Guides

Community Brand Case Study: Rainbow Garden

A proud member of our Community brand, find out how Rainbow Community Garden is thriving in 2017 and what they’ve been growing during Made in Hull and Roots & Routes.

Back in 1998, it was a forgotten, neglected piece of land, until Jeannie Webster discovered the area and uncovered its potential.

Now the land has been converted into a community garden, an area of peace and tranquility for the community to enjoy. Native trees and plants attract wildlife, and vegetables, salads and herbs are grown and shared with residents.

The garden is managed by 10 enthusiastic eco-warrior volunteers and two part-time members of staff. Visitors to the garden include local residents, social services users, schools and members of the youth justice system.

Jeannie was keen to inject the garden with additional arts and culture throughout 2017 to celebrate Hull’s year in the spotlight and has been incorporating ways in which the gardens can represent Hull 2017’s four seasons.

We caught up with her to find out what they’ve been up to in our first two seasons and how their garden is flourishing in 2017.

Jeannie explained: “2017 has got off to an exciting start. Coinciding with the Made in Hull season, work is progressing on our new allotment area. We’ve started to divide the gardens into mini allotments for our users, some have already picked their plot and bought their seeds and are keen to get planting. We also have a group who are taking over a plot and are deciding what they would like to grow.

“We’ve known for a long time that people want to grow their own vegetables. We have a small growing area, but people want to go a step further and increase production which is great. We’ve got potatoes in our greenhouse ready to plant and weather dependent we’re hoping to get planting over the coming weeks.

“A local firm working on the estate, having heard about us, kindly offered to lay one of our main paths for us which will connect the main allotment area, this has saved us lots of time and hard work.

“We’ve also been able to appoint Emma, a local resident, as a part time gardener which has been invaluable to the development of the garden.

“We’ve been speaking with a local artist about incorporating art into our garden and hope to add a mural to brighten up the area later on in the year.”

Jeannie has lived on the estate for more than 40 years and is now encouraged to see the second generation of visitors to the garden. The team have received several awards for their hard work, including Hull in Bloom, Yorkshire in Bloom and they also have Green Flag status.

As we come to the end of our Roots & Routes season, we can’t wait to see how their garden grows this year.