Library Garden

We are a community-run garden directly behind Forest Hill Library and Louise House in beautiful, leafy Lewisham, South London. As a young (18 month old) garden, we have a lot of hard landscaping to do in order to improve the accessibility and functionality of the space. Over our two volunteer days per week, we focus on both physical and gentle gardening tasks in order to make the most out of the garden. By keeping in contact with our pool of 90 volunteers via our weekly volunteer email, we let them know when we'll be at the garden and what we'll be getting up to. 

Library Garden, as a project, is overseen by 2 volunteer Project Stewards who organise the relevant admin and funding for the space, as well as leading sessions and workshops. Their background is in Social Therapeutic Horticulture and Lewisham-based community garden projects. Our volunteers choose the food that we grow, the activities that we do with our plants and we learn and share gardening tips from one another. The various communities that have come together to create the garden have been the driving force behind our landscaping progress and welcoming environment ! 

Over the past 18 months, we have run natural dyeing and sewing workshops from our dye garden, run a maintenance gardening 6 week short course, put on a moonlight gardening event with live music, food, and planting by the moonlight, as well as cultivating the space as it stands today: a productive food and dye plant garden with lots of space for new ideas.

As the garden is publicly accessible during Forest Hill Library's opening hours (7 days a week), we want the space to feel open and welcoming to anyone visiting. With space to sit and meet, hide and relax, and crops ready to be picked, it's that feeling of community ownership over the garden that really drives us.

Thanks so much for your support,

Everyone at Library Garden