Watford Salvation Army community allotment is top of the crops

A community allotment project in Watford run by The Salvation Army has won a prestigious national award including prize money of £1,000, which will be used to upgrade the facilities. 

Captain Mark Scoulding leads the church and charity in the town and on Tuesday mornings from February to October he can be found at Cherry Tree Allotments working on the community project.   

 The community allotment won the Congregation and Community category at the 2024 Green Church Awards at a ceremony in central London this week.  

The allotments are next to Cherry Tree Primary School and each week the space is visited weekly by up to 120 pupils, parents and staff. The plot features raised beds and growing troughs, a log circle, a mini orchard, a summer house, and a wildflower meadow with a wildlife pond.  

Captain Mark attended the ceremony along with Cheska Tyler, Cherry Tree Primary School headteacher, and Samuel, aged eight, one of the regular visitors to the allotment. Samuel was asked by the judges what he particularly enjoyed about the allotment and, according to Mark, said he enjoyed sowing seeds, particularly peas, lettuce and tomatoes and eating the produce. 

Mrs Tyler said she was delighted the allotment had won.  

She said: “The community allotment has been absolutely transformational for our children. They look forward to it each week and use their learnt skills around the school grounds whilst waiting for their next session. The children come back with fresh produce to share with others and excitedly talk about the new fruits and vegetables they have tasted. It is now an intrinsic part of our Cherry Tree curriculum and truly helps our children to understand the importance of looking after our world.”  

Mark Scoulding commented: “The other finalists were amazing, so I was really surprised to have won. It’s a wonderful endorsement of something we are really passionate about. The judges commended us for giving local children opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise experienced.” 

Mark hopes the allotment will inspire a life-long love of nature in the children who visit it, adding: “All the pupils live in an urban environment with limited access to outdoor space.  We teach the children to garden fruits, vegetables and flowers. Week to week, we might be sowing tiny lettuce seeds into soil plugs, or sledgehammering fenceposts into the ground with all our strength. We hope to use the prize money to make the allotment more creative by installing other features including music and sensory areas.” 

As well as working with the pupils from Cherry Tree Primary School, the community allotment is also used for church celebrations, corporate volunteering and fundraising events.  

 Mark added: “We invite the neighbourhood to harvest and eat the foods we have grown. Last year we cooked pumpkin soup and apple pies – some of our neighbours had never seen pumpkins growing and tasted them for the very first time. We also held our 140th birthday party for The Salvation Army church in Watford here. More than 200 people joined the celebrations.”   

 The allotment is intentionally managed for wildlife and environmental methods are also used to manage, reuse and recycle waste. An old bathtub has been transformed into a wildlife pond.