London-born gardener Jerome Webb is hosting a new weekly gardening club for the local community in our Dan Pearson-designed Healing Garden across the road from the museum in local park Old Paradise Gardens. Let’s get to know Jerome and his plans for the club:
What was your journey into gardening?
My journey into gardening started with a curiosity about worms and the magic role they played. I have also had quiet activism contributions, through guerilla gardening neglected spaces, promoting native planting and biodiversity enhancements.
My journey was initiated through my love for nature, wanting to have a direct impact with the enhancement of biodiversity and a desire to have a right to grow for all residents. I decided to dedicate time for further development, studying to learn the theoretical and practical applications of horticulture.
Where has your gardening career taken you so far?
My gardening career started at Walworth gardens studying a City and Guilds Level 2, led by George Hudson, who is now my colleague as Green London Curator at the Garden Museum.
I then attended a study day at Kew Gardens, where I heard about the Royal Parks apprenticeship. I then worked two years at St James Park, while studying one day a week, at Capel Manor College, in Regents Park. I was awarded a Lantra Level 2 Award (in Safe Working in Agriculture and Production Horticulture) and received two further awards – The Worshipful Company of Gardeners’ student award and the Toni Azarrati Award for a ‘Positive influence on others, society and the environment’ from The Royal Parks Guild.
After studying, I joined Greenwich Park, working for The Royal Parks as a Technical Officer for the Greenwich Park Revealed project. This four-year project, which began in 2021, saw an investment of £12 million into Greenwich Park in order to reveal, restore, protect, and share its unique heritage. This was a two year fixed term contract, which ended in the middle of April. I aim to continue my horticulture career, with a gardening role and I’m proactively applying for a new ambitious project to work on during the weekdays alongside working in the Garden Museum’s community Healing Garden at the weekend.
Can you tell us about the new gardening club you’re hosting in our Healing Garden, and how can people get involved?
The Garden Museum’s weekly gardening club takes place in the Healing Garden in Old Paradise Gardens on Saturdays 11.30am – 2.30pm. The new garden, designed by Dan Pearson Studios, features a patchwork of native, medicinal and wildlife-friendly planting. A hand-woven hazel fence encloses a large area for food-growing and community garden sessions. We are currently completing seasonal tasks such as weeding, planting, pruning, sowing seeds, transplanting seedlings and general tasks to keep high standards for all visitors.
The plan for the Healing Garden is to engage with a diverse and inclusive group, local residents and local stakeholders in Lambeth. We aim to run free workshops linked into the Branch Out programme, and to work with the Garden Museum’s Learning team to deliver educational sessions for the Sow, Grow, Eat programme for teenagers and to grow produce to be used in the Garden Museum Café.
We will have an array of fun tasks, to aid in enhancing biodiversity, medicinal plant identification walks and biodiversity/conservation projects in and around the Healing Garden. We are also awaiting compost to fill up the big demo bed and small general use bed.
Do you have a garden of your own, can you tell us about it?
Yes, no coincidence, but I previously created another garden in Lambeth also called the Community Healing Garden (CHG)! This project was enabled by Incredible Edible Lambeth, supported by Lambeth Council and funded by the Mayor Of London as part of the Grow Back Greener funding.
The CHG, which is located in the Vauxhall Gardens Estate off Loughborough Street, consists of 10 raised beds made from environmentally friendly wooden pallets, a fruit orchard, herbaceous perennial planting, native wildflower meadow, compost bins, wild scrub areas with deadwood logs as features. Most of the raised beds have been assigned to local residents who have no back garden or green space of their own, and the space is open for anyone to visit and enjoy.
What are your jobs for the Healing Garden in Old Paradise Gardens this week?
Jobs for the garden this week include filling the remaining two raised beds in the Healing Garden with the delivery of soil on site. Sowing seeds, planting herbaceous perennials, general maintenance, mowing, pruning back dead foliage and maintaining high standards overall!
Do you have any advice for young people who’d like to get into gardening?
Advice for the young people thinking about getting into gardening would be ‘If you want to be happy for a lifetime, be a gardener’. Also, always keep learning new skills in gardening, attending training courses, seminars and work closely with your local borough council.
What are your favourite gardens or places to visit for inspiration?
My favourite gardens to visit are:
Sissinghurst Castle Garden
I visited as an apprentice gardener and was blown away by the stunning castle garden, steeped in history and teaming with insects and vibrant blooms [learn more about Sissinghurst’s history and its former owner Vita Sackville-West in our current exhibition Gardening Bohemia: Bloomsbury Women Outdoors].
Kew Gardens
Stunning space, covered with colonial footprints of species discovered on expeditions from many countries. A great learning environment.
RHS Wisley
Bespoke planting, with drifts, hues, formal planting, with nectar rich designs. I spoke here at the Royal Parks Guild discovery day.
Great Dixter
I’m a regular volunteer of the spring and autumn plant fair, weather permitting. Head Gardener Fergus Garrett is a great friend, and a keen supporter of my community activism work. I love the historic grand house, with plants creeping over the path’s edge, who said you need perfectly cut edges of grass?
Kennington Park flower garden
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This park has a great flower garden design with medicinal planting of Angelica archangelica, a sundial, pergola, pond and herbaceous planting.
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