Community growers share expertise with RHS Garden Wisley horticulturists
Meet the group of women from ethnic minority groups in Surrey who have been on a two-year gardening journey – learning everything from growing vegetables to swapping seeds with the Edibles team at RHS Wisley
A group of British Asian women, from Sheerwater Housing Estate in Woking, began their two-year journey with the RHS in 2021, when they set up a gardening club. Some of the women had previously grown vegetables, and others had never gardened before.
Over the last few years, the group have taken part in regular practical workshops, including growing a ‘meal in a pot’, potting up houseplants and sowing seeds. The group also attended craft sessions such as pebble painting and creating nature portraits.
The group sow seeds together
Decorating pebbles
The sessions highlighted the importance of gardening for mental and physical health, incorporated wellbeing walks and showcased sustainable gardening practises like composting.
The workshops gave the women something to focus on and look forward to, providing a chance to socialise and make friends while learning new skills.
In 2022, the Sheerwater gardening group showed their produce to the horticultural staff at RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey bringing in samples of home-grown vegetables, which reminded them of their cultural heritage, including Bangladeshi gourds and lablab beans.
With the help of the team at RHS Wisley, the group were able to find some of their plants growing in the World Food Garden. They exchanged tips with the RHS Edibles team on everything from harvesting and saving seeds to different ways of cooking the produce, and the health benefits they bring.
The group on a visit to RHS Wisley’s World Food Garden
Pressing bitter gourds in the Herbarium
After this, the women took a tour of the Herbarium at RHS Wisley, where they were shown a variety of pressed specimens, including sweet peas and Charles Darwin’s specimen of a potato. The group had a go at pressing (a process that helps to preserve cultivated plants) their own dahlias and bitter gourd leaves.
Their specimens will hopefully be on display at RHS Wisley in the future, showing visitors how local community groups have been a feature of Surrey’s gardening history.
Asma, one of the women from the Sheerwater gardening group, invited some of the RHS staff to visit her own garden in Woking, where she grows vegetables that are reminiscent of her Bangladeshi heritage.
On a sunny autumnal morning in October 2023, Asma gave the team a tour of her garden, showing them her flowerbed brimming with dahlias and marigolds, followed by a range of beds and planters filled with vegetables such as aubergines, beans and gourds and, a particular highlight for the Edibles team, a Bengali cucumber plant.
Asma’s home-grown Bengali cucumbers
Asma grew the cucumber in a sunken container, with the base removed so that the roots have room to spread out. She explained the importance of planting sunflowers in between the vegetables, to attract bees and help with pollination, enabling a good harvest.
She shared cooking tips and recipes with them too, and finished the visit with a surprise lunch for the team, brimming with Bangladeshi sweet and savoury treats.
The team with Asma in her garden
Asma showing RHS staff round her garden
Through these links, we hope to continue encouraging this community, along with others, to share their gardening practices and champion positive social action.
Visit our community outreach web page to find out more about our work.
Support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund made this project possible. Thanks to National Lottery players, the RHS has connected with more than one hundred community partners and groups surrounding RHS Garden Wisley to transform green spaces, share skills and knowledge and connect people for wellbeing.
