Community Gardening Group

Our Community Gardening Group has been happening since we began the Ro Dama Farm Community Interest Company in summer 2020 so we are now into our third year. The group is run by volunteers as well as last year receiving funding from the National Lottery Grow your own Outreach Fund, hoping to develop opportunities for local people to help tend our Community Garden, make new gardening friends or simply unwind in Ro Dama’s beautiful rural wilderness . We wish to encourage ‘Food Sovereignty’ where people have more control over the food they eat. Our project enables local people to learn about how to plant, grow and harvest food themselves and then go back to their families to teach them how to plant, grow and pick their own food. There’s a lot of super tasty food that grows in our hedges and on our local fields and beaches. We are keen to learn how to identify, forage and use plant foods that are delicious, nutritious and free of charge. There are loads of flavour filled wild and cultivated foods here at Ro Dama. The Gardening Group welcomes local people regardless of their gardening experience. We meet every Monday afternoon at 1.30pm but it’s always wise to call Duncan on 07788 581290 to make sure someone’s available to give you a warm welcome. On Tuesdays we work alongside Food Troops CIC in Redruth on their Community Garden. We invite anyone who is interested in gardening to join us there for fabulous hot food, food parcels to take home and planting and growing food. Check out Food Troops at https://www.facebook.com/FoodTroops

Two keen young gardeners plant Winter Garlic in the cage during the Monday Gardening Group session.
There’s time during the Monday Gardening Group session to relax with a walk along the river or picnic on the hill as well as doing some planting, weeding or watering. Here, Autumn flowering Agapanthus is being planted in a south facing slope.
Rolling out clay with repurposed bottles to make clay Olla. When the weather is not so good, it’s great to be able to work indoors in the workshop space where we can share skills and stories and increase our gardening and nutrition knowledge. It was great to be in the dry and warmth of the workshop, make Olla and make new friends and be sheltered from the cold windy weather. We hope to run more Community Gardening Group workshops such as this one as we go through the year.
Planting Butter Bean seedlings into our top terraced garden, our young gardeners learn essential food production skills as well as the joys of outdoor activity.