Spring Forward

is a flower cutting garden project, where volunteers help to grow flowers from seed to provide a beautiful environment in the Bromley by Bow Centre park. The flowers are used for floral arrangements, created again by volunteers, for the centre as well as the church and for centre events.

Gardening with Children

Green Dreams works with local schools to provide gardening clubs for children, to promote an interest in and awareness of green spaces in the urban environment in which they live. The children are encouraged to learn about growing vegetables and flowers within the school and at home, as well as to take an interest in the parks and green spaces where they play.

Bow Bridge Environment Trust have been funded by Children in Need to provide gardening clubs on two east London Estates, again encouraging children to take pleasure in the green spaces on the estates where they live as well as in the nearby parks. The gardening groups meet twice a month after school and in school holidays with up to 30 young people engaging in gardening and related nature activities.

The activities follow a seasonal gardening calendar and are planned by the horticultural trainer and qualified youth workers who attend each session. During the sessions the groups carry out a number of activities including:

Weeding and sweeping, planning planting sessions and choosing plants, building bird boxes and window boxes, decorating pots and potting indoor plants and maintaining recently planted beds.

During the year the team has arranged two trips for the clubs. These visits are an opportunity for children to be introduced and mix with other groups from different estates and schools, and also to have experiences outside of the environment where they live. These gardening groups are also facilitated by Green Dreams.

Spring Greens

is an allotment project working with Bengali elder Women who live on the estates around the Centre. Historically these women have grown vegetables in unused flower borders in the park. Since the redevelopment of the Cutting Garden, vegetable growing has now been relocated to purpose-built allotment beds.

Vegetables have been grown here co-operatively since April 2007. Working with interpreters, the women also aim to improve their skills in English whilst engaging in gardening activities.