Celebrating Black Gardeners

This Black History Month, we’re celebrating the Black gardeners who are making an impact in the horticultural world.

In the UK, Black people are four times more likely to have no access to any outdoor space in their homes than White people, and are vastly underrepresented in the media’s portrayal of gardeners and growers. The racial barriers to the media landscape are well documented, and despite a wealth of community knowledge amongst the Black population, these barriers are seen not just in the media, but in employment opportunities, and access to green space too. A report by Natural England in 2019 found that 26% of Black people had recently visited the natural environment, compared to 44% of White people.

We want to celebrate Black growers in the UK, share their stories, and ensure Islington’s Black population have access to space and resources to get growing!

Tayshan Hayden-Smith, Grow2Know:

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, Hayden-Smith brought together a local group to found the Grenfell Garden of Peace, a space for the community to come together in sanctuary. Hayden-Smith has since set up Grow2Know, in collaboration with The Black Gardener, which aims to shift how we think about who gets to garden, and who gets to access green space. Grow2Know have since transformed an unused space into a growing site, and participated in Chelsea Flower Show. They host regular community days, workshops, volunteer days and more, celebrating gardening as a space for connection, wellbeing and education. Find out more here.

Juliet Sargeant:

In 2016, Sargeant became the first Black woman to exhibit at Chelsea Flower Show, winning a gold medal for her Modern Slavery Garden. She teaches professional garden design, where she noted that in 15 years of teaching she hadn’t had one Black student, something she hoped to see change after her Chelsea win. Sargeant now runs a company of garden designers, is an RHS show garden judge, and appears on a number of gardening programmes.

Ian Solomon-Kawall, May Project Gardens:

Solomon-Kawall co-founded the May Project Gardens in 2007 in Morden. He turned his late mother’s derelict garden into a thriving space for all of the community to use. A number of projects now run out of the Garden, including the Hip Hop Garden programme which engages young people in five modules; Wellbeing, Food, Hip Hop, Employment & Entrepreneurship and Event Management. The space plays host to live music, film screenings, drumming workshops and more, alongside growing and gardening. Learn more here.

Read Islington Council’s profiles of Black Environmentalists.

Want to talk more about Black gardeners, history, heritage, and growing for the future? Look out for news on our social media soon!