Latest updates

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Our Pastures Community Garden: amazing progress during 2025!

2025 – Our Pastures Community Garden Highlights-compressed

Click the link above to read about the amazing progress made on the Community Garden during 2025 and how you can get involved.

The garden is open from 8am to 4pm, seven days a week, when anyone can visit. There’s usually a small group of our core volunteers at the garden on Saturday mornings from about 10.30am to 2pm if you want to volunteer or just drop in to have a chat.

Volunteering is restricted to Saturdays between the hours of 11am to 2pm as it needs to be supervised by one of the core group of volunteers so our garden design plan is kept to and we have knowledge of what has been planted and where.

We communicate on our WhatsApp group to organise the volunteering so it’s best to join our WhatsApp ‘Pastures Community Garden Volunteering Group’. Please click on the link to be added to the group:  https://chat.whatsapp.com/L00U1wOOwEvDJF0U9kiZdL

You can volunteer as much or little as you want. It’s great if you are a gardener but you don’t need any gardening experience, just enthusiasm. The aim is to have fun and meet local people too !

From time to time, we set up free workshops for volunteers who wish to learn about plants, fruit trees, composting, biodiversity etc. Details are posted in the WhatsApp group.

We look forward to seeing you in the garden!

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Our Pastures Community Garden pond platform decking project

The Pastures site has a hidden pond which has been neglected and inaccessible for a number of years. It lies within the Community Garden next to the Good Shepherd Building. The garden area is managed by the community garden volunteer group and is now well established.

A new pond viewing deck and some rainwater harvesting is the next project for the garden development and will bring the pond into use, increasing access to nature on the site.

Viewing access to the pond will allow residents, community groups, schools and other individuals to be part of a habitat observation project, recording biodiversity species, plant life and pond water level patterns.

Our garden volunteers have been monitoring wildlife in the garden and intend expanding this to the pond, working with local organisations who have knowledge of pond biodiversity. The local organisations include Organiclea and The Wren Society.

The community garden volunteer group have secured community funding for this project from Groundworks London and have the support from the landowner, Waltham Forest Council, to build the deck. Completion is due by mid-January 2026 at the latest.

The project has two elements:
1. Building a pond platform deck
2. Water resilience

POND PLATFORM DECK

The deck will be a fully accessible, safe viewing platform with minimal disturbance to the wildlife and plants during construction . The design is a safe, robust platform using ecological materials. We have also specified tried and tested materials, and are working with a local specialist mini piling contractor (Groundsun Ltd) for the mini pile ground supports. The infrastructure team at Organiclea in Chingford will be helping too.

WATER RESILIENCE

We plan to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change by harvesting rain water. Harvesting will create water holding capacity, reduce run off and mitigate drought impacts. creating a more water resilient space.

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Social and active on Mondays!

Tea, coffee and home-made cake…

Come and have a chat or play a game of table tennis…

Every Monday, 5-7pm, in the community hall at the Pastures Centre. Everyone welcome, no need to book. You’ll be sure to find a friendly face and meet new people from our area.

 

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Community Ward Funding success!

We are delighted that the Social and Active on Mondays (SAM) project has received funding to pay for hire of the large community room in the Pastures Centre, plus a contribution towards the cost of refreshments.

This means that the three table tennis tables, football table and pool table, plus a variety of family games and board games, can continue to be provided for people from all parts of the community to be active, enjoy conversation and make new friends.

Christine Sandford coordinated the bid submission on behalf of Our Pastures.

‘Social and Active on Mondays’ aims to strengthen the sense of community and belonging in the neighbourhood. As Christine wrote in the bid: ‘It helps to reduce social isolation, teach new skills to all ages and create an atmosphere where residents can thrive and build supportive networks. We aim to promote the Pastures Centre as not simply a sports hall, but also a centre of the local community.’

Thanks and congratulations to Christine!

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Pretty as a picture…

The hard work of the Pastures Gardening Gang (PGG) volunteers is really paying off! The recent warm and bright weather has encouraged plenty of growth, with colour emerging everywhere. Want to join in? To find out more, visit  the Our Pastures Community garden page

We’re also delighted to report that funding has been secured for a pond viewing platform, in partnership with OrganicLea, which will help visitors appreciate this particular aspect of the garden. More news soon!

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Things are stirring…

Whisper it quietly, but are the evenings getting lighter? Could Spring be just around the corner? There are positive signs in our Pastures Community Garden, so why not join the team of volunteers doing wonders for the greenery and boosting their own physical and mental wellbeing in the process? For more information about the Pastures Gardening Group, email gardening@ourpastures.org.

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Pastures Mural included on the Local Heritage list

Waltham Forest Council has included the mural outside the Pastures building on its Local Heritage List.

The Waltham Forest Local Heritage List identifies buildings and structures with architectural, historical and cultural significance within the borough which enrich and enliven the character of a place. 

The mosaic on the wall of the Pastures Youth Centre was designed and made by young people and their youth leaders. It was created as a response to the phenomenon of ‘postcode wars’, which had directly affected young people in the neighbourhood, and depicts the powerful message of ‘forgive and forget’ beneath a representation of London postcodes.