Rye Community Food and Wildlife Garden held its AGM on Saturday 6 June. Dena Smith Ellis and Nigel Jennings stood down from their respective roles as chair and treasurer. Dominic Manning is the new chair and Jo McCurrie the new treasurer. Jo Morphy and Jenny Edbrooke have joined the committee, with Graham Ellis staying on and taking on the role of the garden’s representative on Rye Allotment Forum.
The garden keeps evolving and growing, with a herb spiral and willow entrance arch added since last year. A major objective in the coming year is to erect a new, larger covered structure alongside the existing one, to provide more scope for community events and workshops. Also proposed is a pizza oven, as food is an excellent way of bringing people together – we all have in common that we like food!
Later this year, the Italian alders that were planted when the primary school was built will be pollarded, so as to give the many different Sussex variety apple trees planted in 2014 more space to thrive.
The two new committee members bring new energy and skills with them:
Jo Morphy, one of the garden’s founder members, runs The Growing Network in Beckley, part of a community-led, grassroots initiative across the UK designed to bring people together to freely share homegrown produce, seeds, plants, recipes, and knowledge. Guided by the tagline “Bring what you can and take what you need,” it fosters community cohesion and self-reliance without using money.
Jenny Edbrooke runs The Studio at Rye Creative Centre. It is a place where people with disabilities can come and create artworks of all kinds. Jenny supports artists with their professional development and provides exciting opportunities to exhibit and sell their work. The Studio has its own garden area and raised bed allotments.
Rye Community Garden’s mission is to promote wellbeing through inspiring, educating and empowering our community in food production, wildlife preservation and climate change resilience.
If you would like to get involved, or are just curious and would like to meet like-minded people for a chat, please do come along to our regular Saturday sessions between 10am and 12 midday. The community garden is at the end of Love Lane, alongside the allotments and primary school.
Image Credits: Dena Smith Ellis .