It's hard to believe that in just under two years the greenhouses in Witton Country Park have gone from looking like this:

To this:

And it's not just a makeover we're talking about, since March 2021 when The Greenhouse Project began, part of The Lancashire Wildlife Trust's Nature and Wellbeing Service, the site has become a real asset for the area with the local community at its heart.

In 2022 the project continued to evolve and grow, let's take a look at what we've been able to achieve in the last year...

A sense of belonging

From the beginning we wanted to give the community real ownership of this site, after all, it's largely thanks to their support that we have been able to get this project off the ground. The creation of a Steering Group - formed of registered and committed volunteers as well as dedicated members of the community ensures that the project runs democratically and in adherence to the desires of the community. Meetings to date, which occur quarterly, have focussed on how to make the project more sustainable and what practical steps need to be taken to move the greenhouses forward.

Our sessions have also shifted to facilitate increased independence and ownership of the project, and on top of the Nature and Wellbeing sessions that we offer, we now also run drop-in sessions which are largely self-led, creating a strong sense of peer-to-peer support amongst the attendees, many of whom live alone. Whilst many are happy to engage with priority jobs on the site, others prefer to work on small projects of personal interest to them that they have often conceived of themselves.

Monthly outings for our drop-in participants are also a new addition to the project as of last year. These see participants go in a Lancashire Wildlife Trust minibus to either nature reserves or other food-growing projects to walk, widen their horizons and gain inspiration by visiting other projects. So far we have visited Chat Moss Reserve where we attended a poetry workshop on the theme of restoration, Brockholes Nature Reserve, Mere Sands Wood Nature Reserve, Hulme Community Garden Centre, RHS Bridgewater, Royal Lancashire Show, and Garden Needs (a Salford mental health project). In turn, we have been visited by Bolton Diggers who have a food-growing project. We have also run seasonal walks for the greenhouse regulars.

Engagement and outreach

A total of 49 individuals were referred to the project's Nature and Wellbeing Sessions between April and December last year and we have strong links with a wide range of referrers across Blackburn with Darwen. As part of this ongoing relationship, we hosted a Social Prescribers meeting at the greenhouses for around 25 professionals last year.

In addition to this, we also worked with 14 different organisations including Newground Shadsworth women’s group and Adult Learning ESOL groups from Audley Community Centre, providing food growing activities or wildlife walks to over 120 people.

This outreach work has introduced individuals to local green spaces and improved their knowledge of food growing, some have then joined our Nature and Wellbeing sessions at the greenhouses. This has also been an excellent way to begin to share learning and inspiration from The Greenhouse Project across Blackburn with Darwen.

Community collaboration

It's been incredible to see so many different community groups coming together, unified by The Greenhouse Project, whilst we have been able to loan out tools, and supply compost, plants, and materials, as well as our expertise and advice to so many fantastic local initiatives, we have also benefitted hugely from the surrounding community. This support has come in many forms, from volunteer hours and time spent improving the site, to the sharing of resources, in-kind donations, and the delivery of creative workshops and art sessions.

When one of our participants, a local asylum seeker, had his bike stolen, their sole form of transport. We managed to source a new bike for him and then were donated a further 12 bikes from other local residents and Witton Cycles. These bikes needed some basic maintenance to become road worthy. The Bureau Centre for the Arts provided a trained and funded bike mechanic to fix the bikes which are now being distributed to local residents in need of them. 

Last year we were also successful in our application to become the lead organisation for the creation of the Blackburn Food Growing Network which will see us facilitating collaboration between food growing organisations and projects across the borough.

Further improvements to the greenhouses

The Greenhouse Project continues to develop and grow, last year this work included:

• The addition of handrails for sloped areas
• Additional beds constructed and planted
• The construction of leaf mould bays to produce mulch
• The installation of a new water capture system
• Converting the bottom greenhouse into a functional workshop space