Myatt's Fields Park Community Greenhouse
We use our greenhouse to support community food growing projects, including:
Who supports us? We were able to provide these much needed services between 2019 and 2024, thanks to the support from City Bridge, the funding arm of The City of London Corporation's charity.
Project overview
Our beautiful greenhouse is a rare survivor from the years when parks would grow all their annual and perennial bedding plants on site. Most park greenhouses were demolished when it became more cost-effective to buy in bedding from suppliers, but our greenhouse together with its cold frames and cucumber house escaped this fate.
In 2000, Myatt’s Fields Park Project took over the running of the park with a vision to support food growing by our many local vulnerable communities. The greenhouse provided a wonderful opportunity to grow young food plants, and we have used it intensively for over 16 years to support our local community groups growing food crops in their community gardens. In early 2025, Monty Don featured our award-winning food growing project on his BBC 2 programme ‘Monty Don’s British Gardens’, episode 4, link here.
In 2025, our main depot buildings are being refurbished to provide hugely improved community facilities. The building works may prevent volunteer access to the greenhouse during refurbishment, but we will still be growing food crops for local groups.
If you would like to join the food growing volunteering , please email us at [email protected] with your name and contact details so we can get back to you before reopening this volunteering opportunity- thank you.
- Growing food in and around the greenhouse for community meals in the park;
- 300 households around Myatt's Fields Park were supplied with food plants to grow at home during lockdown. Their collective feedback was that it helped them tremendously with their mental health, improved their diet and overall health.
- Supporting food growing in the wider community – on estates, in schools, by roadsides and much more. In 2023 we supported 45 local groups with 40,000 baby plants yearly, reaching over 3000 individuals.
Who supports us? We were able to provide these much needed services between 2019 and 2024, thanks to the support from City Bridge, the funding arm of The City of London Corporation's charity.
Project overview
Our beautiful greenhouse is a rare survivor from the years when parks would grow all their annual and perennial bedding plants on site. Most park greenhouses were demolished when it became more cost-effective to buy in bedding from suppliers, but our greenhouse together with its cold frames and cucumber house escaped this fate.
In 2000, Myatt’s Fields Park Project took over the running of the park with a vision to support food growing by our many local vulnerable communities. The greenhouse provided a wonderful opportunity to grow young food plants, and we have used it intensively for over 16 years to support our local community groups growing food crops in their community gardens. In early 2025, Monty Don featured our award-winning food growing project on his BBC 2 programme ‘Monty Don’s British Gardens’, episode 4, link here.
In 2025, our main depot buildings are being refurbished to provide hugely improved community facilities. The building works may prevent volunteer access to the greenhouse during refurbishment, but we will still be growing food crops for local groups.
If you would like to join the food growing volunteering , please email us at [email protected] with your name and contact details so we can get back to you before reopening this volunteering opportunity- thank you.
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​Free baby plants, pots and soil
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Expert advice for growing groupsOur gardeners offered food growing workshops, giving expert and detailed advice on all things edible.
We allocated these sessions to our local community groups, helping those people most in need. |
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Greenhouse growing sessionsWe offered local people the chance to come into the greenhouse for up to 12 sessions to grow foods from all over the world with us.
Wherever possible we grow the food crops familiar to our participants, who include people from many and varied cultures around the world. |
VolunteeringLocal people make it all happen!
Before 2025, we ran food growing and greenhouse volunteering on Wednesdays and Sundays between 9am and noon. While this offer is currently unavailable due to the depot refurbishment works, you can still join the park gardening volunteering on Wednesdays and Fridays 9.30am to 1pm. |
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Contact our Horticultural Manager Tony on [email protected] to attend these friendly, informal drop-in sessions, or visit this page for more details.
If you would like to learn more about food crop growing, tune into these short video clips on how to grow food like tomatoes, onions, chard and more. What can you grow in spring and other seasons? Our expert gardener, Fabrice, has the answers. Please don’t forget to leave a Like!
Huge thanks to City Bridge Trust for their support over the last 5 years. We are now seeking further financial support to allow us to carry on growing food for our community.
Huge thanks to City Bridge Trust for their support over the last 5 years. We are now seeking further financial support to allow us to carry on growing food for our community.
Learn about food growing...
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February
This is a great time to plant crops like spinach, cabbage and shallots. They'll give you early spring harvests – and improve your soil just in time for your next tomato crops. |
Growing food in autumn
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12-19 October
Onion and garlic sets And how do you get new garlic from old garlic? Spoiler alert: you'll want to make sure that you buy organic garlic. Learn to plant, and grow, onion and garlic sets – and find out how to avoid garden pests. |
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12-19 October
Broad beans and peas Did you know that you can get a lovely crop of peas as early as the end of May? Learn when and how to plant broad beans and peas over the winter period. |
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5 - 12 October
How to tell if a pumpkin is ripe We're getting closer to Halloween and that tells us that we're coming into pumpkin season. How do know when pumpkins and squash are ripe? And how do you harvest and store them? |
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5 - 12 October
Onion/spring onion from seed Sowing onions and spring onions, including the White Lisbon variety. Fabrice tells you how to get hold of some seedlings. |
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28 September - 4 October
Old mushroom tray trick This is a quick and cheap way to get your salad greens sprouting this winter. With tips on:
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28 September - 4 October
Earliest lettuce of the year Learn which lettuces you can plant in winter. And find out how to protect your lettuce – including tips about planting, pests and the optimum environment to grow them in. |
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28 September - 4 October
Preparing spring cabbage Get planting spring cabbage seedlings. In this video, Fabrice tells you how to thin out your crop and when to start fertilising them. |
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21 - 27 September
Collecting seeds for spring How to collect and save seeds for spring planting, featuring:
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21 - 27 September
Land cress and watercress What's the difference between land cress and watercress? Fabrice reveals all. |
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14 - 20 September
Winter soil care How to care for soil whether you're using large planters or open ground. Find out which 3 key things keep your soil fertile during the winter months. |
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14 - 20 September
Planting spinach and rocket How and when to plant spinach and salad rocket. Plus, what is the difference between normal spinach and perpetual spinach? Fabrice explains all. |
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7 - 13 September
Growing with recycled tubs How to use recycled containers to grow winter veg like:
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7 - 13 September
Planting Asian green crops
Also in this episode – plant spacing and intercropping. |
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7 - 13 September
Perfect for pickling Make some tasty pickles and dishes like kimchi with these Asian greens – perfect for the winter.
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1 - 7 September
London still has 2 months of good growing weather. Tips on which seedlings to plant in the coming weeks:
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1 - 7 September
Winter herbs to get in the ground Three winter-hardy herbs that taste great:
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