Allotment Gardening has been shown to have a positive impact on health and wellbeing
“Policy makers should consider the potential of allotment gardening as a long-term tool for combating ill-health.”
So says Dr. Carly Wood of the University of Essex, who has recently completed a study of the benefits of allotment gardening.
The Wilderness Foundation UK operates six community allotment plots, tended by a range of volunteers and youth groups with varying needs. Our organic produce is distributed both within the community and to the local food bank.
Student volunteers from New Hall School (who form the NHVS) have been attending the community allotments project for well over five years. They are always a dedicated, enthusiastic and hard working group. We have recently been working on tidying and repairing the liner to the pond, which has included basic pruning and copicing of overhanging trees. Also we have been clearing a path round the pond, and been landscaping to improve the area for nature. We have recently been picking the final tomatoes and figs in the polytunnels, and tidying them for the new year.
Mulching with the free woodchips of paths and beds has been one of the late autumn / early winter jobs, and we await the manure delivery for the main beds. They have also helped put up the new signs describing the different areas of the Community allotments. In the coming weeks we will be pruning and weaving the willow tunnel, pruning the orchard and carrying on with repairs to the raised beds, as well as the wooden shed.
NHVS team leaders are allocated tasks by sessional instructor Jonathan Barker who then help to manage the group to build up leadership skills. This has been working very effectively.
If you would like to help with our community allotment programme in Chelmsford then why not volunteer or get in touch?
