Volunteer With Us
Sonning Common Community Vegetable Garden - Come and lend a hand
Our garden is a welcoming place and these sessions offer an opportunity for people of all ages to get involved with some hands-on jobs at the garden or simply to come and enjoy the space and meet new people and make new friends.
Everyone is welcome, especially families (Please note adults will be responsible for their children's wellbeing and supervision at all times).
As well as providing nutritious vegetables, gardening together fosters new friendships and shared purpose, promotes physical activity and mental well-being, and cares for our natural environment.
We’ve been busy clearing the site, sourcing, building and filling the first of our raised beds. Thanks to - Farrans, for their generous support, which has enabled us to purchase raised beds and guttering for rainwater collection. A special thank you to Peppard Building Supplies for their sponsorship and for offering valuable advice on building materials for the site and a kind offer of the use of a greenhouse at Sonning Common Herb Farm. With the enthusiastic response from locals, our community vegetable garden is quickly becoming a hub of activity. As we nurture our garden, we also hope to cultivate a stronger, more connected community united in the joy and reward of growing our food.
Please contact Alyson at ecosocoveggarden@gmail.com
Community Vegetable Garden Volunteer Workdays 2025
Springwater Church, Blounts Court Road, Sonning Common
April 2025
Saturday 5th - Repair cafe, no workday
Sunday 6th - 1pm to 3pm
Saturday 12th - No workday
Sunday 13th - No workday
Saturday 19th - 12pm to 2pm
Sunday 20th - Easter Sunday, no workday
Saturday 26th - 12pm to 2pm
Sunday 27th - 1pm to 3pm
Projects
Continue building protection frameworks for remaining beds
Sowing and planting early crops
Installing the hose and tap
Covering beds for weed suppression
Erecting plant supports
Garden Updates
Spring is finally here and the growing season is finally kicking off! With longer days and (hopefully) warmer temperatures, it’s time to start sowing seeds, preparing beds, and getting excited for the months ahead. Thank you to everyone who has helped so far - our community garden is coming to life, and there’s plenty more to do!
Progress: Our raised beds are almost all filled with homegrown organic compost ready for planting, we've made 2 A frame bean supports from salvaged wood and the first early sowings have begun.
Upcoming Projects: March is all about preparation and early planting. We’ll be testing soil, installing the hose and tap, and continuing to build wildlife protection frames for our beds. Sowing of hardy vegetables will also begin, including Parsnips, peas, carrots, and spinach. The Eco SoCo Seed Bank in the Sonning Common Library is up and running, so do pop in. You can donate unwanted seeds and pick up some that you can sow and grow at home for free! We’ll be using the seeds from the seed bank at the veg garden.
If you would like to volunteer at the garden or sign up for our monthly newsletter please contact Alyson at ecosocoveggarden@gmail.com
Monday 31st March 2025
We’ve connected the tap to the water supply, running 90 metres from the main building, which now provides much needed water to the beds. Next, we’ll be fitting guttering and a water butt to the church outbuilding to collect rainwater for the beds lower down in the garden.
Sunday 23rd March 2025
Today we completed erecting the wildlife protection frames for one area af the garden and sowed some peas. The onions are beginning to peak through the compost at last!
Saturday 8th March 2025
We were fortunate to receive a generous donation of a small storage shed for our gardening equipment. It's already in place and it feels like it’s always been there!
We are always incredibly grateful for any garden-related donations. If it's something we can use, we’d be happy to take it off your hands and put it to good use. Please check our list of needed items, and if you have anything to contribute, we’d love to hear from you.
Saturday 22nd February 2025
Louise and Karen from Eco Soco, and a group of volunteers came along to help finish setting up the raised beds, filling them with rich, homegrown organic compost. We also sowed our very first seeds in the vegetable garden - parsnips, lettuce, onions, and sweetcorn - into seed trays and placed them in the cold frame to germinate.
With the weather looking good for the next week, they should be just fine there until they're ready to be planted in their final growing spots.
Tuesday 18th February 2025
It’s a little early, but I just couldn’t resist some early sowing - and guess what? The leeks and cauliflower germinated in just one week! I started them off in empty toilet roll holders, which worked perfectly. And my cake carrier turned out to be a brilliant propagator for the windowsill!
Saturday 8th February 2025
I came across a fantastic book at the library - a step-by-step guide to making useful things for the garden. Using salvaged wood and twine, I built A-frame supports for our runner beans and peas, ready for when they go in.
The vegetable garden site comes with its challenges. Being an open space next to the woods, we’re putting up fencing made from salvaged wood and netting to keep deer and rabbits at bay. It’s also partially shaded under a tree canopy, so it’ll be interesting to see what thrives in these conditions. Wish us luck!