What is Mow and Grow

Waveney Mow & Grow is a unique, effective, sustainable and visible gardening service for Waveney, Suffolk. It has three main beneficiary groups which include elderly and vulnerable people, those disadvantaged in the labour market and the community in general. Based in the most deprived ward in Suffolk, it is leading the way to help civil renewal in the surrounding areas. It is achieving this through improving people’s quality of life, reducing crime and anti-social behavior, environmental benefits and providing work experience, skills, qualifications and employment.

What are the key points

Partnerships working with Waveney District council, Suffolk County Council Social Services, Police, local professional bodies such as trading standards, environmental health, local GP’s, voluntary groups such as; The Yard, SSAFA, Help the aged, Age Concern, local housing associations and other represented on the Waveney welfare rights committee. These partnerships have provided us with an incredible network, and demand for our service. As an accredited BBC Neighborhood gardener our partners include the Princes Trust and Job Centre Plus to work in partnership with them for special team community placements and volunteer training placements respectively.

Our benefits include

• Promoting independent living
• Reducing the risk of slip and trips in the home
• Reducing the risk of becoming a victim of crime
• Providing additional safety net for social services through regular visits to vulnerable people
• Providing work experience, skills and qualifications, in a friendly, safe, un-pressured environment tailored to people’s needs. This includes people with no formal qualification, unemployed, people with hidden disabilities, young people, including those from social care and those with previous mental health or substance abuse problems, or those just seeking social contact or just love gardening and wish to join an accredited BBC neighborhood gardener scheme.
• Providing training in a series of horticultural qualifications (up to seven) currently not available to people in Waveney, due to long distance to nearest course (OVER 40 MILES) to the nearest college in Ipswich or Norwich)
• Helping volunteers become fully paid up staff, with a real job with a real wage.
• Promoting recycling and environmental issues to the community at large, including less pressure on land fill sites.
• Providing social enterprises, voluntary groups, and charities, a blueprint for diversification / replication of a successful scheme, helping their own longevity.
• Helping reduce crime and antisocial behavior
• Providing access to knowledge, tools, equipment and practical help
• Maintaining safe community gardens, securing boundaries, cutting grass, removing rubbish, identifying poisonous plants
• Promoting community projects and interest in and use of shared spaces, assisting community schemes by providing expertise, advice on grants, equipment and a team to work with local volunteers

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.