GROW Scarborough

05/11/2026

The Street Garden Diary #305

A busy day in the garden, with plenty happening behind the scenes!

I’ve turned the compost pile into bay two to continue breaking down. There’s plenty of life throughout the pile, from woodlice and red worms to spiders 🪱 always a good sign! As the pile went in, I added a few cans of water to help dampen before covering the top with plastic sheeting to retain warmth and moisture as it continues to break down.

It was also great to see David back in the garden, popping in to visit us on his day off work. Always lovely to see familiar faces!

Izzy has been cutting down the remaining tomato plants 🍅 with the fruits being kept to ripen for seed. All being well, they’ll make fantastic additions to our Seed Hubs for the community to grow and share.

With our upcoming Fork to Fork workshop in mind (tickets are still available!), I also test-dug a few of our Jerusalem Artichokes. Very pleased to find some lovely tubers waiting beneath the surface!

Meanwhile, Sean and our work placement lads have been busy moving tools and equipment from the old shed into the new tool shed. 🧹 Once the old shed is empty, we’ll be able to start transforming it over the winter months. Another little project taking shape!

If you’d like to get involved, we are at The Street every Thursday, from 09:30 - 12:30. 🙂🌱

All welcome - refreshments and equipment provided!

Coast & Vale Community Action
North Yorkshire Council

31/10/2026

The Street Garden Diary #304

Our final Social Saturday of the year!

We had a shorter session in the community garden today, with a general tidy-up, emptying the bin in the alleyway to help keep it clear, and adding some donated coffee grounds to our compost.

Then it was time to put the tools down, grab a coffee and some snacks, and get together to plan the logistics for our very first Fork to Fork session, generously funded by McCain UK IE’s Community Partnership! 🍽️

Coming at the end of November, Fork to Fork will bring together growing, cooking and sharing, exploring how the food we grow can become part of our everyday lives. More details coming soon!

Although our Social Saturdays are now finished for the year, we’ll still be at The Street every Thursday, 09:30–12:30, and we’d love to see you.

Whether you’d like to get stuck into the gardening or simply come along and find out more! 🙂🌱

All welcome - Refreshments and equipment provided!

Coast & Vale Community Action
North Yorkshire Council

29/10/2026

The Street Garden Diary #303

It’s been a beautifully autumnal session in the community garden! 🍂

We arrived a little nervously this morning, hoping the storm damage hadn’t been too bad. Thankfully, our greenhouses survived largely unscathed, losing just a single pane of glass that was already cracked - which we will happily take as a win!

Our volunteers have been busy saving seed, clearing up and taking cuttings from wind-damaged perennial kale, and cutting back the Jerusalem artichoke foliage to around 30cm. This will make locating the plants much easier when it’s time to harvest those delicious underground tubers.

As always, nothing goes to waste. All the garden debris went onto the compost pile, alongside some broken-down woodchip and a few cans of water to keep things ticking along. ♻️

If you’d like to get involved, we are at The Street every Thursday and Saturday, from 09:30 - 12:30. 🙂🌱

All welcome - refreshments and equipment provided!

Coast & Vale Community Action
North Yorkshire Council

25/10/2026

We had a great time sharing locally grown seeds and making spooky cress heads 👻🌱

🌱 We have GROW Scarborough in with us right now helping us celebrate Green Libraries Week!

We are planting Cress Heads and making the decorations spooky ahead of Halloween.

Darren will be here until 3pm today so if you're braving the rain, pop in and see us!

22/10/2026

The Street Garden Diary #302

Another productive day at The Street Community Garden! 💚

Our volunteers have been busy weeding the raised beds and giving them a thick mulch of our homemade compost, planting our saved garlic for next summer’s harvest, and adding fresh woodchip to the habitat hedge and top border.

