A really lovely report with some great reflections from Youth Connect South West on their gardening group project, part funded by their Dragons’ Den 9 win:
Age group: 11-19
Young people involved in the project: 27
Number of sessions: 4x2hours dedicated project session with YP, 4x2hours open access session, 2hours weekly with YP June-September, 3x6hour staff sessions.
Total time: 50hours
Project run by: Youth Connect South West
Assistance from: Radstock in Bloom -Jean and Sean
Overview of the project
The garden project was to engage young people in positive activities at Radstock and get involved in two areas, one at the front with the planters and the second to overhaul the old vegetable plot and grow new foods for young people to take from garden to plate.
The team held several staff days, to prepare and remove lots of hazards in the ground and so young people could start a fresh. After these days both the learning for work team and youth team held open sessions for young people to seed and plant both flowers and vegetables.
The dedicated gardening project, saw young people doing the bulk of the weeding, pruning and replanting to ensure the success of the beds and vegetable plots.
In the late summer and autumn months, young people were able to transform their efforts into delicious and nutritious meals, trying new foods and experiencing the joy of eating their own home grown foods.
What’s gone well
- Successful growing of vegetables in the back garden
- Successful growing of flowers in the front planters
- Young people who have never used gardening tools / done gardening have got involved with the project
- Young people contributed to Radstock in bloom and their planters were included in the judging.
What’s gone not so well
- The young people initially interested in replanting the beds, who had shown interest got involved at the start of the project but quickly lost interest in the flower beds
- Tomato disease took out most of the tomato crop before young people could harvest them
- The flower beds are rotten and need replacing that was not allocated for
Outcomes achieved and the impact for young people
Young people engage in a positive activity during the summer holidays
- New young people participating in project sessions from both youth team at dedicated summer gardening session and learning for work young people in alternative education.
- Opportunity to learn new skills and understand how to plant, maintain, and prepare garden area.
- Young people taking an active role in using the food grown to cook.
- Young people building positive relationships with youth workers and being offered support.
- Hard to reach young people engaging in a positive activity.
- Young people being proud of their plants and what they had produced.
Opportunity for future projects
The team/young people have set the ground in the vegetable plot for the winter and will be able to continue using this space to grow more vegetables across 2024 and beyond. Seeds and plants have already been sown.
The team may seek new funding for new beds at the front of the youth centre as these have become rotten and riddled with bind weed which has made maintaining the flower beds more difficult in the unpredictable weather.
With other YCSW projects, such as wellbeing, the team can look to do a full outdoor space renovation and create a relaxing outdoor space at Radstock
Southside youth hub in bath, could look for their own local funding to run the same project and have growing competitions.
Young people feedback
“I struggle with my own mental health and I wanted to come and do the gardening with Carrie as it sounded like it could be a good distraction” A, 19
“I really hated doing the weeding but it was fun to watch how big the courgette got that we left, it was huge” G, 20
“I really liked doing this because I had nothing else to do in the summer and it was nice to learn how to look after the vegetable” L, 13
“I had never ate courgette before, and I didn’t know they could be yellow. I tried them raw and its like a less squishy cucumber. It was good in the chilli we made” H, 17
Youth workers feedback
“This has been a bit of a different project and collaboration between the alternative education team and youth work team to get young people to understand how to grow their own food from scratch and how to look after both flowers and plants. The youth work team, young people and some local community members planted sunflowers, a symbol in the area at the front of the building during the Radstock in bloom and with Jean were able to contribute along the judging route.” Carrie, Youth Worker
