Growing Plants, Growing People, Growing Communities…
Hammersmith Community Gardens Association (HCGA) is a local environmental charity set up in 1984. We manage four community gardens in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham. HCGA has a range of projects which include conservation training schemes, volunteer gardening sessions, health and wellbeing projects, environmental playschemes and environmental education in local schools. We assist local groups in the design, plan and management of their green spaces. We promote environmental sustainability within the borough and manage our sites to maximise biodiversity and encourage wildlife.
To reflect the expansion of our work to neighbouring boroughs in 2016 the charity adopted the working name of Healthy Community Gardening Activities (HCGA)
Who we are
HCGA is managed by a Board of Trustees, who are all local residents. Our staff have knowledge and skills in a wide range of areas including: horticulture, conservation, garden design, forest schools, leading guided walks, herbal medicine and many more. We have a pool of sessional staff so are able to take on short-term projects and one-off sessions. All our staff are highly trained, DBS checked and insured.
Our aims
- Improve the environment of the borough as a place for people and wildlife by maintaining quality green spaces
- Raise awareness of the links between the environment and the benefits of healthy living
- Encourage community involvement and caring in their local neighbourhood through one-off projects and long term developments. We seek to involve all sections of the community, not just the able bodied and the young
- Partner with other organisations to maximise our reach and impact
Take a tour
We offer monthly professional tours of our gardens for representatives of businesses, charities and local government to learn more about what we do and explore the possibility of working with us in the future. You will see the spaces and learn about the education, health and wellbeing programmes that they host. For upcoming dates/times please email info@hcga.org.uk.
Our Projects
The gardens are used as an educational resource by local schools, a site for volunteer gardening groups and in the holidays there are environmental play activities. As well as creating space for people the sites have also been designed to encourage wildlife. We run the community food growing area in Normand Park and work with local ‘Friends of’ groups to manage and promote their sites. We design and plant local street planting for London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and are responsible for the maintainence of some of these small green spaces. We look after the community garden in Aisgill Avenue and run a weekly volunteer group there.
In Westminster we run weekly gardening sessions in Queens Park Gardens, Westbourne Park and Penfold Street Hub. We support the Fisherton growing project with regular gardening sessions as well as by providing plants. In Westminster and The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea we deliver short Adult Education courses around gardening and herbal activities as well as a programme of walks.
HCGA has a team of school gardeners who deliver environmental education sessions in schools on a weekly basis in three boroughs. These include formal curriculum-linked activities as well as lunchtime and after school clubs. We can also guide groups on how to make their premises more environmentally friendly and give technical growing advice. For more information about booking an educational visit for your group or for a member of our team to come to your site please contact us.
Through the Grow Well project we work with local people across the Hammersmith and Fulham borough to provide therapeutic gardening sessions for people who need a bit of extra support hopefully leading to participation in our regular volunteering sessions.
The Get Out There!project offers local unemployed or socially isolated people the opportunity to learn new skills in basic environmental management such as habitat conservation, tool use and wildlife identification. Participants get the opportunity to visit and work on a range of different habitats across London as well as local sites in Hammersmith and Fulham. We also run a Men in Shedsprogramme at Godolphin Gardens for socially-isolated men.
Our volunteers maintain our gardens and contribute hundreds of hours of their time each year. Many of them have physical or mental health problems which prevent them from working in paid employment. We also host around 30 companies each year on corporate volunteering work days. As well as completing several physical tasks the companies make a donation to HCGA which covers staff time and materials. This is extremely valuable to us as it then funds the upkeep of the gardens.
The association is a registered charity (1111 999) and company limited by guarantee.
HCGA are members of Social Farms & Gardens, London City Farms and Community Gardens Association and The Council for Learning Outside the Classroom.
awarded to Ravenscourt Glasshouses
Watch our video celebrating over thirty years of our work in the community!