We’ve also saved seed heads from our sunflowers and fennel, collected the remaining runner beans for seed, and given the whole site a thorough litter-pick. 🚮

It’s all about keeping the cycle going ♻️ building healthy soil, saving seed, making use of what we have and preparing for another growing season. 🌻🧄

We finished a little earlier today so I could meet the attendees of the Grow to school Early Years workshop, share what GROW Scarborough is all about and explore opportunities for us to work together. It’s always good to make new connections and find ways to grow what we do across our community!

Fancy getting involved? We’re at The Street every Thursday and Saturday, 09:30–12:30. Everyone is welcome, no experience needed, and we provide the equipment and refreshments. 🙂

No session this Saturday, as we’ll be getting ready for our Seed Swap & Cress Heads event at Scarborough Library. Hope to see some of you there! 🌱

North Yorkshire Council
Coast & Vale Community Action

21/10/2026

Always happy to help get Scarborough GROWing 🙂🌱

Early years settings across Scarborough are set to inspire a new generation of young gardeners and healthy learners through a new programme supported by a generous donation from McCain UK IE Community Partners.

The project is being delivered by Grow to School in collaboration with the North Yorkshire Healthy Early Years Programme, providing participating settings with practical training, resources and ongoing support to encourage healthy eating, active lifestyles and outdoor learning.

As part of the programme, Ruth Stacey, Healthy Early Years Programme Officer, will work with settings throughout the year, supporting them in achieving their Healthy Early Years Award with a particular focus on Healthy Food and Active Lives.

The first of three training sessions will take place tomorrow at Coast & Vale Community Action (CaVCA), Scarborough, bringing together early years practitioners from across the area. The session will introduce sowing and growing techniques, explore effective ways of working with nursery-aged children, and demonstrate how to use the Early Years Activity Book to encourage outdoor engagement, learning and exploration.

Each participating setting will receive a Growbag Early Years Toolkit, including planting packs and resources designed to support growing activities throughout the year.

The launch event will also feature presentations from local community organisations. David Stone from CaVCA will introduce the organisation's Good to Grow project, while Darren Mancrieff from GROW Scarborough will highlight opportunities for families and settings to get involved in community growing initiatives across the town.

In addition to the initial training session, participants will benefit from an online support session in January/February, followed by further in-person training events in March and May/June. These sessions will focus on seasonal growing opportunities, outdoor learning and practical ways to embed gardening and healthy living into everyday early years practice.

Ama Chaney, one of the Directors of Grow to School said “Showing, exciting and engaging children at the earliest age has the potential to change attitudes to food. This excitement can be carried home and enable connections with community growing across Scarborough”.

The project aims to give young children hands-on experiences of growing food, developing healthy habits from an early age while strengthening connections between nurseries, families and community growing projects across Scarborough.

17/10/2026

The Street Garden Diary #301

Another productive Social Saturday in the community garden!

We started with breakfast together to get our energy levels up 🥓 then got stuck in.

Our brilliant volunteers have been clearing beds and mulching them with a thick layer of homemade compost. The plant debris went onto the compost pile, along with food waste from Scarborough Community Fridge + Pantry.

It's a great example of our closed-loop approach - we grow food to donate, the food waste comes back to be composted with our garden waste, and that compost helps us grow even more food for the community. ♻️

After a hot drink break ☕️ we cleared the drainage channel so it can do its job as the weather gets wetter. The leaves and silt went onto the compost pile too!

We finished by topping up the work area with fresh wood-chip. 🍂

If you’d like to get involved, we are at The Street every Thursday and Saturday, from 09:30 - 12:30. 🙂🌱

All welcome -refreshments and equipment provided!

North Yorkshire Council
Coast & Vale Community Action

15/10/2026

The Street Garden Diary #300

300 sessions ago, we had no idea what we'd started. 🌻

A neglected space. A few willing hands.

We began to improve, then to build, then to grow together, for our community. 😊

Since then, we've planted local orchards and sprouted regional Seed Hubs. After thousands of volunteer hours, The Street Community Garden has truly blossomed. We’ve collaborated with some wonderful groups and organisations, and learned a lot from both successes and failures. But we always kept going…

Today we took care of some maintenance jobs, harvested some produce for Scarborough Community Fridge + Pantry, and took time to reflect with cake, gratitude and conversation. Which feels about right for number 300.

