The growing project is co-ordinated by Nicky Buley, who works alongside a team of core volunteers. Rashadee Miller, Christine Chatfield and Philippa Smith assist with the day-to-day running of the project. Adam Bewicz supports our Duke of Edinburgh students. The project is entirely volunteer-powered, and we are indebted to our community of helpers who sow, weed, water and harvest throughout the year.

We grow fruit, veg and flowers using regenerative methods. This means that we aim to make a positive contribution to the local environment – creating wildlife habitat, improving soil health and using an innovative water capture system, for example. Our produce is harvested on a weekly basis and delivered to the Richmond Foodbank Network at the Castlenau Community Centre. Of course, everyone who volunteers gets something to take home as well!

• We have a variety of ongoing sessions – please come along and join in!
• Volunteering sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 – 12. These are open to all.
• Free, monthly workshops on all aspects of regenerative growing, as well as ad hoc talks with external speakers.
• An after-school club during term-time, as well as family sessions during the school holidays.

As well as this, we have a number of initiatives in partnership with other organisations:

• The Positive Living Group from Richmond Borough Mind attend the project once a month.
• We run Introduction to Growing courses in collaboration with Age UK Richmond.
• We provide work experience placements for students at Tram House sixth form and Ambitious College.
• We run growing sessions for the young people from ACAT, who support young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

We also run one-off sessions in partnership with other organisations and are always open to hearing from organisations who would like to collaborate! In the past, we have worked with The Riverbank Trust, Antidote, Mortlake Powerstation and Richmond Carers’ Centre, amongst others.

The Community Growing Project is active throughout the year and in all weathers.  We are always keen to welcome new participants, and the project is open to all. We have some areas of the project which are accessible if you are in a wheelchair, and a variety of adapted tools, which put less strain on the body. You can find our full accessibility guide here. If you have any questions or would like to discuss access needs, please do contact us: [email protected].

Our work is made possible due to generous funding from Richmond Foundation.

The Community Growing Project in numbers:

• 40 deliveries to the foodbank were made in 2025, with up to 19 different types of produce in each delivery.
• 1098 volunteer hours in 2025.
• 453 individuals supported by the project in 2025.

Find out more about our impact in Barnes Common’s 2025 Impact Statement here.

We are trying to make our space as accessible as possible. Please read about our accessibility in detail here.

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