One of Royal Botanic gardens (RBG) Kew’s central objectives is to engage large and diverse audiences and develop understanding of why plants and fungi matter (Kew strategy to 2020/21). Practical horticulture, whether for food-production, science, wellbeing or any other reason, is an effective medium for engaging with nature and sharing the importance of plants and fungi.
However there has previously been no way for Kew’s local community to engage in any aspect of horticulture at Kew outside paid courses, training and volunteering. As part of the Heritage Lottery Fund Temperate House Activity Plan (THAP), RBG Kew’s Learning & Participation Team is introducing a new Community Horticulture Learning programme. The five-year funded programme aims to inspire diverse audiences to engage with plants, learn practical horticulture skills, and ultimately for participants to undertake community-led growing projects that share Kew’s mission.
The programme is managed and developed by a newly created post, the Community Horticultural Learning Coordinator (CHLC). The first stage of the project will be run from a new Community Allotment site near Lion Gate, that was created in March 2018 with the help of volunteers and Ealing-based social enterprise Cultivate London.
The Community Allotments will be used as an outdoor classroom to enable hands-on learning. In addition to the Community Horticulture Learning (CHL) projects running from the allotments, the area will also be used for the other THAP projects where horticultural learning can be incorporated, for example the THAP Early Years programme. These will provide an opportunity for Kew to interact with new audiences, and for the Visitor Learning Team (VLT) to have a multi-functional onsite hub that can be utilised by a wide range of new audiences. In future years it is intended that the Community Horticulture Learning programme will develop an offsite offer, further connecting Kew with local communities.