Porlock Gardens

Spring is here!

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 03:52:54 -0700

Hi everybody!

Although the gardens have been closed for public use since the end of October, that does not mean nothing has happened since, on the contrary! At Porlock Community Gardens we have been busy all winter with many different projects to make the gardens even more welcoming and appealing for you all this Spring and Summer!

PROGRESS OVER THE WINTER

We have new and improved paths throughout our Community section, and can now utilise our lovely pagodas for workshops and activities, and our huge wheel chair accessible planting bed to make gardening inclusive for all our users. The paths have been done courtesy of the Levelling Up fund through South Tyneside Council.

The same source is funding our amazing new geometric domes, 2 beautiful growing spaces which are still under development by artist and designer Freddy Worrel with the help of 4 brilliant students from Epinay school. We can't wait to see how the two domes will eventually look on site!

Through Porlock's own community group Friends of Porlock and their partnership with Groundwork's project Green Hubs funded by the National Lottery, we now have a brilliant, spacious and clean disabled accessible composting toilet with a separate urinal, which we are very happy with. There is also baby changing facilities available. And proper handwashing facilities outside.

ONGOING PROJECTS

We are currently working on developing a large wild life pond/area at the top end of the garden, where we will eventually grow trees and hedges sponsored by the Wildlife Trust. Digging the pond is a big job, which students from various classes at South Tyneside College on work experience are currently helping us with.

We are also developing a separate kids' garden/growing space adjacent to our community growing space, where children can come and develop their green fingers, feel the joy of...Read More

Happy New Year!

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 06:21:03 -0800

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas and New Year has come and gone and we are looking back on an amazing first year in operation at Porlock! Thank you all for being part of our journey!

When I started the job as a Community Garden Coordinator in the new year of 2024, I really had no idea what was in store! I had a BIG vision, lots of passion, an extremely steep learning curve and a massive amount of help from loads and loads of amazing people!

And together, we have actually created the beginning of the lush urban retreat we are envisioning for our local community! Instead of me listing everything that has happened, I shared a little video review of last year on Facebook before Christmas. I will share it here for you to enjoy.

Thank you to each and every one of you who have contributed to our progress and success so far, and we hope you still want to be part of our beloved Porlock Gardens in this new year!

We will start our first volunteer Tuesday next week, the 14th January from 10am-2pm (weather permitting, please follow our Facebook page for latest updates). Welcome!

Break in at Porlock during Christmas break

I wish that this New Year message was only a happy one, but as some of you might have seen from our Facebook page, our gardens were broken into during our well deserved Christmas break, which has devastated the team..

A lot of property damage was done and many expensive tools and equipment along with the content of our donation box was stolen. There were signs that the thieves were also putting more equipment ready to be picked up and planning to come back for that at a later stage, but luckily one of our volunteers who were visiting to check the site on Monday 30th December and discovered the break-in, managed to secure...Read More

We are wintering at Porlock Gardens

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 07:14:18 -0800

Hi everyone.

Due to the colder days and the fact that we have gone into quieter times now, we have decided to close the gardens to the public until early Spring 2025. Re-opening date will be announced closer to the time.

Our Tuesday volunteer days 10am-2pm will still be on going forward (any weekly changes will be announced on our Facebook page).

Due to construction work being undertaken during December, unfirtunately there will be no Christmas events at Porlock this year, but we promise to come back much stronger next year!

We have also been looking out for our other wildlife, by using some of our excess apples from the food bank at Bilton Hall Community Centre and created edible bird feeders for bird seeds to hang around the garden. Our 3 students from Epinay School helped us out to create these bird feeders, and last week I hung up about 30 of them all around the garden. One little curious Robin came over to say hello and try out the food as soon as I hung it on the tree..

Happy Winter and stay warm, everyone!

In Comm-Unity,

Lise, Joanna, Paula, Karen, Anissa, Jack and the rest of the Porlock team

We have a double decker bus!

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 03:26:11 -0800

Welcome our newest addition to Porlock!

We here at Porlock Community Gardens in Jarrow are thrilled to announce that the gardens are now home to a donated double decker bus, generously provided by Stagecoach. This unique addition will be transformed into a community-run tea/coffee facility, serving as a vibrant hub for the gardens and local residents.

This exciting opportunity arose from a connection made by Lise Barkas, Porlock Community Gardens' community garden coordinator, and Linda Kirk, manager of the Just for Women's centre in Stanley. The pair met at a Coalfields-funded course facilitated by Social Enterprise Academy earlier this year and discovered a shared passion for community projects. Kirk mentioned receiving a bus donation that wasn't suitable for her centre, and very kindly offered to re-donate it to Porlock Gardens, and Lise immediately saw the great potential for a community tearoom and meeting space. With Stagecoach's kind approval, the bus is now destined for a new life in Porlock!

"This bus will be a brilliant asset for the community garden," says Lise. "It will help build a regular footfall, expand our volunteer network, and provide a welcoming space for people to connect and enjoy the gardens."

The next step is securing funding to refurbish the bus, creating a welcoming...Read More

The Spooky Garden

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 14:13:36 -0800

Thank you all children, parents and volunteers for making Sunday 27th October's spooktacular Halloween extravaganza at Porlock Community Gardens and Bilton Hall Community Centre so EPIC!

