By Marisa Mendes
Littlehampton Community Growers are a group of local people who get together to grow food, share skills and improve our environment.
Our volunteer group was formed in November 2024 with our first project, the establishment of a new community orchard at Worthing Road Allotment site in Littlehampton. Other projects followed, such as an agreement with Arun & Chichester Food Partnership to cultivate a community plot and raised beds at Worthing Road Allotments and an agreement with Arun District Council to help them to maintain the existing Maltravers Community Orchard in Littlehampton.
It was a long journey to get our new community orchard at Worthing Road Allotments approved by Littlehampton Town Council. We engaged Peter May from Brighton Permaculture Trust who advised us on the orchard design. We planted eleven trees of which six were donated. 18 volunteers helped at our community orchard planting day including the Mayor of Littlehampton.
We had a fantastic biodiversity session at the community orchard led by one of our expert volunteers where we built a dead hedge, created hover fly lagoons and planted some flowers. We also held our first community harvest picnic in September and shared a variety of dishes, including a vegetable curry prepared from one of our volunteers using the sea cabbage we grew from seeds last year in our community plot.
We carried out two maintenance days at Maltravers Community Orchard which included light pruning of trees, planting flower bulbs and wildflower sowing lead by one of our expert volunteers, who explained the principles of pruning fruit trees. We also organised an Apple Day at Maltravers Orchard which had 108 attendees including the Mayor of Littlehampton and a fantastic group of volunteers including members of Littlehampton Lions Club, Littlehampton Ukelele band and Culberry Nursery who supervised the apple pressing. We also had an expert-led tour of the orchard, apple-themed children’s art activities, and an apple tasting stall where all the varieties grown at the orchard were available to taste.
We are members of the Weald to Waves initiative, which is administered through the Knepp Wildland Foundation, and aims to establish a 100 mile nature recovery corridor across Sussex. Together we are working to get the involvement of local students on our Worthing Road Allotments plots as part of their 100 mile classroom project.
We are also one of the Weald to Waves Corridor Champions and we want to help them to connect nature across Sussex. You could also support nature recovery locally by joining Weald to Waves and accessing their resources and events. Sign up through Gardens & Greenspaces here.
We meet regularly at one of our sites. If you are interested, you can join us in our free sessions in Littlehampton. If you enjoy gardening, the environment, being outdoors and making a difference to your community, please come along! No experience required, we will provide all the tools and materials. Please email littlehamptoncommunitygrowers@gmail.com to register for the session.
