During spring/summer 2024, the RHS and BBC’s The One Show ran a community gardening competition to find community groups that are transforming green spaces and encouraging local people to try gardening for the first time.
We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2024 Growing Together Award is Grass Roots Oldham.
The judges were wowed by how Grass Roots Oldham transformed a derelict 166-tree orchard into a vibrant community hub for both local people and wildlife in just two years.
The group employs sustainable gardening practices and is passionate about nature conservation, learning specialist orchard-care skills to revive the site. In an urban landscape of housing, industry and roads, the community garden is a green oasis.
The group hopes that by running a variety of weekly activities, residents will be drawn in to socialise in the community hub. That’s why they set up a range of activities including petting the therapy goats, bike riding and forest school sessions, plus watersports like paddleboarding on the adjacent Rochdale Canal.
The group say, “What unites us is our shared connection to the land and growing food. We have neighbours dropping in to tell us that the garden ‘feels like home’, whether it invokes memories of harvest time in Zambia, or of visiting family in Pakistan. It’s a beautiful space where cultures and shared stories and traditions converge, from all walks of life.”
“Congratulations to all involved,” says Pak Ling Wan, RHS Community Programme Manager.
Special commendations go to this year’s runner ups: Camberwell Triangle Gardeners in London and Campy Growers in Dundee.