Everyday ActivGardens
Volunteer with ActivGardens
If you enjoy working with others in the great outdoors, then get involved at ActivGardens.
We have 2 excellent sites in Ipswich, both of which have an ever expanding team of brilliant volunteers, who work from 1 day a week up to 5 or 6!
Want to help but not sure what you want to do? Well, there’s something for everyone – whether you want to care for plants or help out at an event.
Just get in touch, and we’ll talk you through all the different opportunities we can offer!
What We Offer
We have two sites in south-west Ipswich, the People’s Community Garden, on Maidenhall Allotments, and Chantry Walled Garden, in Chantry Park. We also run community growing projects in other parts of Ipswich and around Suffolk.
ActivGardens are inspiring, green projects with a job to fit everyone … and time for a cuppa and a chat.
ActivGardens are places to grow ideas and learn new skills, to showcase innovation and spark creativity. It’s friendly and welcoming, so you can find your niche and gain confidence or experience, learning at your own pace.
It’s not just about gardening – we have a community kitchen, café and market place, and an ActivShed for DIY and construction.
We are committed to doing all we can to support the natural environment through our bee-keeping project and areas for wildlife.
We have a garden centre and plant nursery, so you can acquire industry skills, show members of the public round, and pass on what you have learnt about plants.
We put on fun-packed events, and host visits for schools, colleges, garden clubs and community groups.
We work with all ages and abilities, so there are opportunities to help and mentor others.
We welcome work teams from local business with willing hands itching to get out of the office. It’s a great way of building your team and developing productive bonds between members of staff … and helps us keep on top of the work or complete a big project.
News from ActivGardens
Calling all women! Learn new skills in the New Year
ActivGardens Women’s Skills Exchange is offering two FREE workshops in the New Year for you to try something different!
Thompson & Morgan donates flower seeds to local charities
Thompson & Morgan just donated 100s of packets of flower seeds to local charities, ActivLives and St Elizabeth Hospice.
Garden project promises community cheer at festive market
A wonderful selection of crafts, plants, seasonal wreath and produce will be on offer at our festive market, all made or grown by participants of ActivGardens.
Our Garden Projects
The People’s Community Garden
Location
Maidenhall Allotments, Halifax Road, Ipswich IP2 8RE
What it is
The People’s Community Garden is an outdoor community resource on a public allotment site, where people of all ages and abilities get together to develop and maintain an inspiring green space. It is a place where you can find your niche and work at your own pace, as part of a friendly and dedicated team. It is a place where you can make friends and learn skills, as well as contribute your ideas, to make it truly a people’s garden.
Opening Times
Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9am until 4pm
CHANTRY WALLED Garden & NURSERY
Location
Chantry Park, Hadleigh Road, Ipswich IP2 0BS
What it is
Chantry Walled Garden is a heritage walled garden in a public park, with flower borders and vegetable-growing areas, as well as extensive glasshouses as part of our plant nursery. Our base is cosy Nursery Cottage, where there is an accessible courtyard garden with raised beds for wheelchair users. The adjacent workshop has facilities for woodwork and basic construction. In this garden you can learn skills relevant to the horticultural industry as well as enjoy maintaining a garden full of history.
Opening Times
Tuesday and Thursday 9am until 4pm
GROW YOUR COMMUNITY SUDBURY
Location
Bell Vue Park and various around Sudbury
What it is
Grow Your Community – Sudbury provides opportunities for local people to get involved in community growing in and around Sudbury.
Opening Times
- At Belle Vue Park – every Thursday 10am until 12.30pm
- In other green spaces, housing estates and local plots by arrangement
Our Staff
Susannah Robirosa
ActivGardens Development Manager
I have spent the past 10 years developing two redundant urban green spaces into creative, innovate and diverse community resources offering volunteering and training opportunities in horticulture, the natural environment and other related areas. The People’s Community Garden includes a community apiary, CRESS community hub and ActivSheds construction project, while Chantry Walled Garden is a plant nursery growing 25,000 plants for Ipswich parks and open spaces, together with an accessible Garden for Older People. I also manage outreach projects in Ipswich and, currently, our main outreach project in Sudbury. My job with ActivLives represented quite a career jump – as an English graduate, I worked for many years as a journalist in London and Melbourne before settling on the Essex/ Suffolk border with my husband and three children in 1995. While working as a sub editor at the East Anglian Daily Times, I decided to study for an RHS Diploma in Horticulture at Writtle College. I briefly ran a gardening business with a colleague, before landing a job with the Town & Bridge Project, now ActivLives, in 2008.
Call: 07530 407302
Danny Thorrington
ActivGardens Coordinator
I am delighted that in April I was appointed as the People’s Community Garden Coordinator within the ActivGardens Team and am enjoying every minute of it, working alongside such a brilliant team of staff, volunteers, groups, schools and businesses from across our community
I have had a varied career beginning in the construction industry and then moving on to work within education at Suffolk New College, tutoring in construction and then moving across to their Special Educational Needs Department (SEND) for 12 years. Inclusion became a real passion for me and I have volunteered in many roles across many inclusive community clubs for the past 13 years. This volunteering led to roles within community sports development with Suffolk Sport & Team Ipswich which led onto creating the ‘Discovery’ Project across 18 secondary schools, FE colleges and special schools across the county which was so rewarding and I thoroughly enjoyed for five years.
More recently I have been a St Elizabeth Hospice Partnership fundraiser and then transferring across to work with their young adults as their Inclusion & Transition Coordinator.
Gardening, conservation and wildlife have always been a passion of mine, completing my City & Guilds Countryside Conservation & Management qualification and volunteering most weekends for various conservation groups in the ninety’s however in 2016/17 I was the Volunteer Officer for the Suffolk Coast & Heaths & Dedham Vale AONB’s & Stour Valley Project where I accumulated in excess of 500 hours practical skills experience which was amazing.
Finally I urge anyone considering a career in landscapes, gardening, wildlife & conservation, or looking to improve their wellbeing, to don those wellies and volunteer for change with ActivGardens.
Call: 07532 794173
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