The growing and gardening area at the back of St Luke's Community Centre - the Edible Yard - has now seen a full growing season since it was planted up in the spring. The area was re-designed following extensive building work around St Luke's, and has been planned around huge planters that will produce food and herbs for our community cookery classes at Central Street Cookery School.

The Edible Yard has now been awarded a Gold Award for Best Community Centre Garden from Islington in Bloom, a Level 4 Thriving award from RHS and London in Bloom and also a Silver Gilt Award from London in Bloom, thanks to all the hard work that has been put in this year.  

The Edible Yard has:

• 10 raised beds with veggies and flowers with a total growing surface of 35sq meters, 1 fruit patch and 1 wildlife patch
• A 20 sq meters greenhouse to grow plants from seed and extend the season
• A 600 litres rain water harvesting system
• 4 different composters and a wormery
• A trough where we are saving seeds from three local heritage veggie varieties (pea, leaf beet, kale) for the London Freedom Seed Bank.

From March - September 2017:

Total number of volunteers involved (who came at least once on a Thursday): 35

Total number of Food Growing Sessions (Thursdays): 28

Amount of topsoil and compost shovelled in the planters: 25 tonnes (equivalent to 550 wheelbarrows)

Total amount of edible plant varieties grown in the Edible Yard: more than 120

Amount of vegetables harvested in the Edible Yard: about 110 Kilograms (1.5 kg of edible flowers, 7kg of salads, 8 kg of chard, 9 Kg aubergines, 21 Kg of cherry tomatoes)

Value of harvested vegetables: about £600

Equivalent amount of meals (bowls of mixed vegetables): about 1100

If you like the sound of the Edible Yard, live or work locally and would like to get involved in gardening at St Luke's, you're welcome to join our friendly growers' group every Thursday for a drop-in gardening session between 2 - 5 pm. No experience needed. 

Our 1^st floor terrace has planning permission to be turned into a proper public outside space for the Over 55s Members and the rest of the community. This will cost in the region of £45K and St Luke’s will fundraise for this over the next year. If you are a funder, and this project sounds like something you would like to get involved with, please contact Keren Wiltshire, Director of Services [email protected] or call 020 7549 8188.