Full Circle Farms Sussex/Garden Army

Over the years, I have been involved with many companies and gained a vast amount of knowledge and skills in garden maintenance and horticultural. My passion is working outside with nature (in all weathers!) and creating green spaces to meet a range of peoples' needs. However, I wasn't able to combine my other interest - agriculture into my day job so I wanted to diversify. Full Circle Farms was created in 2017 and started to grow, literally!

Full Circle Farms, liaised with chefs to grow seasonal, fresh produce for their restaurants and the term 'Field to Fork' truly described the concept of the company. At the beginning, I took it for granted how important it was for me to be outside whilst growing vivid, seasonal fruits and vegetables but as time went on I really started to notice a change in myself. I was happier and less stressed and I gained satisfaction from nurturing plants and growing food. My mood changed and I felt healthier physically and mentally than I had before. There's lots of research that supports this.

During this time, I met Dave Gee, an ex-military policeman. He was trying to help a few ex-army suffering with PTSD. Knowing that growing produce improved my well-being, I asked Dave the question, 'Would horticulture therapy help?' Dave and I got chatting, lots, and came up with plan and 'The Garden Army' was created! It would be a team of ex-military personnel suffering from PTSD and other mental health issues to support me on the farm. Dave felt that it would give people a purpose, a feeling of part of something, meet others with the same issues, an opportunity to talk and somewhere to go and feel united.

The aim was to create a farm to grow amazing vegetables but eventually that would be a bi-product and its primary purpose was to give people hope, a safe space and a community. However, in 2018 I broke my leg and for the first time I couldn't get outside! I was told that I would need to be off work for at least 3 months but after 2 weeks of being trapped indoors, I HAD to get back to work as I felt suffocated. I needed to get my hands dirty and see nature around me so I wrapped my cast in a plastic bag and breathed in fresh air!

Whilst in the Princess Royal Hospital, I met an elderly lady called Betty. She came to talk to me at 4am as she had overheard what I did for a living. Betty was interested in the farm because she had been a land girl during the war. She had very fond memories of this and told me all about her time on the farm. Hours later, Betty told me why she was in A & E - she had tried to take her own life! She explained that at 86 she was incredibly lonely and she didn’t want to continue her life anymore. I was shocked to learn that at 86 and all that she had been through, that she was so sad and that she thought it was the only way left for her. This made me incredibly heartbroken and angry at the same time. I felt compelled to do something and to stop this happening again to people just like Betty. Whilst in my hospital bed ( I was stuck there for a while), I watched the NHS staff work tirelessly under stressful circumstances. I thought why limit The garden Army to just ex-military instead create our own army - an army of people who just need a place to go, to de-stress and be amongst nature. Because of Covid, this is now more important than it ever was.

We are in the process of becoming a registered Green-Care provider. Green Care is a concept where farms are a base for promoting human mental and physical health, as well as quality of life for a variety of groups. When we have constructed the Green Care Farm, we will have an ‘army’ of people coming to help and get involved in the jobs around the farm such as planting over 50 fruit trees, caring for our established fruit trees, planting out the poly-tunnels with herbs and vegetables, setting up the raised beds and natural heating systems, fencing around the plots and the farm itself using some traditional techniques, constructing fruit cages... the list goes on! There is always something to do.