Reflecting and looking back at what is now compost; the stories that we leave behind, that will nurture and shape new stories and experiences in 2025.
We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who got involved this year: our wonderful garden volunteers, the passionate growers and seed savers that sowed and nurtured our seeds against the odds of a changing climate, our delicious supper club guests, the artists and creators who made our glasshouse shine in a new light, the visitors that joined our events, tours and workshops. And to our more-than-human kin that reside in our thriving garden community.
We have some exciting plans germinating for this year, watch this space to see what emerges.
School sessions
We continued our partnership with a local primary school - OmVed Gardens became an outdoor classroom with a mission to help improve mental wellbeing, engage school children with the natural world and support them in learning where food comes from.
The children experienced the joys of the garden, looking at worms, learning about compost, visiting the pond and trying nasturtium leaves and much more!
Seed Saving Network
In 2024, we shared over 3000 packets of free seeds through our website and in person seed swaps, helping to protect heirloom varieties and collecting data from our community on their growing experience. We hosted two in person seed swaps. The Seed Saving Network is moving into a new dedicated space and we’re excited to share more on that soon. The seed catalogue will open again in Spring 2025. Head to the seedsaving.network to join.
Wildflower Meadow in Bloom
In early summer, the wildflower meadow looked spectacular with poppies, thistles and more. Home to many insects and pollinators, helping the garden ecosystem to thrive. Thanks to the work of our wonderful gardeners and volunteers, alongside mother nature.
Poetry Sessions with Will Burns
Throughout the Spring, Summer and Autumn, writer and poet Will Burns led poetry in nature sessions in the garden and glasshouse. Inspired by the garden and nature, the poetry group were guided to create new poems on a range of themes.
Supper Clubs
We sampled the seasonal delights of the garden with our supper clubs created by our talented kitchen team. We introduced a new twist on our supper clubs - Harvest Community Feast aimed to connect and celebrate the abundance of the harvest season. This event encouraged shared feasts, communal reflections with a focus on food, diversity, creativity and connection. It was a brilliant evening attended by over 30 people who connected over a colourful array of seasonal sharing dishes and conversation prompts. We’ll be hosting more supper clubs in 2025, sign up to our newsletter to hear when tickets are available.
Alchemy Art Exhibition with Thrown Gallery
We hosted our annual exhibition alongside Thrown Gallery for London Craft Week. ‘Alchemy’ brought together works in ceramics, mixed media and print-making to celebrate the union of human creativity and the dynamic, rhythmic forces inherent in the natural world. The exhibition featured artists Kim Colebrook, Tim Copsey, Diane Griffin, Rosalind Hobley, María Ignacia Walker, Alice McCabe, Victoria Louise Meadows, Faith Mowbray, Esther Palmer, Jo Pearl and Marek Pitera.
OmVed Garden Lates
We hosted a number of evening events throughout the Spring and Summer, giving guests the chance to explore the gardens as the sun sets and enjoy some live music and experiences. We heard from sitarist and composer Tommy Khosla, with Mow Ray on the Oud. We also hosted a fascinating performance of Mongolian Khöömei singing by Michael Ormiston and Candida Valentino and Mushroom Music featuring Modern Biology & Drum & Lace.
Roots to Rise
In May, it was a pleasure to host Nandita Shankardass' ‘Roots to Rise’ performance at OmVed Gardens.Funded by 101 Outdoor Arts as part of their Seedbed Artist callout and developed in collaboration with OmVed Gardens, the piece was the first outdoor sharing of a dance work that explores ancestry, agriculture, ecological activism and the inherent wisdom of women. The dancers’ movement beautifully expressed Nandita’s work with the garden bringing together the audience, dancers and the OmVed landscape in one joyful expression of togetherness. We just learned that ‘Roots to Rise’ has been commissioned by Without Walls to tour to festivals across the UK over this Summer and we are thrilled to see how the work will develop.
BioBlitz with ecologist Kiran Lee
Urban green spaces such as parks and gardens offer huge potential as localised, accessible spaces where we can explore our local nature. We have been inviting the public to attend “BioBlitz” events: timed sessions sharing how to use the app “iNaturalist” on phones to identify and record observations within the space of Omved Gardens.
With help from three BioBlitz sessions, we have uploaded 767 observations, recording 294 species, from 40 users at OmVed Gardens. Read more about our BioBlitz events here.
Book launches
We hosted the launch of two brilliant books. Both books encourage adults and kids to learn and get inspired to grow food. We heard from Darryl and Ella from Electric Future Foods on how getting an allotment during lockdown was part of their journey to writing “Plant to Plate”. Our head gardener Vicky wrote “Edible Garden” as a practical guide to growing food in any space. Thanks to the authors and everyone who came along and joined us.
