We settled into our new habitat at OmVed Gardens, marking an exciting year of growth and opening our community to more people than ever before. It became a record year for visitor numbers, with the brand new Barn emerging as a vibrant gathering space, hosting everything from thought-leading conversations and workshops to intimate concerts and special occasions.
We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who got involved this year: our wonderful garden volunteers; the passionate growers and seed savers who sowed and nurtured our seeds against the odds of a changing climate; our delicious supper club guests; the artists and creators who helped the Barn shine in a new light; and the visitors who joined our events, tours, and workshops. And, of course, to our more-than-human kin who reside within our thriving garden community.
As we reflect and look back at what has now become compost, the stories we leave behind, we see how they will continue to nurture and shape new stories and experiences in 2026. We have some exciting plans germinating for the year ahead; watch this space to see what emerges.
School Sessions
Approximately 400 key stage 1 and key stage 2 students have received free, tailor made hands-on, curriculum linked lessons in the garden with our dedicated team of educators, ecologists, chefs and gardeners.
Since the launch our new open invite to local state schools in September 2025, we have formed partnerships with 4 new local state schools, including The Grove school, for students with special educational needs in Tottenham.
We have also been preparing our dedicated school’s growing beds, which will provide more hands in the soil experiences for our future young pupils to engage with.
Seed Saving Network
Over the past year, OmVed’s seed work has developed with our new dedicated Seed Library. In spring 2025, we gave away more than 2,000 seed packets to our members, sharing them both online and through wonderful partnerships with Sustain, Camden Libraries, and local Community Seed Swaps. Our living seed catalogue also continued to grow: over 70 new varieties were saved from this year’s harvest, bringing the total to more than 100 varieties available. These seeds were grown both onsite and by our incredible network of community growers, whose knowledge and dedication make this work possible.
We also gathered to exchange, learn, and celebrate seeds together. Across the 2024–25 growing season, we hosted two seed swaps in September 2024 and May 2025, alongside Seedlings Gatherings and workshops from our new OmVed series, The Regenerative Garden. This year also marked our gradual settling into the new Seed Library. The space has given us greater freedom to organise, reflect, and refine our processes, while opening up new possibilities for education and outreach. Many visitors have shared how calm and restorative the library feels, something we’re deeply grateful for as the space continues to evolve.
In the garden itself, we sowed over 200 varieties of edible plants in 2025, experimenting, observing, and learning as we went. One particular highlight was successfully growing three varieties of chilli outdoors, no small feat in the UK climate, where these heat-loving plants are usually confined to greenhouses. Head to the seedsaving.network to join.
Expanding the garden spaces
This year also saw the garden expand into exciting new spaces. The roof garden and greenhouse quickly proved their potential, with the rooftop in particular thriving as a natural heat trap. The combination of sun, warmth, and a carefully designed irrigation system allowed us to grow exceptionally healthy vegetables. These spaces have become productive, experimental, and inspiring additions to the wider garden.
Across the landscape, planting focused on diversity, resilience, and beauty. More than 100 seed-grown, pollinator-friendly perennials were added to the top meadow, which was especially stunning in bloom during May and June, alive with colour and movement. We also planted 200 narcissus across the lawn and began plans to introduce 21 varieties of berries into the garden, adding to both biodiversity and future harvests.
Looking ahead, new planting areas are already being imagined as we continue to negotiate layouts and possibilities. While details are still taking shape, we know change is coming. A large monoculture planting of sage will be removed and replaced with a richly diverse polyculture herb bed, and we’re planning to add more woodland bulbs, such as Anemone blanda (wood anemone), to the green in spring 2026. As ever, the garden remains a living, evolving space, guided by observation, collaboration, and care.
Our programme
Our events programme flourished this year, marking a record period of connection and engagement at OmVed. We hosted more than 70 events across the year, welcoming over 3,500 visitors, our highest attendance to date.
