2025-10-07-accounts - Streatham Common Community Garden

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Annual report and accounts for the year ended

7[th] October 2025.

This report has been prepared by the Trustees of Streatham Common Community Garden, registered charity 1154156. It was agreed at the Trustees’ meeting on 24th November 2025 and will be placed on our website, https://streathamcommoncommunitygarden.org.

The report covers the period 8[th] October 2024 to 7[th] October 2025.

Trustees’ Report

Over the last year, we have achieved the following, further details are given in the body of this report:

Creating a welcoming place for new volunteers and visitors.
Managing the Learner Plotters’ and the Little Growers’ projects. The Learner Plotters’ project continues to introduce new people to gardening and to unite people from different backgrounds through a common interest. The Little Growers’ project offers children, from 6 to 9 years of age, the chance to grow their own healthy vegetables.
Managing events throughout the year. These events aim to increase skills, bring the community together and to celebrate the diverse heritage of residents, including black history month and the volunteers’ lunch.
Growing a broad variety of fruit and vegetables on site.
Supporting habitats that encourage birds and other wildlife including frogs and toads.
Maintaining contact with our friends, colleagues and people interested in gardening through newsletters and regular updates on social media.
Working with our colleagues from Streatham Common Cooperative (SCCoop) to maintain the site.

Working together we deliver something amazing that everyone can enjoy. We could not do this without our wonderful volunteers, and the following report pays testament to everyone’s efforts. Thank you!

Trustees, Streatham Common Community Garden

Our Charitable Purposes and Public Benefit

Availability of the Garden

Apart from a short break for Christmas 2024 and in January 2025, we have opened each Wednesday and Sunday between 11am and 3pm.

Volunteers and Visitors

We continue to welcome volunteers and visitors to the Garden, showcasing a place that inspires people to garden and to enjoy nature.

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers, we could not run the garden without you!

Some of our volunteers have been attending the garden regularly for many years, others come along for an occasional visit. We tailor tasks to the needs of the garden and to people’s individual abilities. There is no pressure to attend every week, and people can stay for as little or for as long as they can.

In the year ending 7[th] October 2025 we had 110 volunteers offering a total of 2,745 hours.

This compares to the year ending 7[th] October 2024 when we had 112 volunteers offering 2,735 hours.

In considering these volunteer hours it is noted that:

It does not include the Little Growers, which is a gardening activity for children.
It does include the Learner Plotters who attended in the final months of 2024 and those with a plot in 2025. Plotters contribute to the overall maintenance of the garden.
It excludes the paid for Community Gardener in both 2024 and 2025.
It excludes Trustee hours off site, which are spent managing the garden.

When we look at the volunteer hours in a little more detail it gives us some interesting information, namely:

Of the 110 volunteers, 39 people volunteered for less than four hours. The picture is similar in year to 7[th] October 2024, when there were 41 people who volunteered for less than four hours. There may be many reasons this. Such as, people came with a friend, they were visiting the area, or the garden just wasn’t for them. But it suggests that there is more work for us to do to encourage people to return.
There were ten people who volunteered for more than 75 hours. These were mainly Trustees but included two Plotters and one of our long-term dedicated volunteers. Huge thanks!

Education and training

As in previous years we have run the Learner Plotters’ project and the Little Growers’ project, supported by a Community Gardener who is on site on a Sunday.

Community Gardener

Catherine Birkett provided services to the end of November 2024. She decided not to renew her contract in 2025 to reclaim her Sundays and to relax!

Fabrice Boltho took up the role as Community Gardener on 9[th] February 2025. He will continue until the end of November 2025. Fabrice has been a firm favourite with Plotters and Little Growers. He has impressed everyone with his horticultural knowledge and has been such as asset. We hope that he will renew his contract in 2026.

Learner Plotters

Our Learner Plotters start in Spring and people can continue until the early months of the following year when they clear their plot for the next intake. People without a garden apply to have a small plot to develop their skills with guidance from the Community Gardener, through workshops or from more experienced Trustees.

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In 2024 17 people signed up, albeit this number reduced to 15 people attending.

In 2025, we increased the size of the plots slightly, with 14 Plotters for most of the season. (One Plotter came for a short time but was replaced by a couple). Whilst there has been a drop off in attendance, post summer, generally people have maintained their plot and have been very positive about the experience. The group have worked well together, and we hope that people will continue to support the garden in some way after their participation in the programme ends.

Little Growers

The Little Growers project is attended by children between 6-9 years of age. They

meet every Sunday, from 12 noon to 1pm with a parent or carer. Each child has a section of a raised bed where they choose what to grow, how to look after their plants and to harvest their own crops.

In 2025, seven children attended along with their adult companions, and occasionally a brother or sister. The parents of two of the Little Growers have said that they would like to come back in 2026 as Plotters.

The parents have been very positive about the 2025 programme. Not only have the children enjoyed the time that they have spent in nature, but they have also had great growing success and made new friends.

Duke of Edinburgh Award Participants

Three Duke of Edinburgh Award participants volunteered at the garden during the Spring and Summer of 2025. We were particularly impressed by their enthusiasm, reliability and willingness to undertake tasks. All participants attended in accordance with our safeguarding policy requirements.

A Growing Hub and Wildlife

Every growing year presents new challenges. After a wet November and December 2024, the Spring and Summer of 2025 were exceptionally dry. We have therefore spent hours watering plants, and this is something for us to consider in the future as we adapt to climate changes.