“Adopt a bed scheme”

As some of you will already know Sarn Helen Community Garden is undergoing a change. The raised beds that were once managed by staff and volunteers have now been handed over to the local community in the “Adopt a bed scheme”. Staff will still maintain the poly tunnels on site and plants and garden supplies will still be available all year. However individual members of the local community will each manage their own raised bed and grow their own fresh vegetables. Since advertising the new scheme the response has been fantastic. There are already 17 families signed up to take over a bed, with more names put forward every day. Soon we will be at capacity and it promises to be a very lively summer in the garden this year. We are keeping back 3 of the beds so that we will still have somewhere to grow salad produce for Café Sarn Helen with our volunteers who enjoy working outside during the summer months. 

Winter Hanging Baskets

Our winter Hanging Baskets will be available from the end of September. They are £14 for a 12 inch basket or £10 if you bring your own basket to be refilled. You can pre order or just call in when they are ready...

Healthy School Snacks

Helen made an early morning trip to Neath Market to pick up fresh fruit for the local primary schools. It's part of our Healthy Eating Initiative that we support access to fresh fruit and vegetables for our community.

Sunny afternoons volunteering!

We may not have had the best summer on record but that hasn’t stopped us enjoying a few afternoons in the sunshine lately with some of our volunteers. There’s always plenty to do outside on the allotment and an afternoon with some of our volunteers weeding soon gets the job done.

We have always been a popular project with local volunteers and are well used by the community. We have also recently joined forces with Neath Port Talbots ASK service for people with Autism or Aspergers. This has informed a lot more people about our community garden and enabled more people to access our volunteering opportunities and learn new skills at the same time.

Garden trainee moves into full time employment

One of our garden trainees Shane Phillips has been successful on gaining full time employment with Neath based residential care home "Care Without Compromise". Some of the clients already volunteer at the garden and I'm sure Shane will be back in his new supporting role.

Over the past two years the traineeship has enabled Shane to gain qualifications in gardening through Neath college and develop in confidence in working with volunteers and we wish him all the best.

Freshly picked swedes and sprouts from the garden

Shane & Alister after picking our home grown swedes and sprouts ready to go out for our Christmas vegetable round. The swede bed was planted up and maintained with help from volunteers. We just took delivery of our seeds for next year and we will be growing sweet corn, courgettes and pumpkins in addition to the current produce we grow.

Christmas vegetable round

Christmas Vegetable Round

On Thursday 22nd of December we will be doing the christmas veg drop off service, so if you would like any produce in time for your xmas dinner then please feel free to get in touch and put an order in. The garden will then be closed for the holidays. The van will have items such as cauliflower, sprouts, cabbage, swede, potatoes, onions, carrots, chestnuts, dates, figs, parsnips on board. 

Contact details can be found on the website.