Our Monthly Magazine
Mow & Grow gets its own TV show
On a cold November morning Mow & Grow
helped the Ground Force Gardening Club at Costessy High
School in Norwich rise to the challenge from Teachers TV
to transform the garden of a disabled neighbour in just one
day.
The project supported by Ben Burgess & Sainsburys saw the
youngsters gardening club help an arthritic and immobile
resident.
Previously a keen gardener in her youth the garden still had the
remnants of its previous life, with overgrown vegetable patches and
an old pathway.
Science teacher Pauline Williamson and her fellow teachers and
students recruit Mow & grow to train them how to tackle the
urban jungle. Her experience of running the gardening club for the
past four years, helping pupils grow wild flowers for a special
display at the Chelsea Flower show comes in handy
Can the students tame the jungle and turn it into a show garden in
just 6 hours…… Mow & Grow to the rescue…
(Watch
the video)
Mow & Grow wins ARCH award 2008
Norwich City Mow & Grow scheme has been awarded an ARCH
(Association for Retained Council Housing) Best Practice award. The
title of the award is: Working efficiently to deliver improvement.
Katherine Quint of Norwich City Council said,” We’re very pleased
that the scheme has been recognized for this great award. A lot of
planning and hard work has gone into achieving this result. With
nearly 16,000 tenants we always knew that the demand for the
service could be high. Mow & Grow have exceeded all there
targets and helped attract considerable match funding. It’s a
perfect way to finish a Friday afternoon with news like this”
(Find out more...)
Mow & Grow was launched on Monday 5th June 2006 as
originally just a Waveney wide scheme. The project was launched
following a successful pilot in the Carlton Colville area of
Waveney. After its first summer Mow & Grow helped over 400
people.. On 1st January 2007 Waveney Mow & Grow expanded to
become Suffolk Mow & Grow and launched its “Neighbourhood
Gardener” training centre for the East of England. On May 8th 2007
it started Norwich city Mow & Grow, and now provides a service
for the city council helping vulnerable tenants. Since then Mow
& Grow has expanded across the UK.
Why is it special and why are we worth supporting
We have a proven track
record of helping people, from gardening, to training, to
supporting people into work, helping churches and other local
organisations’. We give talks and can even sell our model to
help other groups achieve new methods of sustainability. We
give regular advise on funding whilst offering support and
introducing crucial contacts.
Our scheme accepts referrals from the Homeshield scheme run by
Suffolk police (who act as a one stop shop for professional bodies
for victims of crime and vulnerable people). Our scheme has 4 main
beneficiaries…The Clients who receive the gardening, our
volunteers, the community, and the environment.
Cutting Grass
We use several machines all petrol driven so we don’t use your
electricity. Pedestrian mowers, with or without rollers,
brushcutters, strimmers, hedgecutters, telescopic hedge trimmers,
pruning saws,leave blowers (and suckers) chainsaws, ride on mowers.
We can tame the toughest of jungles and polish the best of lawns to
a highly professional standard. Our police checked CRB team will
arrive in full uniform , and with our 4x4 and large trailer we can
take away your green waste (often considerable cheaper than hiring
a skip)
(Recycling)
Wherever possible Mow & Grow will attempt to recycle all
your Green Waste. As members of the Henry Doubleday organic
organisation we use organic methods wherever possible. We will
shred and chip all your waste on site where possible (we can chip
branches up to 2 inches thick). This waste can be taken away for
composting or used to lay on your flower beds to mulch and help
suppress weeds. Alternatively we take some green waste away and it
is donated free of charge to our Suffolk Wildlife Zoo, Safari Alive
at Kessingland.
Cutting Crime, Cultivating Futures
Mow & Grow was
originally a neighbourhood watch scheme pilot which entered
the RHS Best neighbourhood awards. After winning several
national awards we saw our pilot reduced the risk of people
becoming a victim of crime. It eased anxiety about the fear of
crime, and stopped people being marked out in there community
by bogus callers and being victim to crime and anti social
behavior. We have seen a 90%+ reduction from our clients in
the fear of crime and a 50%+ reduction in the number of
accidents in the garden after we have made them safer. Our
pilot reduced crime and antisocial behavior by over 93%.
We have a proven track record of helping others including giving
talks at UnLtd*, The ASPIRE centre, Lowestoft, VOICE 08 conference,
corporate leadership days and helping fellow UnLtd* award winners
by offering advise support and introducing crucial contacts. We
have also given lectures at Essex University and been the special
guest for Radio Suffolk, as well as been featured live on BBC
Breakfast TV (to over 5 million viewers) on Easter Monday
2007.