As summer slipped into autumn SAGE Greenfingers celebrated a fantastic year of growth, both on our allotments and for our organisation.
SAGE Greenfingers supports adults with mental health needs via a variety of horticultural therapy and arts activities based mainly at Grimesthorpe allotments, Burngreave. Two years ago funding problems forced us to cut back our service but since January 2013 funds from Reaching Communities and the North Locality Clinical Commissioning Group have enabled us to scale back up again. So our Open Day on Tuesday 10th September 2013 was a chance to show off what we do and to celebrate.
Group members circulated with cameras, snapping a variety of activity. Some people were doing veggie art – making weird and wonderful portraits out of fruit and veg. Others were digging for treasure on a new seed bed – and discovering mainly beans! Still others were pressing apples that we’d harvested locally the previous week and supping the sweet, fresh juice. And roving amongst us all was pop-up-poet, Matt Black, who gave a laughout- loud poetry recital just before lunch. His ditty describing the photographers sums up the mood of the day: