The Stud Nursery and Community garden

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Stud Nursery, our community garden, is a social enterprise and training resource offering a welcoming and supportive environment for people to learn and develop skills, confidence and friendships. We are open weekdays to our service users who are supported by our trained staff and volunteers. 

At the Stud we facilitate a range of activities from cooking, woodwork, animal care and gardening. There are multiple activities happening each day allowing our service users choice as to how to engage with us. We aim to give meaningful employment to our service users without being prescriptive. 

• Our ‘Grow Cook and Eat’ course in partnership with Kingston Voluntary Action – supports group work to plant and cultivate fruit and vegetables, then learn how to prepare, cook and enjoy them.
• Our three glasshouses and two polytunnels are developing into our own plant nursery, with plans to open for plant sales in the future. 
• Our art room and our woodworking room help facilitate our activities at the Stud, repairing and building new structures on site.
• Companionship, both with the staff and volunteers as well as each other is a core part of our daily activity, especially around cups of tea and squash. 
• We encourage both group work and individual responsibility to look after our much loved shared space.
• We are developing our training provision, allowing our service users to receive internal qualifications in activities such as lawn-mowing, and with future plans for externally verified courses.