Cranbrook Community Garden: Growing Food, Friendship and a New Town’s Identity

Cranbrook, still in the making on Exeter’s eastern edge, is a town built in chapters — and its community garden is fast becoming one of its most defining. Founded by Clive Chilvers of YouGrow CIC, this young garden is open around the clock, every day of the year, and rooted firmly in the belief that shared growing grows stronger communities.

Despite being accessible 24/7, the garden has seen remarkably little antisocial behaviour. Instead, it has attracted small acts of kindness and curiosity — including the mysterious appearance of a Buddha statue in a flowerbed. The only real “incident”, Clive laughs, was discovering that someone had carefully harvested some beetroot and thoughtfully reburied the leaves. “We hoped they enjoyed it,” he says.

A Garden Designed to Bring People Together

Set close to the railway station on council‑dedicated land, Cranbrook Community Garden is intentionally simple, practical and welcoming. The council provides water and maintains the hedges, but everything else — from sowing to composting to community events — is run by volunteers.

In just three years, the site has grown into a productive patchwork of raised beds, a fruit cage, three established plum trees and new hot composting bins. Recent funding from the Devon Community Foundation is supporting the construction of a wooden shed — a dry, communal space for tools, workshops and conversation.

Clive sees the garden as a developing resource, one that will eventually be handed over entirely to a volunteer committee. His vision for YouGrow CIC is to seed social, urban gardens that strengthen community bonds through shared purpose, inclusion and the simple act of tending the soil.

What’s Growing — and Who’s Growing It

Cranbrook’s beds are brimming with seasonal staples: cabbages, Swiss chard, onions, garlic, parsnips, beetroot, turnips, leeks and shallots. Soft fruit — redcurrants, raspberries and a grapevine — adds sweetness to the harvest. Produce is shared among volunteers and offered freely to local residents.

Regular sowing and harvesting sessions draw around a dozen people each time, alongside the core Sunday volunteer group. For many, the garden has become a place of belonging as much as a place of growing.

Naomi, a regular volunteer, describes it as a quiet but powerful support network. “We had a power cut in the town a while ago,” she recalls. “One of our volunteers had solar panels and invited us all over for food and showers. The garden brings people together in ways you don’t expect.”

No‑Dig, Chemical‑Free and Community‑Led

Clive champions the no‑dig method, protecting soil structure and nurturing the micro‑organisms, fungi and worms that keep the garden thriving. The site is proudly chemical‑free — essential for safeguarding insects, pollinators and the wider ecosystem.

This approach reflects the garden’s ethos: gentle, sustainable, and rooted in care for both people and place.

Why Cranbrook’s Garden Matters

Cranbrook is a town still finding its shape, and the community garden is helping to define it — not through grand gestures, but through shared work, shared harvests and shared resilience. It is a space where strangers become neighbours, where skills are passed on, and where the simple act of growing food becomes a foundation for a stronger, more connected community.