See How our Garden Grows (SHOGG) is a three year community and organisational development project enabling Green Synergy to develop organisationally, deliver a range of community engagement events and programmes and to build our sustainability. Our SHOGG project is kindly supported by the National Lottery Community Fund to increase access to gardening, horticultural and community activities.
The See How Our Garden Grows project aims to strengthen Green Synergy as a charity by building our organisational development through work streams on governance development, policies and procedures reviews, income, resilience and organisational sustainability as a charity. The project is enabling the charity to increase our capacity for managing and coordinating events, activities and projects to increase reach. The project importantly seeks to increase our reach, visitors, networking, partnerships and engagement with our local communities in Lincoln through the development of our community gardens. See How Our Garden Grows also aims to increase community cohesion, support under-served communities, reduce isolation and improve people’s mental and physical health.
Key elements of our See How Our garden Grows project are detailed below.
Wednesday Morning Warm Spaces Coffee Mornings
Every Wednesday morning we hold the Tower Power Coffee Morning. Residents come together to enjoy tea, coffee and catch up. This year we have been very lucky and attracted funding which has allowed us to enjoy three trips out.
Residents spent the day in Horncastle, A trip to Bomber Command to mark armistice day and a Trip to Kinema in the Woods to see a West End Show.
The group also volunteer and help at Green Synergy events running the cake and coffee stand.
We welcome new members just come along and join us.
Knit and Natter
The Green Synergy Knit and Natter takes place on a Thursday afternoon between 1pm and 3pm. The sessions offer a quiet space to work on existing knitting or crochet projects as well as being an opportunity for people interested in learning a new skill to come along and learn to knit or crochet.
Members of the group have been working on lots of different personal projects. Members have knitted jumpers, Teddy bears and beautiful Easter gifts.
If you would like to join us just come along with your project or just be ready to learn.
Cost of Living Workshops / Slow Cooker Workshops
To help with the cost-of-living challenges Green Synergy ran a slow cooker workshop. Working with Katherine our volunteer we were able to set up a kitchen and demonstrate and talk about how to use a slow cooker.
Participants shared stories and experiences about food and the challenges that they face daily.
We also shared a slow cooker lunch together. At the end of the workshop everyone went home with recipe cards and a free slow cooker.
We will run two more workshops in May and look forward to more delicious affordable food.
Events
Throughout the year Green Synergy has been delivering a range of community events that enables people to enjoy the beauty of our Hillside Community Garden and meet new and old friends. These events have included our Plant Sales, Family Picnics, Global Harvest Celebration and Carols on the Garden events.
