GREEN-fingered gardeners in Mold are proving that you don’t have to be a gardening expert to have fun growing your own food at home.

Spending more time at home over the last year during repeated lockdowns has created a huge interest in gardening across the UK.

And ten households in Mold taking part in the Parkfields Community Centre Growing Food project are no different.

Thanks to grant funding from the Hubbub Foundation UK, they are all learning new skills and have been provided with the equipment and materials needed for ‘Square Foot Gardening’ – in a four-foot square raised bed.

“Square Foot Gardening is a simple, well-established way of growing crops”, says Rachel Farr from Cae Rhug Holistic Farm at Gwernaffield, who is giving the training and provided the plug plants.

“It is ideal for beginners and is not a daunting amount of space to tend. There is also lots of guidance about how many plants to put in each square foot. The keen growers in the Parkfields’ project have been a pleasure to work with and are now starting to crop the salads they planted in June.”

Kerry Hughes, one of the new veg growers, added: “I’ve wanted to grow my own salads and veg for ages, but wasn’t sure how to begin. Being part of the Parkfields’ scheme has been great. We’ve had lots of support and information from Rachel, all the equipment needed from the team at Parkfields and we’re swapping tips with each other.

“I’ve enjoyed being outdoors in the fresh air, watering the plants and checking for slugs. There’s a real sense of achievement eating food that I’ve grown at home in my garden. I don’t expect growing my own food to be a big cost saving but it’s certainly bringing me closer to nature and is a lovely way to relax and spend time.”

Parkfields Community Centre was one of only four members of the UK Community Fridge Network to be awarded a grant from the Hubbub Foundation UK.

Caroline Collis, administrator at Parkfields who organises the Centre’s Community Fridge said: “We were very pleased to receive the Hubbub grant funding to run the veg growing scheme.

“This is a pilot project to give the local people involved new skills to try growing their own food at home.

“We’re sharing what we learn here in Mold with the Community Fridge Network across the UK, to help other Community Fridge groups who may want to start growing food in their neighbourhoods.”