Chefs' Manifesto
Every year alongside Chefs' Manifesto we host a two-day event to share, discuss, learn and be inspired by projects, ideas and research for the food future we want to build. The event gathered chefs, growers, gardeners, educators, policymakers, restaurateurs, academics and others affected by and interested in contributing to a better food future to share, discuss, learn and be inspired by projects, ideas and research for the food future we want to build together. This year was another inspiring event with plenty of food for thought including talks by renowned eco farmer Perrine Bulgheroni from the Ferme du Bec Hellouin in France, and inspiring chefs like Vanshika Bhatia, Ali Honour and Bettina Campoluci Bordi.
Creative Workshops
In 2024, we hosted regular creative workshops for both kids and adults. Corrie Wingate hosted some joyful sessions with kids including decorating seed packets, painting with natural inks and brushes and making spooky lanterns for halloween.
The Symbiocene
The garden turned into a mini festival in July with The Symbiocene, hosted by nowadays on earth, it was a buzzing day filled with live music, food, panels, workshops, and fun! The Symbiocene discussed a range of topics around bioanarchy: an opportunity to root into relationality, chaos, and elevate the disorderly.
New logo and website
Last year we launched our brand new low carbon website and logo - with a more approachable natured-inspired look, a reduced digital carbon footprint and easier navigation, we were so excited to reveal our new look that so many of you loved.
Age Well Festival
In September 2024, OmVed Gardens took part in Haringey's very first Age Well festival with a stand providing nature inspired activities throughout the day to connect with the local community. It was a joyful, fun-filled day of activities that celebrated our older communities and explored what it means to age well. The OmVed Gardens team made dozens of connections with a host of engaging activities focused on creativity, health and wellbeing; including painting with natural inks, a fermentation station where the community could create their own fermented vegetables and a herbal tea making stand with herbs grown in the garden. OmVed also took part in the purple parade by handing out lavender bundles grown in the gardens. Based on these new wonderful connections, we are making plans for more dedicated activities in 2025, to inspire health and wellbeing for older communities in London and beyond.
Fermentation Celebration
For our second Fermentation Celebration, we explored fermentation across cultures in an evening of connections, learnings, exchanges and surprising flavours. Huge thanks to speakers who joined our panel discussion: Fermentation Across Cultures with Pao-Yu Liu (Pao Pop N Pickles), Rebbecca Ghim (The Ferm), Paula (Get Pickled) & moderated by Jelena Belgrave (OBLUTAK).
Tomato harvest
The weather in 2024 was quite a challenging year for growing in the garden, the wet weather was favoured by our resident slugs , which required constant picking. Despite the challenges, we produced over 40 kg of delicious tomatoes which were enjoyed by the community at our suppers clubs and events. As with everything at OmVed, any leftovers from the harvest were preserved or fermented for future enjoyment.
"In short, we are cyborgs" exhibition
Following up from a listening workshop hosted by artist Laura Selby in May, curators Tamara Manova & Zofia Kierkus presented new work by the artist created at OmVed, and a piece by artist Paula Proaño Mesías. It is an iteration of the programme ‘we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids’ which started at the Royal College of Art, as part of the Curating Contemporary Art Graduate Show.
Bug snug
We posted our bug snug video that has now been watched over 3M+ - we love seeing people’s bug snugs created from all corners of the globe. In Autumn 2024, our gardener Lyson created a giant bug snug to give insects a warm home over the winter months.
Volunteers
A big thank you to all the volunteers who joined us this year to help out in the garden. Every season we offer weekly volunteering gardening sessions to individuals interested in learning to grow food in an organic permaculture garden. We hosted around 40 volunteer sessions with an average of 10 volunteers per session, making up over 1600 volunteer hours in the garden in 2024.
During the sessions, volunteers can learn vital skills in growing food in an organic permaculture garden including: seed sowing and propagation, tending to plants and their individual needs, pruning, fruit, shrub and tree maintenance, harvesting, seed saving, and more. Learn more.
A visit to Horniman Gardens
We were delighted to be invited by head gardener at Horniman Museum and Gardens Errol Reuben Fernandes for a tour around their 16.5 acres in South London. A fellow garden situated on top of a hill, we learnt how he was managing the landscape and bringing in new gardening practices such as a Miyawaki mini forest, dry garden and moving to organic practices. The team came away inspired and we are excited to invite Errol and team to OmVed Gardens in 2025.
Into the Seeds of Time
We announced a new exhibition for 2025 presenting the work of artist Vivienne Schadinsky and her year-long residency at OmVed Gardens exploring the journey of beans from seed to harvest and their potential for human and planetary health. The exhibition will be hosted across four new purpose-built spaces at OmVed Gardens; the barn, kitchen, greenhouse and seed library. Learn more.
Looking ahead
2025 marks a momentous change for OmVed Gardens with the opening of our new hub - the Bowl. We can’t wait to welcome you into the new space, we’ll be sharing more over the coming weeks.
