More Than a Garden: A Day with Surrey Care Trust

Earlier this autumn, 13 of us swapped our desks for a day at Gateway Community Garden in Reigate, spending time with the team at Surrey Care Trust and lending a hand with some of the jobs that keep the place growing.

We arrived ready to garden, paint, sand, mend and generally make ourselves useful. What became clear fairly quickly was that Gateway is rather more than its name suggests.

The first thing that struck us was the welcome. Milly and the team were warm, generous and so clearly invested in the place. Before we'd even properly seen the garden, it was easy to understand why spending time here might mean so much to someone going through a difficult patch.

Then came the tour. There are growing beds, of course, but also quiet corners, memorial gardens, teaching spaces and places to cook, make and repair. Woodworking, arts and crafts, upcycling and practical DIY all have a home here. Every part of the site seems to have been thought about, not in a precious way, but with a sense that each little pocket might be useful to somebody.

As Milly explained, people may first come for the gardening or simply to spend some time outdoors. What they often find is something less tangible: company, confidence, a new skill, a reason to show up, or simply the feeling of being part of something.

That warmth, and the very practical way Surrey Care Trust helps people, was a big part of what drew us to them.

Our relationship with ArtVenture has already shown us how meaningful a local charity partnership can become when it grows beyond financial support. ArtVenture has its own very particular focus on creativity and art as therapy; Surrey Care Trust reaches people in a much broader variety of ways, from mentoring and alternative learning to family support and community projects.

And while a garden was always going to feel rather at home in our world, that was really only a small part of it. More than anything, we liked the opportunity to get involved, to give some time and to understand the work first-hand.

Surrey may often be thought of as an affluent county, but that is far from the whole picture. Across it are young people, adults and families who need additional support, and Surrey Care Trust works with them in many different ways.

Gateway seemed like a very good place for us to start.

And there was plenty to do.

One of the day's more satisfying jobs was installing a custom-made perch bench that had been patiently waiting several months for its proper home. With a little extra muscle, it was finally positioned beside the squash stack, amongst the pumpkins and an area soon to become wildflowers.

Elsewhere there was planting, deadheading and general maintenance, along with new wildlife habitats. Apparently the latter are particularly enticing to earwigs, which feels like a pleasingly niche measure of success.

Milly told us that a group of extra hands can help the garden complete in a day jobs that might otherwise sit on the list for weeks. But the exchange didn't feel remotely one-sided.

As we worked, we heard more about why the team do what they do and some of the changes they have seen in the people who spend time there. Those conversations probably stayed with us more than anything else.

There was something quite grounding about hearing them talk. We all get caught up in the everyday things that seem terribly important at the time, and a day like this has a useful way of putting some of them back in perspective.

Doing it together mattered, too. Taking a day away from our usual roles, working alongside one another and being able to see what we’d collectively achieved felt worthwhile in itself. Taking a day away from our usual roles, working alongside one another and ending it able to see what we'd collectively achieved felt worthwhile in itself. Team building, perhaps, although that makes it sound rather more organised than it was.

Mostly, it was simply a very good day spent with very good people.

That is what we hope our relationship with Surrey Care Trust will become. Not simply something we support from afar, but a relationship we can take part in, learn from and keep returning to.

The bench is now in place, the garden has a few fewer jobs on its list, and we left already looking forward to going back. A rather good beginning, we think.

Discover more about Surrey Care Trust and the Gateway Community Garden.