at compost samples with Compost Mentis revealed how our compost heaps are more microbially diverse this year than 2023.

Thanks to support from Project Greening/Prosiect Gwyrdd, we have installed a tumbler at the garden which can compost cooked food waste and joined the Mycelium Composting Network an international network supporting community based learning about composting. We look forwards to more learning abouit composting into 2025.

Seed saving @Global Gardens

We have continued to develop our seed-saving work at Global Gardens with an aim of enhancing local access to local open pollinated seed. Artists this year painted Borlotti (Martine Brown), Ostrava Tomato (Jaffrin Khan), Valerian (Laura Reynolds) and Helichrysum (Yanti Hashim) for our seed packets.

Borlotti by Martine Brown, Ostrava Tomato by Jaffrin Khan, Valerian by Laura Reynolds and Helichrysum by Yanti Hashim. 

Seed packets are available for donation at Safe Ethical Boutique (at the Whitchurch Road and St.David's shopping centre stores) and at Waterloo Tea on Whitchurch Road. We have also been distributing Calendula seed at the Chapter as part of an exhibition there. In 2024, we also joined the Big Splott Seed Swap and Chapter Seedy Sunday and plan to return to both in 2025.

Seed Sovereignty @Global Gardens

Poppy Nicol has been continuing her seed saving work as an educator and this year completed a one-year seed production course with the UK and Ireland Seed Sovereignty Programme. She led Global Gardens Project participation in the Dwarf French Beans Trials and Outdoor Blight-resistant Tomato Trials. And together with Katie Hasings hosted the all-Wales Tomato Trials event at the garden with breeders from across Wales gathering to taste some of the tomatoes grown in the trial, share learnings from the trial and taste a tomato-themed feast curated by Setondji Sunshine Kitchen. She is excited to be continuing her work around seed sovereignty as a participant in the 2025 Crowd Breeding Trials.

Making and Mending Club @Global Gardens

The Making and Mending Club has continued to grow from strength to strength, with a lively group of people who meet on a regular basis at the garden. This year they have cultivated an area of flax at Global Gardens and St.Fagans National Museum of History and worked with a range of local makers to develop the tool-kit for processing flax including the Good Shed at Railway Street Gardens.

Currently, work by club members is on display at Future Arts Contemporary Cymru and includes an incredible Barbie and Ken diorama and some beautiful examples of natural dyeing, weaving and mending. Over the festive period and into the new year, they are hosting a range of drop-in sessions focussed around building skills in mending and crafting. To find out more about the club or get involved, check out the Making and Mending blog or get in touch with Cat, cat@catlewis.com. We are very thankful to the Ashley Family Foundation for supporting the development of this club over the last 18 months.

Thankyou!

We would like to express gratitude to our funders and supporters for enabling the work we do. This includes: National Community Lottery Fund in Wales, Grow Wild, Project Greening/Prosiect Gwrydd, the Ashley Family Foundation, Community Foundation Wales, Hubbub, Trinity Project, Food Cardiff, Edible Cardiff, Millennium Stadium Charitable Trust, My Food Community, the Nineveh Trust, Admiral, SD Solution, Lab 22, Waterloo Tea, Alex Gooch, Safe Ethical Boutique, The Birth Partner Project, Chapter, Welsh Refugee Council, Cardiff Council.

We'd also like to express a heartfelt thanks to all our tutors, session facilitators, steering group members and amazing volunteers. Not forgetting a shout out to Good Gym Cardiff for their continued support.

We are looking forwards to continuing to support community-based learning about food growing, seasonal food and sustainable craft into 2025. In the meanwhile, the gardens are going to sleep for the darkest point of the year.

Wishing you all a peaceful and restorative Winter Solstice.