Community Garden – Growing space for everyone!
Hidden from view we have a variety of garden areas for any visitors to the building to use. A full acre! Growing areas in raised beds & borders, for fruit and veg, plus a very productive orchard! A greenhouse and Polytunnels mean we can garden all year round and spend time growing the ‘hothouse’ favourites of tomatoes, peppers, etc. as well as sowing seeds. 
Grassed areas are ideal for parties, sports and just ‘spreading out’! A willow tunnel lends itself to all sorts of adventures. Wildlife areas are left to nature with a lot of help from Garden Group. Two ‘Bug Hotels’ one of which houses two families of hedgehogs in ‘the basement’ (younger ones enjoy feeding them) but they are quite shy! Baby rabbits, foxes and frogs have been spotted too. Crops are shared during times of glut including (100lbs of plums!) Jams and chutneys are made from our harvest and sold to raise funds for the garden. Volunteers and helpers of all ages (currently 4yrs to 86yrs) help with the work and share the produce!
The Courtyard Garden is for quiet, sensory, meditation, prayer and safe play. Gentle sounds and a fountain make it a sensory hub to watch the visiting birds and insects.
Please contact GCCP if you would like to give a hand in any part of the garden, get some gentle exercise, fresh air and de-stress or to use and enjoy our wonderful green spaces. We have regular gardening sessions and areas available for people to “Grow Your Own” in return for a bit of help in ours. Help can include pruning, chipping, weeding, planting or harvesting.
In October 2018 we were delighted when our work to develop our Community Garden was recognised by the Royal Horticultural Society and Northumbria in Bloom with the award of Level 5, Outstanding in the It’s Your Neighbourhood section of Britain in Bloom! We are hoping to enter again this year if we have enough willing hands.
The smaller workshop
Thank you to Funders including RHS, LEAF (Community Foundation), CEED, Sunderland City Council West Area Committee, Barbour, Sir James Knott, Sir Tom Cowie, National Lottery Community Fund as well as the people and groups who contributed with their work – EE, EDF, Department of Work and Pensions, National Citizen Service, local residents and to the URC Northern Synod Trust for continuing to give us their support and encouragement and for letting us use their buildings and gardens.
Thanks to our hard-working volunteers and West Area Committee of Sunderland City Council we now have two workshops equipped as a potting shed/painting area.
In the orchard area is our new large fully accessible workshop funded by Bernard Sunley, The Readman Foundation and Sunderland City Council. It can accommodate our volunteers and interested groups to saw, paint, cut, hammer, Recycle, upcycle and reuse. Space where mess can be made without being nagged and for the volunteers to find new, rewarding hobbies. Our own version of the “Repair Shop”!