Lemon Tree Trust

04/02/2026

Spring is a season of beginnings. Of soil under fingernails. Of tender green shoots pushing through dry ground 🌱🌸

This spring, you can help families displaced by war grow gardens at their shelters that bring food, shade, sanctuary and beauty to the places they now call home.

Many refugee and IDP (internally displaced people) camps have grown into dense, city-like settlements where green space is scarce. Trees and plants cool the air, attract birds and pollinators and soften harsh edges. And when neighbours swap cuttings and share seedlings, something else begins to grow too: community.

Every donation to our Spring Tree & Plant Appeal will be matched, up to £30,000 GBP / $39,500 USD. So whatever you give goes twice as far, helping more families and neighbourhoods grow.

Find out more and donate via the link in our bio. Thank you for being part of this.

Happy Easter to everyone celebrating this weekend 🐣💐

03/20/2026

65 projects. One powerful idea. Gardens That Can Save the World is 's brilliant new book. And we are included 🎉🌸  

Hopeful and full of stories that stay with you, it is a book that deserves to be read widely. Thank you, Lottie, for gathering so many remarkable stories in one place. 

Our Garden of the Month award features in the EMPOWER chapter, under the heading ‘Grow plants to connect you to home’, alongside gardens growing in refugee camps and conflict zones across Iraq, Gaza, Ukraine and beyond. We are honoured to be included. 

The award runs across nine refugee and internally displaced persons camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Every month our team visits home gardens across the camps, selecting winners for their creativity, passion and commitment to filling their space and neighbourhoods with plants for beauty, shade, food and so much more. Each winner receives a plaque, seeds and a tree to support their garden as it grows. Many of the people we work with have been forcibly displaced from Syria or are internally displaced within Iraq. 

Swipe to see three of our latest winning gardens: 

– Domiz 1 camp: One of the larger gardens in the camp, Fatima is making great use of the space. A good variety of trees and flowers fill the plot, with a magnificent fig tree standing at its centre. A reminder of how a single tree can anchor and transform a garden entirely. 

– Bersive 1 camp: Asia's garden really caught our judge's eye. Well organised flower beds sit alongside a thoughtful mix of plants and trees. Neat, considered and clearly loved. 

– Gawilan camp: Previously unused land is being transformed into something really promising. Ahmed's garden is home to a growing collection of diverse trees and shrubs that will, in time, offer shade, beauty and benefit to the whole community around him. 

Link in bio to Lottie’s book and our Garden of the Month award. 

Happy Spring Equinox! And Eid Mubarak and Newroz Mubarak to all our gardeners and friends celebrating over the coming days 🌿🌸 

02/05/2026

Thousands of seeds sown and saplings taking root! 🌱💫

Our teams have been busy at the Azadî and Hêvî community gardens, planting summer vegetables and tree saplings to create greener, healthier spaces for local families.

At Azadî, cucumber, tomato, aubergine (eggplant), pepper, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are sprouting alongside eucalyptus, pomegranate and cypress trees, plus seasonal flowers.

At Hêvî, the new polytunnel is full of life (final 3 photos). Despite recent snow ❄️, chinaberry, rosewood, flame tree and broadleaf hopbush seeds have been planted, along with 50 pomegranate saplings. Pepper, lettuce and aubergine seedlings are growing, ready to share with families soon.

Together, these efforts build on what we’ve achieved over the past few years, and with the new polytunnel at Hêvî, we’re now able to grow on a much larger scale. Thousands of plants and trees will reach Domiz 1 camp, Gawilan camp, neighbouring settlements and host communities, expanding our impact even further this year 🌿

👀 Tap through to see our teams in action. Huge thanks to Shalal, Youssef, Browen and Othman, pictured here, and everyone involved in making this planting possible.

11/13/2025

Our heartfelt thanks to Zagros عربية for joining us at our Annual Cooking Competitions in Gawilan camp last month and sharing this wonderful feature.

Here’s what some of the competition entrants had to say:

👩‍🍳 "I am from the city of Qamishli in Syria and I take part in the competitions every year. Today I entered a dish from Kurdish cuisine that we call Sarupe, a traditional dish considered one of the most delicious and sought after in Kurdish cooking. And I hope it wins the admiration of the judging panel."

👩‍🍳 "This is my first time participating in the competition. The dish I presented is a waffle dish entered into the sweet category. It's served in a sandwich shape with cream, but I kept it simple for the contest, preparing it in small steak-like pieces for convenience."

👩‍🍳 "This is my first year participating in this contest. Every year it is held at here at our camp, Gawilan. I entered a dish called Nescafe into the sweet category, which contains Nescafe coffee, eggs, butter, vanilla and biscuits, and is served cold. We experience fun, joy and a change of pace with the competitions."

Keep watching until the end to enjoy a special dance performance by children from the local childcare centre.

