Voluntary Action South West Surrey

Our garden in the sweeping hills of the North Downs overlooking Guildford and its surrounding countryside are home to many species. We are working together with the Wildlife Trust and Guildford Environmental Forum, planting hedges and trees and we are currently planning to improve and extend our existing pond area to include a bog garden and boardwalk. In the food garden we grow a variety of flowers to attract bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects, we also leave some areas wild which allows the wildflowers and grasses to undergo their natural life cycles and provide homes for the bugs, beetles and spiders that are the natural predators to many of the pest of cultivated food crops. We have incorporated permaculture principles into our garden to preserve the balance of nature and often use companion planting so we can manage pests without the need for the pesticides which are so commonly used elsewhere. Our no-dig methods and use of green manures maintain the soil integrity, allowing the vital mycellium to remain intact to transport sugars to the plants. In the meadows outside the food garden there are over 100 different species of plant like wild orchids. Many animals like Skylarks and other birds also live their lives and breed in the sky, ground, hedges, trees and meadows around the food garden. We have an active badger sett and regular fox visitors as well as hedgehogs and slow-worms.

The Therapy Garden is a registered charity based in Normandy Village, consisting of one acre of community garden which is managed by a team of horticulturalists, staff and volunteers to provide gardening and horticulture therapy to the more vulnerable members of society. We provide practical horticulture therapy to adults and young people with learning disabilities, mental health issues and physical disabilities.

Our ‘Green School’, enables young people aged 14-19 with learning difficulties such as autism, Down’s Syndrome and Asperger’s to achieve a City & Guilds qualification “Skills for Working Life: Horticulture” in a safe and structured environment. Students are referred to us and funded by mainstream and specialist schools in Surrey and Hampshire and many have gone on to achieve a college place or ongoing employment.

The Therapy Garden is currently organising ‘taster days’ for other groups in the local community such as brain injury and stroke victims and Dementia sufferers and we are able to plan bespoke activities that are tailored to individual client needs.