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The Hop Garden, High Spen

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The Hop Garden, High Spen

We're a volunteer-run food growing project in Gateshead set up to promote organic and sustainable practices

Find us at 1 The Crescent Allotments, off Bute Road South, High Spen, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, NE39 2AW. What3Words: gestures.dynamics.flamingo

We're normally open Friday mornings year round from 9.30am until about 11am for volunteer sessions (and if you just want to pop in and enjoy the garden and see if we have any produce for sale) and at other times for public events. If you're making a spec

ial trip, email us or drop us a DM beforehand to check the gate will be open. This community resource is run under the umbrella of Nourish the Wild CIC, with any profits invested back into the garden. Selling plants and produce helps to pay for our rent and insurance etc. We do not receive any ongoing public funding, instead applying for occasional grants to run subsidised workshops and events. Everyone involved in volunteering on the garden gives their time for free in exchange for a share of the produce. Sign up to our email newsletter for your personal invite to our upcoming events and workshops ahead of the general public: https://mailchi.mp/b07eede4846a/sign-up-to-our-newsletter

31/05/2026

Thanks to everyone who came along today to enjoy meeting fellow local gardeners for a chat over some tea and cake in the sunshine; it was lovely to catch up with some familiar faces we haven't seen in a while 😊

We raised an impressive £87.50 from donations and raffle tickets, which will go back into supporting future events at the garden.

The winners were:
Alpacas in the Woods voucher - Liz
Handmade felted brooch/hairlip by - Gill
Handmade by Nature goodie bag of lip balm, wax melt and soap - Pam A
Hand dyed silk scrunchie from Pouch Botanicals - Janine
Comfrey balm from Grow to Glow - Dawn
One Garden Against the World book - Maureen
Handmade apple quilt - Helen
Challenger hop plant - Pam S
Felted planter - Lisa

Please message us to arrange picking up your prize from the garden next Friday morning (5 June) - for the Handmade by Nature and Grow to Glow prizes we'll need to give you their details to claim direct as we don't have the prizes at the garden.

24/05/2026

Just one week to go! Our annual free plant swap returns to the garden next Sunday from 2pm to 4pm. Hope to see you there! 🌱

15/05/2026

It was great to be able to welcome colleagues from The Orchard Project to see the community garden and orchard in person this week after so many years of boring them silly talking about it!

02/05/2026

Dozens of comfrey roots available for free - we had far too many in the raspberry patch! They're in a large tub just outside the allotment gate at 1 The Crescent Allotments.

Feel free to take a handful of root cuttings for your own garden or allotment - every plot should have at least one clump in our humble opinion! Small donations welcome in the clay pig just by the fence🙂

Comfrey is a great perennial plant and can be cut several times over the season, mulching the leaves around plants that need a bit of extra TLC. We also drop a handful of leaves into the planting holes of hungry crops like peas and squashes.

Best plant it a bit away from other plants though, as it can also take nutrients away from them if grown too close.

24/04/2026

We have a lovely new sign on the gate thanks to our talented volunteer, Lisa Jane💚

The old sign served us well for over 15 years - it was created at a public event with the wonderful Muddy Fingers Pottery, who were based in the village at the time. Unfortunately the last bad storm to hit the garden damaged it beyond repair, but we'll be re-purposing some of the letters, leaves and bugs that have been rescued from it!

03/04/2026

First time having a shopfront on the Open Food Network so apologies if I've forgotten something crucial! Just let me know if something doesn't make sense.

Our Fuggle and Challenger hop rhizomes are available for sale for a limited time - all profits going back into the community garden. Local pick up preferred, but posting available.

https://openfoodnetwork.org.uk/the-hop-garden/shop

30/03/2026

Exciting update from the garden: Spring has sprung and changes are afoot! We also have hop rhizomes for sale and an upcoming plant swap to look forward to. Read more:

https://mailchi.mp/22d322ff79b0/spring2026

06/03/2026

Had a blast today making ramial woodchip: the best mulch for fruit trees, made from young willow shoots.

Thanks to The Regeneration Shop, Chopwell for adding this great bit of kit to their inventory! I popped in a few weeks to enquire about whether they had a woodchipper I could borrow. They didn't, but agreed it would likely be something a lot of people might benefit from locally.

For a small voluntary organisation, shelling out to hire one is usually way too expensive, but this was an absolute bargain at £12 a day. I was a bit apprehensive about being the first to use it, but it was very simple to use, and made short work of our cuttings, even the larger ones that are now destined for the Jora community composter.

It was a bittersweet task to cut down the willow dome, as it's been a feature of the community garden since 2009. But being biomass willow meant it took a lot of work to maintain and also some of it had rotted. There will be another in its place soon hopefully; made from a less vigorous variety!

13/02/2026

Nice change from the never-ending rain this morning! Looks like it will melt soon though, sadly....

21/12/2025

Happy winter solstice everyone ❄️ Here's to the turning of the light and the slow, steady shift towards Spring....

Hopefully over the next few weeks you'll find a little time to rest in amongst all the craziness and spend some much-needed time recharging in nature when you can.

It's been great to welcome so many people to the garden this year and look forward to seeing you on the other side in 2026!

🍎p.s. this simple willow wreath is completely compostable apart from the apples, which I've re-used for over a decade after struggling to find decent crab apples nearby when our own trees were cut down by over-enthusiastic council workers...

Address

1 The Crescent Allotments, Off Bute Road South, High Spen
Gateshead
NE392AW

Opening Hours

9:30am - 11:30am

Website

facebook.com

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