Update on Border Control - Gold Medal garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace.

On the 30th June CARAS Youth Club members travelled to the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show to help with the build of the Border Control Concept Garden. It was a fascinating visit - to see the TTT blog post, click here.
Now the garden is finished and open to the public. The Youth Club paid a second visit this week to see it.

In the past week there has been a lot of interest in Border Control. Although we don't claim any responsibility we are thrilled...
The garden won an RHS Gold Medal, and also won the Award for the best of the ten Concept Gardens. 
We're proud because taking a very small part in the garden has helped us spread the word about the reality of refugees' experiences and helped us be confident that our Rooting in Tooting project with CARAS is valuable. The visit has given fascinating experiences for Youth Club members as a group about encountering new aspects of Britain, and created and opportunity for them to explore and communicate their own responses.

The Evening Standard covered Border Control again yesterday, including an interview with one of the CARAS Youth Club members - you can read the article here

Finally, there are a few free tickets available for the Hampton Court Show, for tomorrow (Sunday) - the last day.  
These tickets have to be collected in Tooting today, Saturday 9th July, before 4pm.
This is a very last minute-offer so excuse the rush - if you would like to have a ticket or two, email as soon as you can to TTT at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com and we will explain how to collect.
Go and visit Border Control in person!

Rooting in Tooting project: CARAS Youth Club members explore 'Border Control' show garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace flower show

For over a year TTT has been facilitating Rooting in Tooting project activities with diverse groups of all ages via the Tooting charity CARAS (Community Action for Refugees and Asylum-Seekers).

Yesterday we accompanied a group from the CARAS Youth Club to explore the build of the Border Control show garden at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show which opens on 5 July.

Not 'herbaceous borders'.... the garden is aiming to illustrate the physical and emotional challenges and successes faced by refugees: goals, barriers, borders, setbacks, surprises, hopes and fears.

The show garden is the creation of 2 designers Tom Massey and John Ward, and supported by the UN Refugee Agency. Thanks to you all for the hospitality and discussions!

The young people met Mark Tran from The Guardian, and here is a link so you can read his article published today, titled Hampton Court Palace flower show to highlight plight of refugees.

Snapshots from the CARAS Open Day in Tooting

TTT is looking forward to our new partnership project with CARAS and the RHS 'Greening Grey Britain' campaign (see our 18th Aug post below). To help launch 'Rooting in Tooting', we joined in at the CARAS Open Day at All Saints' Church, Tooting. 
It was a very welcoming day for the extended CARAS family, where many people knew each other and came to chat in the sun (or find some shade), or play outdoors. 
We had a brilliant lunch made by The Chickpea Sisters (who'll be at the Tooting Foodival on Sun 13th Sept). There was music, dancing...& some diverse growing action.

Chris was flat out sowing seeds and playing with mud:
 

Chris plus seed sowers

Making mud seed bombs

 

Threshing and winnowing wheat grown in the Tooting Community Garden: we took the heads of wheat and did the steps used round the world for thousands of years (and which are still in our language even if we've never seen it happen). 
So, Seamus found helpers for threshing to separate the wheat grains from the heads, and then winnowing the resulting mix to remove the chaff:

Bashing bags on the ground...

...or jumping up and down on them

Then, with the right puff, the chaff blows away

Flicking up the chaff to catch the wind: experts!

We also gathered great ideas in several languages for what to consider growing in the project: for food, for health, for beauty, and for nature:

Thanks to all (of all ages) at the open day for getting so involved! 
Plus, we're grateful to Chris and Sophie from the RHS, and to Seamus, Jenny and Chuck from TTT, and all at CARAS. More news as 'Rooting in Tooting' develops.

Young people’s garden project leads to Rooting in Tooting

If you’ve walked past the Derinton Community Centre in Tooting recently, you may have noticed vibrant yellow planters bursting with colourful flowers, where rubbish used to reside, and young people sitting on bright benches doing their homework.

Those young people, who attend the CARAS youth club on the site, worked with a team from Transition Town Tooting to build the planters and the benches and paint them over a number of weeks. They sowed seeds early on in the project and also chose plants that now grow there, during a visit to Share Community Garden

The project came about after the youth club made a visit to Tooting Community Garden.  This led to the idea of the teenagers creating an urban garden on-site over eight weekly Saturday sessions.

"Before this, I didn't know how to plant and grow plants, but I learned how, and I enjoyed making the planter too", said Waseem, one of the young people who transformed the space.

CARAS (previously Klevis Kola) is a community based organisation working with refugees and asylum seekers.  The gardening project was developed with the young people, encouraging teamwork and communication, developing and practicing new skills and meeting new people in the wider community.

Jenny Teasdale, who coordinated Transition Town Tooting’s involvement said,

“Working with these young people over the last couple of months has been wonderful. Together, we imagined the possibilities of an urban garden, creating a mood board of ideas, and then we made some of those ideas a reality.

Everyone planted seeds in the first few weeks and the kids tended them throughout, watching sunflowers, beans and salad leaves growing, ready to be planted out in the final weeks. With wooden materials from the community garden, the kids cut, assembled and painted planters and benches – making design decisions on the fly and developing new skills along the way. As a group, we decided what plants to grow and where to site what we built.

I know I wasn’t the only person sad to see the project come to an end, having enjoyed every second of the process. At the same time, we are all really happy to see the transformation in just two short months.”

CARAS Youth Coordinator, Molly Abraham spoke about the project,

"The gardening project with TTT has been a fantastic opportunity for young people who attend CARAS to gain skills, share knowledge and create something we are all extremely proud of.  It's been amazing to watch the group grow in confidence as they became proficient with drills, saws and secateurs, and to relax into sharing stories of growing in their home countries.  Working with the wonderful team from TTT has been a real pleasure for all of us and we are excited to be able to develop the work, and the friendships, over the coming year."

"We painted the pallet planter and the yellow planter, and I sowed flowers and beans. They're still growing", said Hafso, shown here painting.

Spurred on by the development of the space and the enthusiasm of the youth group, we are delighted to announce that CARAS and Transition Town Tooting are now working in partnership with the RHS over the next year, running monthly sessions with the youth club and adults at CARAS.

The new project is called Rooting in Tooting, and is part of the RHS’s Greening Grey Britain scheme. We’ll be developing more flourishing, attractive growing ideas that will transform the site.  This practical, experiential project is just one of the ways CARAS is helping newly-arrived people to integrate into the vibrant community of Tooting.