Swallow Charity develops accessible gardening using a grant from the BWCE Fund
Rhubarb being picked from one of the accessible planters
SWALLOW is an amazing charity based in the Midsomer Norton area empowering teenagers and adults with learning disabilities to live happy and fulfilling lives. They offer supported housing, outreach support, training for independence, day activities, work skills, health and fitness, a youth group to help transition into adulthood, social activities and support for parents and carers.
They received a grant from the BWCE Fund to create an accessible vegetable growing area for their Horticultural Group. The raised beds are triangular shaped to make them accessible to wheelchair users. In this first year members have harvested summer vegetables, herbs and planted some perennial plants for next year.
“The members love cooking with the produce they have grown and are particularly motivated to make healthy eating choices at lunch time, choosing salads that they have grown from seed. The Horticulture Group leader talks with them about climate change, particularly focusing on how they can promote biodiversity. They have been recently focusing on creating insect friendly spaces and never use pesticides in their gardening.”
In addition to all these benefits staff and members have been able to socialise around them with everyone taking joint responsibility for helping to maintain the beds during the hot summer. Watering the plants has been a challenge, but the BWCE Grant has also enabled them to purchase two water butts to collect rainwater which will be very useful next spring when new plants are developing.
This is a fantastic project which has benefited 35 people and has been a joy to witness. One member has been so inspired by the vegetable growing process, that she wanted to do this for herself and started growing some vegetables independently at home.
It’s always inspiring to see tangible community benefit as a direct result of our Community Energy model.
“Having strawberries growing outside is fantastic, I’m eating much more healthily at the moment”
“I love eating the tomatoes that we have grown, it’s great for me because I don’t have a garden at home.”
You can read more about the BWCE Fund and other community groups who have benefitted here
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