To get in touch with the Garden Team, send us an email. You can also sign up to our Garden mailing list here.
The Castle Garden is a long term project to make sustainable, productive and educational use of the space around the Castle building to grow food for the café, provide a space for wildlife and a relaxing space for the Castle members and staff.
We began planning and building the garden in 2009 using permaculture principles and recycled materials with the help of strong and willing volunteers. Today the result is a one acre, vibrant, biodiverse space teeming with wildlife and an abundant variety of fruit, vegetables and herbs.
Everyone is welcome to enjoy the garden; come see our busy bees making honey; try and spy the animals that live in the mini-habitat of the wildlife pond or just enjoy a cup of coffee in the sun during a break.
The Garden History
The Castle Garden first sprung to life when volunteers gathered on the 1st of November 2009 to start what was to become one of the most successful urban gardens in London. We’ve grown a lot since then, both the amount of produce for the Castle café and in size and scale, but stayed true to our values throughout.
Built on sustainable permaculture principles, the multi award-winning garden has gone from strength to strength in the last decade and more, and is now responsible for growing produce for the café, including a huge variety of fresh fruits, delicious vegetables and vibrant, unusual salads – much tastier than bland supermarket varieties! – not to mention harvesting and blending a unique range of herbal teas. Loads of flavour, zero food miles and absolutely no carbon emissions.
It’s a haven for local wildlife, with colourful butterflies and bees collecting pollen, mud-coated toads lurking under logs, industrious insects buzzing away, nesting birds singing in the trees, and even a fox den where a mother returns every single year to raise her cubs. The Garden is loved by climbers too, whether it’s warming up before a climb, relaxing outdoors afterwards or devouring the delicious food served in the café.
Garden Blogs
Read the Garden history: Read our Garden Drinks blog...
2009 to 2019
Garden Events & Volunteering
Want to join our Garden project or just visit us? Find out more here.
We host a number of seasonal events. Visit our event page for upcoming events or email us.
Garden Fit
A series of guides to keep you Garden Fit. created by personal trainer Janos Atkins, graphic designer Susie Norris and garden manager Ida Fabrizio.
These guides are intended to teach you about the use of garden tools, the repetitive tasks involved in gardening and provide coaching on how best to approach the work to minimise injury and get an all over body work-out!
Associates
Growing Communities - We're a collection point for GC's veg box scheme! GC is a social enterprise providing seasonal and organic fruit and vegetables throughout Hackney.
Capital Growth - The Castle Garden is part of the Capital Growth network. Capital Growth is London's largest food growing network, with over 2,000 gardens throughout the city. The Castle Climbing Centre is plot 102 of Capital Growth.
Cob in the Community - From building, sculpting, seed bombs, making clay ovens to mass heat ether rocket stoves. Our pizza oven was crafted with the help of Cob in the Community who led our staff and volunteers.