We have two new community vegetable gardens, completely separate from the Orchard. All are very welcome to join us in this space, working the land, growing vegetables and sharing the harvest.
This new initiative began in January 2025, when we leased two unused areas of land from Livewest to be run as community vegetable gardens.
One at the end of Tregwary Road and the other behind Carnellis Apartments. These community veg gardens are a branch project of the St Ives Community Orchard.
In March St Ives Community Foodshare received funding from Clarion Futures for a ‘Backyard Nature‘ project to plant fruit and vegetables in various areas around town, and so volunteers from both groups joined forces. This project funded meetings in the Core with lots of tea, cake and discussions as well as funding the build of a greenhouse and shelter to capture water essential for planting. An enthusiastic group of volunteers got stuck in at the end of March 2025, clearing a huge amount of rubbish from both sites.
Carnellis Wildlife garden
Carnellis is a beautiful, overgrown garden, with two established apple trees, thick hedges and fruit bushes. We have spent some time there clearing a huge amount of fly-tipped rubbish and clearing the brambles off the apple tree. Neglected for many years, it is now being cared for again, with plans to grow vegetables, herbs and fruit while creating a welcoming wildlife haven and community space.
We have been focusing most of our energy on the Tregwary patch, where we hope to grow plenty of vegetables to share with volunteers. Any excess will be donated to St Ives Community Foodshare or used in the Core’s Community Café.
Tregwary Community Veg Garden:
It’s been so exciting to see the transformation of this area of land in a short period of time thanks to the hard work of volunteers involved. Livewest had initially cleared all the brambles early January but there was initially a lot of hard work involved in removing bramble roots, embedded rubbish and stones to create vegetable beds.
There was a lot of soil sieving to remove all the stones and plastic. A compost pile has been created and various vegetables have been planted. The soil is incredible, we think because people have been chucking their garden waste in there for years, so everything grew so well.
A rain-harvesting shelter and a basic greenhouse with gutters to collect water have been built. There is a mud kitchen where the children love playing, and we plan to add a bench for garden users and local residents to rest and watch the activities.
Tregwary March 2025. Livewest had cleared all the brambles
Mostly collecting rubbish
Digging out alot of bramble roots
Kids helped with a lot of sieving soil
First planting
Putting coffee around the beds to try deter the slugs and snails.
Tea break
kids very involved
The mud kitchen
Tregwary July 2025 – built a shed & greenhouse
Get involved:
Feel free to pop by and have a chat with us. We are mostly there on Thursday afternoons. We have a whatsapp group where we discuss plans and when to meet up. You can sign up to volunteer, and we will then get in touch with you. Children are very welcome to join in too.
Find us:
We are at the end of Tregwary lane, at the turning circle, go down stairs. There is a lower lane which is wheelchair accessible.
33 Tregwary Rd, Saint Ives TR26 1BL / //what3words.com/residual.folks.bloomers
