Hurst Farm Farmers Community Garden Volunteering - Every Tuesday 10am-3pm

The Farmers Community Garden at Hurst Farm, Matlock has been developed from an area of wasteland over the past few years. This is a volunteer project at heart and was the idea of one of our longstanding volunteers, which has now come to fruition! For the past two years we have been growing vegetables which are donated to the Farmers Community Pantry and are available free of charge to the residents of Hurst Farm.

This year (2026) we are gearing up for our biggest and most exciting year yet with the first year of growing in our polytunnel, we can now increase our yield over the 16 growing beds in the garden space. By the end of January 2026 we will have a large welfare shed, sponsored by Derbyshire Mind, and electricity and water on tap thanks to recent UKSPF funding. We are also carefully planning our growing with the support of our resident garden expert - Community Garden Coordinator Vanessa Swetman - she is a font of knowledge to learn from!

The garden is also a special space for connection, wellbeing and learning new skills. Our regular volunteer group of around 15 people are involved in regular weekly activities including Dry Stone Walling (Mondays) Gardening (Tuesdays) and occasional Green Woodworking and makers sessions have created seasonal decorations, stools, mallets and more - some of which we can sell to generate income for the garden.

Our ever popular Bee-Team will be taking care of our three bee hives from Spring when the Bees wake up again. We extract and jar our own honey to sell and this year we will exploring candle making and other activities from the outputs of our wonderful bees.

Funded training is available for regular volunteers, transport and childcare costs can also be covered to reduce any barriers to you getting involved, this space is for everyone. Come and join our brilliant team for a great year! Our work in the garden is made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, who have also funded the new Hurst Farm Heritage Trail.

Please get in touch by emailing Lisa at info@hurstfarm.co.uk or just pop and see us if you would like to get involved.