Audiences showed up with curiosity and commitment, resulting in strong attendance rates and a lively, participatory atmosphere across exhibitions, workshops, talks, and community gatherings.
We were especially encouraged by the warm reception to new event formats and the development of a more recurring programme structure. Initiatives such as our in-house courses, the Barn Conversations talk series, and Midweek Meditations quickly found their audience, becoming valued spaces for learning, reflection, and dialogue.
Into the Seeds of Time
Into the Seeds of Time began as an exhibition and has since grown into a lasting digital resource, sharing artist Vivienne Schadinsky’s year-long residency at OmVed Gardens and exploring the journey of beans from seed to harvest, alongside their potential to support both human and planetary wellbeing. The exhibition welcomed more than 1,150 visitors and was accompanied by a dedicated programme of events attended by a further 1,468 people. It also received significant media attention, with 32 pieces of coverage including features in the Financial Times, The Art Newspaper, The Standard, and Gardens Illustrated. In November, the exhibition took on a new life beyond OmVed, with an iteration hosted at the Barbican Centre as part of the Food Foundation’s Bean Summit.
The OmVed Kitchen
This year, our new kitchen offered a taste of the garden, celebrating seasonal produce through menus created by our talented team. From June onwards, no outside fresh produce was used in the kitchen, everything served was grown right here in the garden, with more than 70 varieties of plants featured in each supper club menu.
We also introduced the OmVed Café, opening across selected weekends and events, alongside a vibrant programme of food-focused experiences. Highlights included our Conscious Kitchen courses, covering everything from preservation to low-waste cooking, and the Fermentation Celebration, which welcomed over 140 attendees. This year also saw the launch of our Young Adults in Food workshops, supporting young people to explore careers in food and build practical skills.
We’ll be hosting more supper clubs in 2026, sign up to our newsletter to be the first to hear when tickets are released.
Ecology in the Garden
This year, we held two Bioblitz events, recording an impressive 126 observations across 73 species, offering a snapshot of the rich biodiversity thriving at OmVed. Highlights included the Common Toad, now relatively uncommon in central London due to habitat loss and the disruption of migratory routes by roads and buildings, and the Devil’s coach horse beetle, the largest of Britain’s rove beetles, which is rarely seen as it spends much of its life underground.
The team also took part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch in January, when we were lucky to spot a wonderful range of birdlife throughout the morning. Species recorded included blackbird, blue tit, song thrush, wood pigeon, great tit, crow, magpie, robin, jay, dunnock, parakeet, long-tailed tit, and wren, further evidence of the garden’s growing role as a refuge for wildlife in the city.
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.
Fermentation Celebration
For our third Fermentation Celebration, we delved into fermentation through a a day rich in connection, learning, exchange, and surprising flavours. The programme brought together voices from across the fermentation world, including Ryan Walker, Head of Fermentation at Silo, and Jo March, Head of Kitchen at OmVed, who shared insights into their practices and the role of fermentation in regenerative food systems.
The evening was filled with hands-on demonstrations and tastings, from a sourdough and starter session with Hackney Bread Kitchen to a lively kimchi demonstration led by Bermondsey Gut Kimchi. We also hosted a thoughtful discussion with fermenter and writer James Read, author of Of Cabbages & Kimchi, with guests able to purchase signed copies of his book during the event. Alongside the talks and demos, an artisans’ market showcased a range of fermented foods and products, making the celebration a vibrant meeting point for craft, culture, and community.
Artist of the Month
December 2025 saw the launch of our brand new Artist of the Month initiative which celebrates and spotlights creativity in all its forms, with a focus on artists and creators whose work explores our connection with nature. Each month in 2026, we will showcase the practice of a selected artist whose work resonates with our work with ecology, food, community, and sustainability. We invited Sarina Mantle as our first Artist of the Month, you can read more about her work here.
Looking ahead
We have some exciting plans germinating for the year ahead; sign up to our newsletter to see what emerges.
