Volunteer With Us
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
June 2025
Springwater Church, Blounts Court Road, Sonning Common
Saturday 7th- Repair cafe, no workday
Sunday 8th - 1pm to 3pm
Saturday 14th - 12pm to 2pm
Sunday 15th - 1pm to 3pm
Saturday 21st - 12pm to 2pm
Sunday 22nd - 1pm to 3pm
Saturday 28th - 12pm to 2pm
Sunday 29th - 1pm to 3pm
Tasks for this month
Watering, weeding and succession sowing
Community Garden Updates - June 2025
The garden is thriving, thank you for your contiued support.
Seedlings planted just a few weeks ago are now well on their way - runner beans have reached the top of their their A-frames, salad leaves are ready for picking, and the first hints of colour are starting to show in the flower borders. It's wonderful to see the raised beds buzzing with life.
At the Herb Farm, we've been busy transplanting our greenhouse seedlings into the beds – tomatoes, courgettes, and basil are settling in nicely, soaking up the early summer warmth. Fingers crossed for a bumper crop!
New trellises are now up and supporting our climbing crops, and the wildlife protection frames are doing a great job keeping curious nibblers at bay.
A huge thank you to everyone who’s watered, weeded, planted, or simply cheered us on – it really is a team effort. If you'd like to get involved, we’re always happy to welcome more helping hands.
I sampled the first pickings from the garden, potatoes and lettuce, they were delicious, the potatoes were so soft and tender, although they could do with being in the ground for a little longer.
If you would like to lend a hand at the garden or sign up for our monthly newsletter please contact Alyson at ecosocoveggarden@gmail.com - Absolutely no commitment, get involved as much or as little as you would like.
Sunday 6th April 2025
Spring is in the Air at the Herb Farm!
With the fine weather over the last week, the greenhouse at the Herb Farm is really coming alive. Seedlings are thriving in the sunshine, and the space is buzzing with new life. It’s an exciting time of year for everyone involved in the garden!
Once the last chance of frost has passed, we’ll finally be able to plant out the seedlings into the beds. This is always a rewarding milestone - watching the tiny plants we’ve nurtured begin to take root and flourish in the open soil.
We’re so grateful to all our volunteers who have helped prepare the beds, water the seedlings, and keep everything ticking along. The garden is a real community effort, and it’s wonderful to see the results taking shape with the arrival of spring.
Keep an eye on this space for updates on our planting progress and if you’d like to get involved, we’d love to hear from you!
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!