Since we opened the gardens on the 21st of July, we have never seen so many people together at Porlock at the same time! And each and every one of you helped making it so fun, spooky and extra special!

Thank you to Auxillia Youth Services CIC (link in comments) for a great Scavenger Hunt and scary decorations, Thank you to Bilton Hall Community Trust for brilliant decorations and pumpkins galore.

Thank you to Roweena and Big Local Jarrow and...Read More

Porlock's EPIC first Summer season!

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 09:31:11 -0700

It has been quiet here on the website for several months now..

But that doesn't mean that it's been quiet at Porlock Gardens. It only means that our focus has been where it matters most, with our hands busy planting, digging, building, painting and connecting with our local community to make our vision of Porlock a reality for everyone to enjoy! Our facebook page has been regularly updated with news, so please feel free to have a look there on our feed if you feel you have missed something.

Busy summer months

The garden has been a hive of activity after our offical Grand Opening on the 21st July this year and over the summer months, with regular volunteer days every week, student support days, women's circles, Crafty and foraging #HAF sessions for school age children and other younger kids' play and crafty sessions during the school holiday, as well as loads of new projects started and others in the pipeline.

It has been fantastic to be a part of and witness how the garden has come to life after we finally opened up for visitors and users. The community has embraced us and we already have regular visitors who join us every week, which we are very grateful for! From here it can only get better!

Regular opening hours

We are now open 3 days a week; on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10am and 2pm, and everyone is welcome! Every Tuesday we are also offering opportunities to volunteer in the garden. Please drop by in our opening hours to have a chat, or send an email to enquire more information.

SAGE day 21st September

The most incredible transformation these past few months, was experienced during our EPIC Read More

BIG donation to the Heirloom Seed Library!

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 07:21:43 -0700

Porlock Heirloom Seed Library received a massive donation from our amazing long time supporters, sponsors and friends from Hitachi Construction Machinery UK!

The seeds were donated in connection with a very generous larger donation from Hitachi and their supplier Thomas Potter of garden tools, hardware and equipment which we recieved during the Volunteer Week a few weeks ago, in which Hitachi also played a massive part with their fantastic volunteer work!

Their help and generosity has propelled the progress at Porlock Gardens forward massively, and we are so grateful.

I thought that the fantastic heirloom seed donation deserved a separate post, so I have updated the seed library on here, so all the different seeds can be studied.

All the seeds come from one of our other sponsors, She Grows Veg who were the first ones to get our library going. They specialise in bringing exotic and high quality heirloom seeds to the UK from all over the world.

Here is a list of the amazing donation:

*Pomegranate (edible tree) - 2 sachets/approx 20 seeds in total

*Butternut Squash (Tromboncino variety) - 1 sachet/approx 15 seeds

*Pea (Telephone variety) 1 sachet/approx 50 seeds

*Tomato (Red currant variety) 1 sachet/approx 20 seeds

*Storage Tomato (Hanging Prince variety) 1 sachet/approx 20 seeds

*Tomato (Indigo Rose variety) 1 sachet/approx 10 seeds

*Tomato (Black Cherry variety) 1 sachet/approx 20 seeds

*Tomato (Green Doctors variety) 1 sachet/approx 20...Read More

Thank you, our wonderful Volunteers!

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 13:45:38 -0700

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS!

It's a wrap! Volunteer Week 2024 is officially over, and what an incredible week it was!

We have had the most epic volunteers joining us this past week, being so focused and determined and working so hard, and fantastic progress has been made in the garden!

We have had a several amazing groups of students and teachers from Epinay school, our fantastic friends at Hitachi Construction Machinery and many, many mangnificent individual volunteers (nobody named, nobody forgotten.. But you know who you are!).

Porlock is a completely different place now a week after we started, and that is all because of YOU! We couldn't have done this without you! You are all absolute STARS!

Each and every one of you who came last week and gave your time, energy and loads of smiles and laugther, to help make our vision of Porlock a reality, THANK YOU!

In addition to fantastic volunteering work, our lovely friends at Hitachi also brought amazingly generous donations, both from them and from their kind supplier, Thomas Potter . Together they gave us incredible tools and hardware for work in the garden, a whole truck load of pallets for more creative projects and even a MASSIVE bundle of beautiful heirloom seeds from She Grows Veg to add to our growing Heirloom Seed Library! (I will share these magnificent seeds in a separate blog post, to do them justice!). We were even gifted some lovely strawberry plants from one of Hitachi's employees! Thank you all so very, very much to all involved! The local community will greatly benefit from...Read More

Welcome to Volunteer Week!

Fri, 24 May 2024 03:33:39 -0700

Calling all volunteers!

This is THE volunteer event of 2024 - join us!

We are opening up for not only 1, but 3 volunteer days during the official Volunteer Week (3rd-7th June)!

The Tuesday 4th, Thursday 6th and Friday 7th Porlock will be open 10am - 2pm for volunteers to join us in the gardens.

Organisations and individuals are all welcome and very much appreciated!

If you would like to take part in the Volunteer Week, please get in touch here so we can plan the projects and man power available. You can of course also simply show up on the day(s).

Please wear good, sturdy foot wear and dress for the weather.

If you have garden gloves, please bring them along.

A big thank you to Jarrow Big Local who will provide refreshments with their Tea Clinic.