We are blessed at Canton Uniting Church with a small yet abundant community garden full of vegetables, fruit, herbs, flowers and shrubs. As you may well know, we are preparing for a much bigger garden which will emerge as part of a more extensive development of our building and grounds. We want church members and local residents alike to be part of this exciting journey and for us all to have pride in creating a rich and biodiverse green space for us all to enjoy.
CELEBRATING OUR FUTURE
On the evening of Friday 21st November, we hosted the long-awaited celebration of the go-ahead from Cardiff Council for us to redevelop our church site which includes the significant expansion of our community garden.
It was a cold evening, and we wondered whether people would want to do anything but keep cosy at home at the end of a long working week. But we were all over-joyed at the support of both neighbours and organisations that have expressed an interest in working alongside us.
We wanted people to mingle, as creating connections informally can be an important part of creating a supportive social network. So, we provided tasty nibbles and non- alcoholic drinks and encouraged people to meander, look at the plans and meet some of our potential partners who had their own tables with information about what they do. These included
*Isla Horton from Grow Cardiff, which aims to inspire the development of community gardens throughout Cardiff and also encourages the use of gardens as a resource for social prescribing. It is currently developing a toolkit with Cardiff University for schools to develop their own green spaces in a way which fits in with the National Curriculum.
*Lisa Williams and Lucie Taylor from Social
Farms and Gardens, a UK wide organisation which also provides a focus for Wales. They encourage and support people in their aspirations for community gardens and provide practical support. They recently set up the Edible Cardiff network which we have found to be an invaluable way to share resources and ideas with other community growers in Cardiff.
* Mags Lyons, Louise Gray and Steve Lyons from Action in Caerau and Ely (ACE) based in the Dusty Forge in Ely. An inspirational community anchor organisation that runs three community gardens and also runs Yourspace, which is a social prescribing programme commissioned by the primary care clusters in Cardiff. Gardens are clearly a valuable
resource for physical and mental wellbeing, and we are excited to play our part in it in its future.
* Lucy Robinson, a church member and an important contributor to the development of our garden, was able to promote and share her magnificent cookery book, The Grain-free Vegetarian. Beside her was her son Alex Vines who is a chef by trade and is passionate about the connection between growing, cooking and eating. Previously he has worked with Cegin Y Bobl (formerly Cook 24) in Carmarthenshire in an effort to reconnect people with the food system and aiming to inspire a more positive food future in Wales. He hopes to build on this experience for people in Canton through the garden we create. He has recently opened his own restaurant *Ogof* on Kings Road.
Then we had the speeches, which started with a film made by Isobel Harding (see the Home Page), part of our Teen Church, who had made a beautiful and poignant film about the garden, interviewing some of the people who have been involved.
One of our ministers, the Reverend Martha McInnes, welcomed everyone and expressed delight at the numbers of people who had joined us that evening. We then heard from our Senedd representative and former First Minister, Mark Drakeford, who gave an impassioned talk about our persistence and enthusiasm for taking our plans forward, noting that this area in south Cardiff is the most densely populated area in Wales and in need of green spaces both for the environment and local people. Councillor Jasmin Chowdhury then recounted a wonderful story about her mother finding friendship and joy through a community garden when she first came to Wales from Bangladesh and having, at that time, little English.
Finally, Kenneth Woods described the plans and whilst acknowledging that this was a celebration of our collective achievement there was still work to do before the work could begin. On the screen was the vision which we hope will guide us through the process and keep us moving far into the future:
Growing Together Community Garden will be created by the community, for the community, as a place of welcome, learning, peace, sharing and healing and will be a
model of biodiversity in the service of our planet.
Finally we would like to thank all the church members who gave selfless service in setting up, welcoming visitors, serving refreshments, and clearing everything away in readiness for the next day.
