Yellow Lines and Green Fingers

Members of the home education community in Weston-super-Mare and the surrounding area enjoyed a day out on the train to the community garden at Avonmouth Station with Platform, Grow Feral and Edible Bristol

Platform was delighted to be asked to transport a group of green-fingered families on the train from Weston-super-Mare to Avonmouth as part of a special GWR-funded 10-week gardening project coordinated by Grow Feral. Alongside their many other fantastic initiatives, Grow Feral’s Sam Francis and Karen Barry are proud station adopters, on a mission to establish a thriving community garden on Platform 1 at Weston where locals are invited to join regular growing and gardening sessions.

To gain inspiration for their garden, Grow Feral and Platform organised a special visit to The Secret Garden on Platform 1 at Avonmouth Station.

Before boarding the train at Weston-super-Mare, Ellie led a fun and interactive safety briefing outside the station. Although all members of the group were regular rail travellers, they left the session with greater knowledge of how to stay safe at the station, on the platform and around the railway. They were particularly interested in the increase in electric trains and what that meant in terms of dangers and how to stay safe.

“I learnt about the orange line on top of the trains. They want to make sure everyone stays under it.” (12-year-old member of the group) 

“Stand behind the yellow line because if a train goes past really fast it creates air turbulence which sucks you in.” (12-year-old member of the group) 

On arrival at Avonmouth, the group was ushered through the gate on Platform 1 into the wonderful world that is The Secret Garden. Waiting to meet them was Edible Bristol’s Luke, who, after a brief introduction, invited everyone to explore the space and see which plants and creatures they could identify. After sharing their discoveries, he facilitated a relaxed tour of the garden, largely informed by their questions – of which there were many.

 

Luke’s warmth, passion and knowledge meant everyone had a fabulous time and left with a greater knowledge of plants, gardening and sustainable practices. Amongst other things, this lucky group now know how corn-on-the-cob is pollinated, how to regrow garlic, how to tell when a pear is ready to be picked, and that plump green fennel seeds are an excellent breath freshener. They also learnt how to use natural materials to create safe and welcoming habitats for all manner of insects and birds.

“I liked the shield bugs and the plants there. I didn’t know about the different stages of a sunflower.” (Six-year-old member of the group) 

“I enjoyed seeing another garden to see how other people do it, and I liked learning about some different plants that I didn’t know the names of.” (12-year-old member of the group)    

“It was really nice for everyone to get to see a more established garden in relation to the one that we’ve got at Weston cause it helps us to see what the potential of our space is, and it was nice to see everyone engaging with it with such wonder and curiosity.” (Sam Francis, Grow Feral)

“I wish I owned it because there’s just so much!” (12-year-old member of the group)

Back on the platform, Ellie took the opportunity to teach the group everything they needed to know about level crossings, as they could instantly put their training into action by waiting for the barriers to come up before crossing the track to get to the Avonmouth Community Centre. Luke led the way, laden with a box of fresh organic produce from The Secret Garden for the members of the Avonmouth community to enjoy, including ACC’s resident chef, Mike, who uses it in his delicious soups and roasts.

As always, everyone was given a warm welcome at the centre. They were invited to use the outdoor space where they spent a happy hour or so having lunch and playing. A special mention for ACC’s newly formed Gardening Club for the work they have done out there. 

On the return journey there was lots of chat about the day, some lovely free drawing and several rounds of Platform’s sustainability-themed card game ‘Transport Takeover’.

Copies of Arlo were also received with great excitement and appreciation, and one of the youngest members of the group got stuck into Platform’s activity booklet, taking particular pride in his picture of how to stay safe on the platform.

“It was lovely [working with Platform] because…it was really nice to just have everything looked after and be able to relax and just enjoy it.” (Sam Francis, Grow Feral)

“And also, it’s a bit of a secondary thing, but the fact that we’re always in that garden in a train station…it sounds really simple, but to actually be able to get on a train as part of it is lovely and just to show that there are more things along the line than just what they come and see at Weston.” (Karen Barry, Grow Feral)

This collaboration would not have been possible without GWR’s generous funding for both Grow Feral’s gardening project and the rail education and train travel facilitated by Platform.