The Source

My first NHS catering role was in 1990 and since then it has always been at the back of my mind how nice it would be to grow our own fruit and vegetables for the patients.  My team and I would always produce fresh cooked meals for the patients and the thought of adding home grown produce was something I hoped for but was never in the right place to accomplish.

I gained even more interest after reading what was happening at the Royal Brompton Hospital with Mike Duckett,  I found it so inspiring – yet I still wasn’t in a place to achieve this dream.

Roll on to 2020 and a change of work base (still NHS) and I decided to experiment with growing a few plants at home – tomato and strawberry plants.  Seeing the plants grow and picking the few fruits excited me even though it was probably only six or seven fruit in total!

A year later, in April 2021, and during a chat with a colleague about a gardening pilot starting at one of my trust’s other community hospitals, I knew this was my chance to get involved.

Meeting the team running the pilot project filled me with excitement, planning what we needed to do, and starting this project was mind blowing – so many things to consider such as health and safety, catering compliance, environmental health,  Hawkhurst League of Friends, voluntary services and others all involved – lots of ideas exchanged and agreed or dismissed.

Finally, the green light was given and we decided this year we would go small… maybe tomatoes, some peas – the plan was to get a few bits on patients’ plates over the summer as it was pretty late starting the sowing/planting too.

Posters created and contact made with Hawkhurst League of Friends, Hawkhurst Community Fridge and information about it brought up at team meetings with nursing and facilities staff, a launch date was set.

For me, this project is about patients’ nutrition, sustainability, food miles, zero chemicals – we use a combination plant and use seaweed fertilizer etc.  How I saw it running and the positives it would have on the hospital, patients and even the community plus how we are engaging with the Trusts Sustainability Strategy are all part of it too.

The Hawkhurst community, and staff, sent in donations of seeds, plants and gardening equipment and it was soon realised that the small pilot project would in fact not be so small! All in all, we had tomatoes, courgettes, peas, onions, leeks, runner beans, beetroot, kale, strawberries, raspberries, peppers, chillies, sweetcorn, cabbages, celery and more – including chitting our own potatoes!

It’s been a great time with many positives and a few failures but it’s definitely been a learning curve and below are a few things I have learned:

• Get your volunteers in place before any real work starts! I had a good turn out for the launch but not many turn up when the work started so it’s been pretty difficult cooking and gardening.

• Don’t get downcast at the failures. I’ve been lucky with only one big failure but I was quite negative about it until I realised this is what gardening is about.

• Grow more of each plant – even if it means reducing what you plant. To make sure I get good size harvests I need more plants instead of small harvests from lots of different plants.

• Work out the planting areas and what you are planting into – are you going to plant in the ground or in raised beds? Remember, if it’s the ground you’ll possibly need a soil analysis done in case there is chemical contamination.

• Get a team of helpers together – people who are happy to do a bit of weeding, harvesting while on a break even. If everyone does a few minutes a week it all helps.

• Keep the communication going, keep plugging the garden work and involving the community – use your organisation’s Communications Team, if you are lucky enough to have one. Post a blog every so often on your staff intranet and send photos of everything to those who are involved in setting it up.

Last of all – have fun, get involved and see the amazing harvest we can grow for our patients.

Hawkhurst Community Hospital is running special menus for its patients to celebrate British Food Fortnight.  Under Sarah's enthusiasm, they are determined to source more local produce.