If you come to Allens Garden on a Tuesday afternoon, chances are you’ll meet Precious. And if you’re very lucky, you’ll hear her sing as she works.
She’s our longest standing volunteer having been coming to Growing Communities for over a decade!
She loves the welcoming atmosphere of our growing sites and that things are under control here. For her, it is a place to catch up with things that are going on around the area and is “a wonderful reference point” for the growing she does in her own space nearby: “If I have questions I can find some answers here,” she says.
Despite her long standing, she doesn’t consider herself an experienced grower, as she didn’t grow up with gardeners in the family and only started growing food in her 50s. We think she’s being too modest!
One thing she’s not so keen on – the raised beds! She thinks ground level would be better for back ache. And one thing she would like to do more – turning the compost.
In the rest of her time, she is very involved in a community garden project where she lives and they grow food. This is the main reason for her long-term commitment to Growing Communities. The project, started in November 2006, is run by the Peter Bedford Housing Association, a charity for disadvantaged people.
Add this to her connection with the North London LETS scheme and her involvement in her Quaker local community, and I’d say we’re lucky she gives us her Tuesday afternoons. They just wouldn’t be the same without her.
Tags: Volunteers
