Number One Allotment

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Number One Allotment

Duke's Meadows

Introduction

Number One Allotment is an organic gardening project for adults with learning disabilities, which enables them to benefit from the challenges of growing their own food. By regularly working together on their own allotment alongside the wider allotment community they are able to develop gardening skills and a sense of personal involvement and achievement.

The project is organised by the Society working closely with the Learning Disability Service of the London Borough of Hounslow.

The project is based at the Duke's Meadows Allotments, a large open site close to Chiswick House and the River Thames, where the gardening team cultivate six adjacent plots; an area of around 750 square metres.

Objectives

The objectives of the project are to:

- teach clients practical gardening skills enabling them to grow fruit and vegetables for their own consumption thus enhancing their abilities and raising their self-esteem;

- improve clients' communication and co-operative skills by working together as a team to achieve common aims;

- improve clients' social skills through opportunities to interact with the local allotment community and to participate in the activities of the Chiswick Horticultural and Allotments Society;

- help clients deal with situations they find difficult or stressful and to raise their self-confidence.

The Gardening Team

Several volunteers from the Society, who are experienced gardeners and allotment holders, lead and supervise the gardening activities. Many of the allotment holders on the site also take an interest in the project and help in various ways.

Every Wednesday, around twenty-five clients come to the allotment for an all-day gardening session and a few come for shorter sessions on other days. Clients are able to work on the allotment throughout the year and about sixty clients have worked on the allotment since the project started in 2005. The gardening supervisors and care workers motivate and guide the clients and help them to overcome difficulties.

The team grow a wide range of organic produce. In 2008, they produced excellent crops of beans, tomatoes and peppers and succeeded in growing grapes and aubergines in the new greenhouse. At the end of the day’s work, the team pick any fruit and vegetables that are in season and everyone is given a share to take home. They also grow flowers and the allotment has a small wildlife-friendly garden.

The gardening team sell seedlings and plants to allotment holders to raise funds to cover the day-to-day running costs. From time to time, the allotment is open to the public providing further opportunities to sell plants and to publicise the project.

The team enter produce in the Society’s annual horticultural shows and have won prizes for their fruit, vegetables and hanging baskets.

It is evident that the clients thoroughly enjoy coming to Number One Allotment and are keen to start working as soon as they arrive. For many, the project is the only organised outdoor activity open to them. The allotment is very much part of their life – they talk about it all the time.

To the Development of Number One Allotment Project