Gardening together A guide to starting a local gardening club for blind and partially sighted people Introduction Starting a club from scratch need not be daunting. This guide draws upon the experiences of gardeners and professionals who have successfully launched their own clubs and gives ideas that you might need to take into consideration. It also gives you contact details of other organisations and sources of information that could be useful. The advice is aimed at people who want to start a club. It will also be useful for groups and professionals who work with visually impaired people. Not all the information will be relevant to everyone. Areas covered are: recruiting members; publicity; meeting place; programme ideas; finances; transport; supporters and volunteers; other support; legalities; health and safety; and development ideas. Throughout the guide you will find top tips from people who have started local clubs recently; thanks for these to Mick Evans and Alan Thorpe from the Rotherham BANCA club, Judy Shaw from the Greenshoots club in York and Mark Smith from Gardeneyes in Norwich. You will also find signposts, including contact details, to other organisations that may be able to help you. These are headed Help. “Anyone should have a go, we are only a small group but we are all getting enjoyment out of it… people get satisfaction out of seeing something grow.” Judy Shaw, Greenshoots club 2 Contents Who is the club for? 4 How will you let people know about the club? 6 What will you do at the club? 7 Where will you meet? 9 How will your members get to the club? 13 Who will do what? 14 What about money? 18 What about the legal side? 21 What about health and safety? 23 What other support is there? 25 Appendix 1: A sample constitution 28 Appendix 2: Notes on guiding 34 Appendix 3: Sample risk assessment 36 Appendix 4: Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) clearance 38 3 Who is the club for? Your first task is to establish that there is sufficient interest in your local area. There are a number of ways you can do this: Talk to friends and other contacts who might be interested. Check with your local voluntary association that a club does not exist already that you do not know about. Contact your local associations and clubs that might have blind or partially sighted members who are interested in gardening. These can include Voluntary Associations of the Blind, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Age Concern, Help the Aged etc. You will find details of these local groups in your phone book, library, Citizens Advice Bureau or from your local Volunteer Bureau. Use your local talking newspaper to ask interested people to make contact with you. Approach your local newspapers, radio and parish magazines to put in articles about starting a club. § Help To find out about your local organisations for blind people, contact National Association of Local Voluntary Organisations for Visually Impaired People (NALSVI) PO Box 823, Doncaster DN1 9AQ. Telephone 01302 571888 Visit www.nalsvi.org 4 Top tip The first members of Greenshoots club in York started by meeting in a local café on several occasions over the winter. They then launched their club in the spring of 2004. “We sat down first to decide: do we really want to start this club, and can we keep it going?” says Judy Shaw. Greenshoots received support and encouragement from Thrive and an RNIB Leisure Officer. § Help The National Blind Gardeners’ Club can give support with a day or half day of practical gardening workshops. Contact the Club at Thrive to discuss. Telephone 0118 988 5688 or email [email protected] 5 How will you let people know about the club? It is really important to tell people about your club and then later to draw in new members and supporters. The local media are usually interested in items that are a little different. So don’t be shy, get in contact with: local talking newspapers voluntary organisations for the blind through staff, members and newsletters parish newsletters local newspapers, radio and TV notice boards in local shops, libraries, community centres visits and talks to other local clubs and groups garden centres/DIY stores’ notice boards. 6 What will you do at the club? Your programme will reflect your member’s skills, interests and contacts, the number of members, and the number of meetings that you plan to have each year. Get the interested people together for a chat to find out what their gardening experience and interests are and what they would like to get from the club. Practical sessions are an inspiring way to get started and can be helpful in making people feel relaxed and happy to share gardening experiences, tips and techniques. Some ideas for club meetings Exchange seeds and plants. Members could help each other with particular garden projects, or help another who has just moved and needs help getting the garden straight. Bring in plants to take cuttings from. Have a “Gardeners Question Time” style question-and-answer session. Invite guest speakers, who may need careful briefing if your members are not able to see slides or pictures. Top tip Lucy Morrell of the National Blind Gardeners Club says: “Clarify from the outset what the club wants to achieve. You may all want to get your hands dirty with practical activities, maintain a plot and/or have a series of speakers.” 7 Hold competitions or seasonal flower shows. They make a good talking point and bit of fun; here are some ideas: best seasonal container most or heaviest weight of tomatoes on a single stem or truss longest runner bean, heaviest marrow etc three seasonal flowers in a vase, largest dahlia etc. Put together a gardening quiz or download one from the internet. Put together a library of different tools and equipment that club members can borrow to trial or for one-off jobs. This would need a member or volunteer to administer. A list of tools and equipment that blind and partially sighted gardeners have found useful can be found in Thrive and RNIB’s Getting on with Gardening books. Contact Thrive or RNIB for more details about the books or to buy your own copies. Top tip The Greenshoots club persuaded a local garden centre to give them an assortment of spring bulbs and the manager of the store was invited to come and judge the results. Top tip Include specific social events in your club programme such as a midsummer BBQ and a Christmas party. 8 Where will you meet? Finding somewhere for your club to meet will depend on the number of members that you will have and what you plan to do. You will also need to consider: how your members are going to get to the venue that it is accessible to everyone access to toilets provision of refreshments cost and availability for a regular booking time slot for booking. Top tip Choose a central location that most people are familiar with and has good public transport links. Practical sessions should be held somewhere that you can make a mess but clear up easily. This might be a different venue from your regular meeting place. Initially it might be a member’s glasshouse, large shed or garden but for longer term you could consider: community centres with gardens the park or allotment nurseries or garden centres social and therapeutic horticulture projects. § Help Find your local social and therapeutic horticulture project by contacting Thrive, which has a database of nearly a thousand projects across the country. 9 Your local city farm or community garden might have an area of garden that you could take responsibility for, or your club might decide to help with ongoing work. § Help Find your nearest city farm or community garden by contacting The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, The Greenhouse, Hereford Street, Bristol BS3 4NA. Telephone 0117 923 1800 Fax 0117 923 1900 Visit their website www.farmgarden.org.uk where there is a map of the location of the farms. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of using different types of venues Venue Advantages Disadvantages Individuals gardens Available Limited access for immediately. groups. Shared typical Health and safety experience. issues. Security – could there be a problem with strangers in the garden? 10 Venue Advantages Disadvantages Premises of local Accessibility will be Safety might be an voluntary good. issue due to other organisations centre users and Car parking may be vehicles. close to your meeting area. Garden areas may be very limited and Refreshments on not designed for hand. people with sight Familiar transport loss. route for club May not be open members as they areas of ground that will attend other members can use events there. for growing. Members attending Plants may need for other events can watering between water any plants or club meetings, garden. particularly containers in the summer. Village hall or Local. No garden. community centre Accessible. Probably can’t make a mess. Toilet and kitchen facilities. There may be a charge for the use. 11 Venue Advantages Disadvantages Allotments Site should be Annual rent to pay. accessible. May not be local Might have a and easy to get to members shed that for all members. could be used for May not be easy for meetings on wet/ some members to cold days. find the plot on a There may be busy allotment site. toilets. Some allotment associations have a discount scheme to order plants, equipment and tools. You will be within the local community.