From a derelict site in 1982, Roots and Shoots has grown to become a well-established and respected vocational training organisation with biodiverse wildlife gardens, offering a safe haven for both people and nature to flourish.
2020 Unsung Garden Heroes
In 2020 Gardeners Illustrated highlighted our Director Linda Phillips MBE as an unsung garden hero. They wrote:
“Kew-trained Linda set up Roots and Shoots in south London in 1982, when the concept of community gardening was still a bit hippyish. The idea was, and is, to provide training for disadvantaged young people, and over the decades hundreds have benefited. It’s not just a horticultural education, but a way of honing social skills. As Linda puts it: “We grow plants and we grow people.”
2020 - 2022 COVID 19 Pandemic
During the pandemic the students were at first based at home, which was very difficult for them. Staff focused on support, outreach, and safeguarding from the dangers of Covid, which was particularly important at Roots and Shoots due to our students’ additional health problems. This was a very busy time, where staff used their enormous creative skills to engage students and keep morale high with creative zoom classes. Staff often visited students' homes to talk with them and their family outside the front door, and delivered seeds which they later taught students to grow via online classes.
From June 2020, students began to be invited back onsite for outside learning sessions. The Apple Barn was transformed into an outdoor Covid classroom, and students began to learn again across the site. With Horticulture students, the Wild Garden was renovated, having suffered from some months of neglect while staff and students were away, in collaboration with volunteers from the local community. In the Bubble Gate Garden, a special area for local people without gardens was created where they could sow seeds and grow vegetables.
2022 Celebrating 40 Years
In 2022 we celebrated 40 years of Roots and Shoots with two parties - one for current students to learn about Roots’ 40 year history and to celebrate how far we’ve come as an organisation, and a second party for past and present staff and supporters in the community across the 40 years.