Stories we love
Ossory Street Community Allotment
Ossory Street allotment is a community learning plot in Moss Side, Manchester that helps residents get into gardening and grow their own food.
A regular 8-week course runs at the allotment to bring together students from a local community college to help them practice their English skills through growing vegetable and herbs, as well as learning the English names for familiar produce from home.
How does Ossory Street effectively connect people with nature?
Senses
Contact with soil, planting seeds and young plants. Smelling and tasting plants and herbs.
Meaning
Growing food for the table. Opportunities to share your own knowledge of plants and cultivation from your home background. Opportunities to learn new vocabulary and practice English in an authentic setting.
Observing and noticing
Giving new names to familiar plants. Observing plants grow and noticing when to harvest.
Collaboration
Collaboration with a local college meant participants could be easily contacted and given extra support.
Making connections
Considering what meals can be made from the produce, drawing on knowledge of different cooking cultures. What participants learned on the project became a focus for their English language classes.
Chat and Chai
Chat and chai is a project that gives an opportunity for people to come together, slow down and get to know each other. They have regular meetings in a local park where they discuss gardening, different plants, and what they might grow at home for themselves.
The project lead support the group on what different plants can be used for and their wider health benefits, such as lavender and dandelion to flavour cakes or make tea. The project encouraged people to start planting in their own space, even as small as a yard in a terraced house or windowsill.
How does Chat and Chai effectively connect people with nature?
Senses
Spending time on the grass in the park, tasting and smelling different herbs and flowers
Meaning
The herbs and flowers that participants grew were natural additives for the tea they brewed and the cakes they made.
Observing and noticing
Noticing the difference to taste that different herbs and flowers made to cakes and tea
Collaboration
Participants changed habits in preparing food and drinks based on plants that they grew themselves.
Making connections
The sessions took place in a local park where participants were reminded of its value as a social space, and also shared what they produced with family and friends.