How community gardening group won Sustainable Gardening Award 

A more sustainable place to live 

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.

perennial

The variety of living organisms (plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms) in a particular environment. Boosting the biodiversity of your garden has many benefits, including supporting wildlife, improving soil health and reducing the likelihood of pest and disease problems.

biodiversity

The site is based on the ‘No Dig’ method using a cardboard mulch and adding compost  

Working collaboratively 

Fox’s Field forms part of a 68-acre Green Corridor owned by the council, stretching across Wellington. Darren Hill, Open Spaces Manager at Wellington Town Council, said: “There is a wealth of knowledge and skill within Wellington’s community groups, and everyone has something to contribute. We share the same goal – to work together for the good of the town. By supporting and complementing one another, we work harmoniously.”  

On a day-to-day basis, the council provides practical support when volunteers identify issues such as fallen trees or areas needing extensive mowing. It also assists with grants for improvements such as public access pathways and land leasing and aims to install a new pathway in Fox’s Field soon to improve accessibility.  

During the 2024-25 tree-planting season, the council worked with the Woodland Trust to plant 3,000 trees across the Green Corridor. Volunteers supported this effort by planting

A native plant is one that originated or arrived naturally in a particular place without human involvement. In the British Isles, native plants are those that were here during the last ice age or have arrived unaided since.

Like-minded people with a common purpose 

The group has produced a foraging guide and recipe booklet 

Transition Town Wellington has around 50 regular volunteers. Helen says she prefers gardening with the community to gardening on her own: “It’s much more satisfying, being out in all weathers with lovely people. When you’re doing something on your own it can be quite lonely but gardening with others feels very human, working together as a team. Everyone here is a doer, we get things done.”  

Volunteer Anita Corbin added: “Taking time to do things by hand and become absorbed in a task provides opportunities for focus. You feel more peaceful. You can’t beat the camaraderie and the work can be physical, which is satisfying. We learn from each other – everyone brings different skills. We are like-minded people with a common purpose to build a better future by working together.”

Demonstrating best practice  

Further along the Green Corridor, Linden Meadow is another site the group manages. This woodland and wildlife area features a striking Wellingtonian tree (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and has become a place where volunteers plant trees in memory of loved ones.  

“Volunteering really helped me when my husband had just died. It helped me to get out,” said Marcie Hayman, who has planted a tree for her late husband Doug.

Traditional scything is an environmentally friendly way to manage grassland 

The area is managed by scything, one of agriculture’s oldest practices. “The tool needs no fuel, is quiet, does not pollute and is less tiring than manoeuvring a strimmer or a mower,” explains volunteer Adrian Rose (pictured above). “It’s possible to cut grass around trees without damaging them and is much less hazardous for wildlife. Insects and reptiles hear you coming and get out of the way.”  
 
The group also manages Longacre, a one-acre plot running alongside a railway line in a residential area. Formerly overgrown and a magnet for fly tipping, today it’s a thriving community space featuring a food forest, an orchard,

A term generally applied to non-woody, flowering plants that are natural to a particular area and grow there without human assistance. More accurately, British wildflowers normally applies to UK natives including plants introduced into the wild before 1500.

Long-term plans 

The group has detailed plans for the next 25 years, including further tree planting and the creation of wildflower meadows to help sequester carbon, making the area a more biodiverse and resilient environment. These actions will support natural flood management, improve soil health and increase habitats for wildlife. Transition Town Wellington is a group on a mission, greening its local community one patch of land at a time. 

A volunteer taking cuttings to create new plants for free

Helen Gillingham, Community Gardening Lead at Transition Town Wellington

Transition Town Wellington is part of the RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood programme – supporting communities to green up local areas with friends and neighbours. Find out more and see if your community can get involved.