Jennie Smith (DIG and Grow & Play Co-host)
“Everything that’s done here, is done as a shared process – and to be enjoyed by other people”
I’m Jennie and I volunteer at PLOT 22. I started helping out with DIG (Dementia Inclusive Gardening) as a volunteer and I now co-host that with Charlotte and I also co-host Grow & Play.
DIG (Dementia inclusive Gardening) is a group for people living with dementia and their carers – a relative, a paid carer, a friend - to come and spend time together at the plot.
It’s really important to have sessions like this. The most important thing for us is that people walk out of that gate feeling better and more connected and I think that feeling stays with them for much longer than the two hours they’ve spent here. When you ask people at the end of a session what they’ve enjoyed most about it, most of the answers are the people, being with each other, and having a lovely time. I think the legacy of that is much longer lasting than you can imagine.
We sit around a circle together, appreciate the season, and we discuss what tasks they would like to do, and then enjoy an hour or so of activity. And then we all come together and have refreshments and reflect on the time.
I tend to focus on the actual hosting in terms of providing the refreshments with the help of whoever else might be volunteering, and generally assisting Charlotte with making sure that everyone’s okay. I also help co-ordinate the gardening side of things because, certainly in the beginning, I was more familiar with the plot and Charlotte was more familiar with dementia and the creative side of things.
The main thing I’ve learnt about dementia is that it’s just totally different for each person. I think the most important thing is that they are still people and they’ve still got cracking personalities. There’s always something to connect with – just like anyone else.
The plot is a place that you’re drawn to come back to cos it’s a nurturing space. It’s a beautiful space. It makes you feel relaxed and it’s different every time you walk in the gate. That’s the thing about nature - it’s always changing.
There are beautiful archway structures and organic shapes. There’s the two circles bed, lots of different levels of vegetation - everything from ground level up to full trees, and there’s a pond as well. And then the glorious cabin. It just looks like you’re coming home to your little safe place really. The first thing that everyone I know who’s been here does is go, “Wow, that cabin!” It’s everyone’s dream.
Even though it’s quite rambling and organic and looks natural compared to other allotments, it still looks like it’s been cared for. Quite often I walk in and I’ll say, “Oh, look at that, that looks amazing! I bet the Lady Gardeners did that!” It really feels like other people care for this place. Everything that’s done here, is done as a shared process – and to be enjoyed by other people. And that’s a really nice feeling.
You learn things from the people that you’re with, whether it’s individual tasks and skills that you pick up bit by bit, co-hosting groups, or being a trustee. I’ve built up lots of experience of things I never thought I’d do when I first came to the plot! And it’s in a lovely organic process. It’s not regimented, it’s just very fluid.
It’s being part of a community and contributing to something that’s worthwhile. You receive as much as you give. It’s a two-way process because we’re just all constantly putting things in and gaining other things.
I grew up in the New Forest and over the twenty years or so since I left school, I’ve kept trying to make my working life something to do with being outside. Since I moved to Brighton seven years ago, I made a much more concerted effort to do that and PLOT 22 was one of the first places that I came to when I moved here! I think I came in week two of being in Brighton so it’s been a little saving grace!
I started at PLOT 22 as a volunteer coming to Lady Garden and also the mixed Friday session and it all snowballed from there! Lady Garden is the women-only Thursday session where you come, have lots of tea and cake, and do lots of gardening. They tend to be the ones that really get stuff done, get stuck in. They then harvest food, cook, and eat a meal together.
It was amazing, I felt really lucky. I’d been in London and had thought about joining an allotment group but I just didn’t have the guts to actually go. Sometimes getting over the threshold is the biggest step, isn’t it? Maybe it was because I was starting afresh in Brighton and someone offered it to me that I took the first step. I came and I realised it was welcoming, lovely, non-judgemental. Just a very comfortable space to be in.
When you don’t have a job it’s a thing that you’re going to do every week. I was meeting people, being outside, and doing what I wanted to do – having a little bit of outside soil time. Being outside and in nature, without a doubt, makes you feel better. I just don’t see how it can’t!
I gradually started volunteering for DIG and eventually became a Co-Host of DIG and Grow & Play. When the structure of PLOT 22 was going through some quite big changes and becoming a charity, I volunteered to be a Trustee because I was interested in seeing that side of it. These things don’t happen without a lot of hard work. Being a Trustee meant that I had an eye on the behind the scenes stuff. I think the small value that I have is being someone who co-hosts and volunteers. I can be the conduit between being on the ground at the plot and having an eye and an ear on the administrative, business side of it. It’s all good experience.
I’m a student at Plumpton College doing Countryside Management and one of our modules is Urban Habitats. Allotments are important spaces for wildlife and people and so I suggested they come here to give them direct experience of what an allotment could be because I think this is just one of the most perfect examples!
There’s such a huge variety of what you can do with this quite small bit of land, and the number of people it serves is quite amazing. Hundreds. Craft skills, gardening skills, people skills, construction skills. I mean, everything! It’s all happening in one little place which is pretty cool.
It would never have occurred to me when I was 16 that this is a thing you could have in your life, or do. People were interested. They wanted to know what we did here, and how it was run, and how it worked.
It’s just one of the best things in Brighton or anywhere! I would love to be able to do more for this place than life will allow, but I would also love it if more of these places existed. It is so important that funding is given to these kinds of projects. There’s a lot of people out there needing this kind of connection with nature and each other, and the best thing about it is it’s almost infinite in what it can do for people.