Learn more about our Annual Cooking Competitions: https://lemontreetrust.org/news/2025-cooking-competitions-iraq/

اشترك في Zagros عربية ليصلك كل ماهو جديد :https://www.youtube.com/c/Zagrosmedianetworkيمكنك مشاهدة القناة على القمر نايل سات على التردد 11354 عمودي للمزيد من...

11/06/2025

Imagine the smell of fresh bread drifting through the garden while your hands are in the soil, tending your veggies 🍞🌿😋

That’s daily life for our Hêvî community gardeners in Gawilan camp, thanks to your amazing support over the last couple of years.

With two traditional tannour ovens, our bakery house is a lively spot where women gather to bake khubz – Syrian flatbreads they can’t make in their home shelters.

And this week, our bakers have been mixing things up with two extra varieties alongside the traditional khubz:
– Bread topped with a sauce of red sweet pepper, zaatar and olive oil, usually saved for special occasions
– Sesame and nigella seeded bread

The ovens are busy, the garden’s thriving and the smell of fresh bread makes it all even better 🫶

10/23/2025

Plenty of happy smiles from our gardeners of the future! 🌱

These recent photos snapped in the Hêvî Community Garden in Gawilan camp show young hands working alongside their mums.

Tending raised beds, harvesting herbs, aubergines, radishes, leafy greens, flowers and more!

And sharing the joy of growing together 🥰

🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿

Gardening brings peace, connection and creativity to people of all ages, wherever we are in the world.

Our cheerful mascot Lenny Lemon has plenty of simple, hands on ideas for gardening with children and young people. From leaf art and colourful plant labels to mini wormeries and more! 🍋🍂

Download the activity sheets, available in a variety of languages, for free from our website (link in bio).

With gratitude to the RHS for allowing us to adapt their brilliant resources.

09/29/2025

Get this month’s community garden highlights, straight to your inbox 💌

1. Meet Rûken, one of our Garden Facilitators

2. Check out the new portacabin and upgrades at the Hêvî Community Garden

3. See aubergines and other fresh produce being cultivated … and more!

Landing tomorrow, 30th September! Subscribe now through the link in bio.

09/12/2025

Thank you so much Welat TV for coming to talk to us about our 2025 Garden Competition in Domiz 2 camp 🌿🎉

Our team member Hamid shares about the Annual Garden Competitions which we run across nine refugee and IDP (internally displaced people) camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

First-place winner in Domiz 2, Gulbehar, shares how Lemon Tree Trust's support has helped improve shelter gardens, making them gathering spots for families and relatives to spend their leisure time together. Winning the prize has brought her happiness and motivation, and she hopes it will inspire others to create gardens in across the neighbourhood.

09/11/2025

Our much loved Annual Garden Competitions are back! 🏆🌿🎉

This year, we’re hosting seven garden parties across the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to celebrate the creativity and dedication residents bring to their beautiful home gardens.

Here’s a little peek from the parties in Bersive 1+2 camps, Essian camp, Gawilan camp and Khanki camp....

Winners are presented with a certificate, small cash prize and a packet of our Sidra Blend Tea*. And of course, there is time to connect with fellow gardeners and enjoy a slice of celebration cake and refreshments 🍰☕

A big thank you to our amazing team for bringing the parties to life, and to , our partners and the camp management teams for their invaluable support in making these celebrations possible. We’re also incredibly grateful to our supporters who stand with us and cheer us on 💫

* All ingredients in our Sidra Blend (rose, lemon balm, rosemary, santolina, lavender & mint) are grown, picked, dried and blended by hand in our Azadî Community Garden in Domiz 1 camp.

08/04/2025

Our garden keeps growing, despite the intense 45°C heat! 🌞

Thanks to your *incredible support and donations*, the Hêvî Community Garden in Gawilan camp is thriving, even through the hottest days of summer.

New this season:

– Not one but two new shaded rest areas now offer cool, welcoming spaces where women share tea, swap seeds and catch up, while children explore and learn alongside them.

– Protective polytunnels keep tender seedlings safe and our new drip irrigation system makes every drop of water count.

– Fresh touches like shaded walkways, flower planters and gravel paths to make the garden even more welcoming.

These new additions are already helping to transform the garden. Back in March, the garden produced just 250kg of food each month. Now, harvests have quadrupled to 1000kg of fresh produce 🙌

Each plate of summer veg including green beans, molokhia, okra, courgettes and chilli peppers is feeding families and strengthening our community.

Thank you for helping Hêvî flourish. Your support is planting far more than seeds 💛💚

07/14/2025

Summer strength tastes like juicy grapes and teamwork! 💚💪

50 kg of grapes! That's 2 kg each for 25 families across Domiz 1 camp. Sweet, refreshing bursts of flavour, so welcome in this 45°C summer heat right now 🌡️🍇💦

Big thanks to Shalal, Jian and the whole Azadî Community Garden crew for harvesting and distributing this delicious fruit.