There’s much more to come - bigger projects, more community food growing and donating, more local seeds, and more collaborations, engagement and education…

We're just getting started. Come and join us! We are at The Street every Thursday and Saturday, from 09:30 - 12:30. 🙂🌱

All welcome - refreshments and equipment provided!

North Yorkshire Council
Coast & Vale Community Action
RHS - Royal Horticultural Society

11/10/2026

Come along to our Autumn Seed Swap on the 24th. We’ll have varieties of locally grown beans and peas, you can find out about growing a seed crop for the community, how to get involved with us, and there will be spooky cress heads for the kids 🙂🌱

Green Libraries Week is coming to Scarborough Library!

From 21–28 October, libraries across the country will be celebrating the ways libraries can help us connect with nature, our communities and a more sustainable way of living.

We’ve got three lovely events coming up at Scarborough Library - and they’re all free!

🐾 Go Wild Rhyme Time
📅 Wednesday 21 October | 10.30–11am
For ages 0–5. Join us for a fun, interactive Rhyme Time exploring endangered wild animals with a craft activity too!

♻️ Recycle Stay & Play
📅 Friday 23 October | 1–3pm
Bring the kids along for some creative play using recycled materials. Build, make, explore and play while discovering how we can reuse, recycle and upcycle the things around us.

🌱 Autumn Seed Swap + Cressheads
📅 Saturday 24 October | 1–3.30pm
Join GROW Scarborough to find out what you should be planting in your garden this autumn, swap seeds and get some gardening advice from local growers. Children can also get stuck into a fun crafting activity decorating pots for Halloween.

Whether you’re bringing little ones along, looking to get your hands dirty in the garden, or simply curious about doing things a little more sustainably, there’s something for you.

Come along, get involved and discover what your library has to offer 💚

What's on in Scarborough
All things Scarborough

10/10/2026

The Street Garden Diary #299

A shorter session in the garden today as we acknowledge World Mental Health Day.

But it was important for us to still show up, maintain our routine, and keep the garden open for the volunteers who join us to support their own mental wellbeing. Ourselves included. 💚

We have made sure the undercover crops are well watered, cleared some Buddleia from the parking bays, and shown a new volunteer around the garden.

Our main focus, though, was sitting together, chatting, and taking time to appreciate our community garden - and the individual journeys that brought each of us here.

Sometimes, the most important thing we do is simply make time for one another.

If you’re feeling isolated, or looking for opportunities to make connections, our sessions offer a gentle way to meet people, spend time outdoors and enjoy the peace that comes with being amongst nature. You don’t need to be an experienced gardener, and you don’t need to have everything figured out. Just come as you are.

💚 A little reminder, especially today

If you’re struggling, please know you’re not alone. Everyone needs a bit of help sometimes, and reaching out is nothing to be ashamed of.

If you need someone to talk to, or professional support, there are organisations in Scarborough that can help without judgement:

📍 Scarborough Survivors - local mental health support, drop-in services and a Crisis Café for people aged 16 and over.
🌐 scarboroughsurvivors.org.uk

📍 Scarborough, Whitby & Ryedale Mind - mental health support, counselling and befriending services.
🌐 swrmind.org.uk

📞 NHS 111 - Mental Health Option 2 - for urgent mental health support, available 24 hours a day.

📞 Samaritans - 116 123 - free, confidential emotional support, day or night.

And remember, you don’t have to wait until things become overwhelming before asking for help.

Sometimes, a little time, a friendly face, a conversation or simply having somewhere to go can make a difference.

Growing together is about more than growing food. It’s about growing connections, supporting one another and creating a community where nobody has to feel alone. 🍀

If you’d like to get involved, we are at The Street every Thursday and Saturday, from 09:30 - 12:30. 🙂🌱

All welcome - refreshments and equipment provided!

Coast & Vale Community Action
North Yorkshire Council