How Does Your Garden Grow?

The weather in South Wales doesn’t always help us with outdoor activities, but gardening is relaxing, productive and environmentally friendly, and it’s helped many new arrivals in Swansea to put down roots in more ways than one. 

Unity in Diversity trustee Hazle Boyles has led a series of gardening projects in the 2020s. Hazle helps UiD service users choose plants that she knows will survive and thrive in the local climate. The outcome has been season after season of beautiful flowers and fresh vegetables. More than that, it’s helped turn temporary accommodation into family homes. The addition of colourful plants and the opportunity to nurture something day after day adds warmth and life for people who want Swansea to be more than just a temporary stopover. Hazle is delighted with the results:

“Our service users have experienced many different climates, and they naturally have different tastes when it comes to plant life. Together we’ve worked hard to negotiate the changeable South Wales weather and nurture flowers to appeal to the senses and vegetables that add substance and spice to a variety of cuisines.”

Swansea is a place of welcome, and people who find their way here usually want to stay. Hazle’s gardening projects have given many families the opportunity to personalise their homes and light up their communities:

“It’s been great seeing how families, notably children, have embraced the practice of growing

their own gardens. I’ve seen them bring smiles to their neighbours’ faces with a pot or two of Spring flowers or tomato and potato plants next to the door. It’s been my good fortune to get to know these families. Their enthusiasm for brightening up their communities is matched by their hospitality. The welcome they give me warms my heart.”  

2026 has seen the launch of Hazle’s 500 Seeds project. It’s a challenge to nurture seeds from planting to flowering, particularly in this country’s climate and with no greenhouse for protection, but Unity in Diversity’s service users are equal to the task. And with Swansea’s cold winters in mind, they’ve started by planting plenty of chilli seeds. The UiD drop-in sessions that have shared food with visitors over many years have served up an interesting range of meals, and this year they’ll have the extra spice of freshly grown chilli. 

It’s appropriate that the funding UiD received to enable this work came from the Dorothy Watkins Foundation. This admirable charity has nurtured inclusiveness and wellness in Swansea for many years, and we believe our gardening projects echo those principles. To borrow the words of William Blake, we believe we can make Swansea a greener and more pleasant land, and our friends in the migrant community have eagerly accepted the challenge. 

How does your garden grow? Our gardens grow with hard work, care and positive results. Why not join us and see it, and taste it, for yourself?