We’re on TV! Gardeners’ World

Sunnyside Rural Trust will be featured on Gardeners’ World, BBC 2 Friday 12th May at 8pm.
Arit Anderson, garden designer, writer and presenter on Gardeners’ World, visited us in Spring last year and spent a day immersed in talking about and seeing the benefit of horticulture as therapy for wellbeing and working with adults with learning disabilities. Keely Siddiqui-Charlick, CEO had tea and walked around the site with Arit, discussing the values at Sunnyside and what we do and what our aims are. Impressed with our work, the Gardeners’ World team came back in August to film and spend time with teams at Hemel Food Garden and then popped over to Northchurch for some more shots.

Trainees worked with Arit through the day on several jobs and will be featured, talking about what they do and what they learn whilst at Sunnyside, individually and as teams. Katie spoke about her experiences and Lewis, who is now one of our gardeners, loved his catch up with Arit over the onions. It was great to see them all taking part, chatting and enjoying the experience – in front of the camera!

Arit is passionate about the environment and so are we at Sunnyside. Our allotment vegetables and some perennial plants are grown in peat free compost. Lovingly nurtured and cared for by Trainees, all of whom, have additional needs. At Sunnyside Rural Trust we are sowing seeds for the future, supporting Trainees to grow in confidence, develop new skills and to contribute positively in a working horticultural environment.