Lemon Tree Trust - transforming refugee camps one garden at a time

Provide refreshments at a community garden helping people to socialise and spend time gardening

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The Lemon Tree Trust is transforming refugee camps, one garden at a time. Gardening is a powerful therapeutic tool, addressing issues of isolation and mental health, producing beauty, belonging, food security, and promising economic stimulation. We pilot agricultural businesses and gardening initiatives in refugee communities, creating employment and restoring cultural identity, dignity and purpose. Our long-term vision is to expose every refugee camp in the world to garden competitions and to encourage self-sustaining ventures run by and for refugees. Through the provision of seeds and plants, we empower social and economic change.

Community gardens

Find out about our community hubs where gardeners grow food for vulnerable families, learn new skills and socialise.

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Competitions and awards

Learn how our annual home garden competitions and Garden of the Month award helps promote the benefits of gardening.

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Garden kits and seed distribution

Help us deliver more garden kits, plants and seeds so that displaced people can grow food and flowers.

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Chelsea Flower Show 2018

Explore our garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018 where we brought our refugee work to a new audience.

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Refugee stories

Delve into the lives and home gardens of displaced people with these videos and interactive media.

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Working in partnership

Read about our work with refugee communities in the USA, Uganda and Jordan.

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Our 2023 Cooking Competitions are in full swing! 👩‍🍳🍅🥕🥗🍰

Delicious home grown produce, combined with ingredients bought locally in camp, are being whipped up into mouth-watering meals by our many talented cooks.

The competitions are running across nine camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq again this year.

More details will be coming very soon 🎉

In the meantime, here's 'a taster' from Kabartu 2 camp.

Feeling hungry?! 😋

#WithRefugees #WithIDPs #CookingCompetition

Congratulations to our latest Garden of the Month

Congratulations to our latest Garden of the Month winners 🏆🌿🌷

Khanki camp: Maher Qassim. What a cheerful design – we love all the colour used in this beautiful vertical planting scheme. Old vehicle tyres and wood offcuts have been upcycled to great effect here, showcasing a range of winter flowers.

Gawilan camp: Kaljain Mustafa Ali. This gardener has taken great care to create a beautiful green space at her home.

Kabartu 1 camp: Hamad Saado Ghadban. The garden was chosen for its abundance of vegetables and plants being cultivated.

Kabartu 2 camp: Shawkat Abdul hamid Hussein. Because there is no place to plant in the ground, the gardener has recycled containers to grow plants and flowers.

Bersive 1 camp: Salem Joko. A beautiful and clean garden with a wonderful green canopy.

Bersive 2 camp: Falah Hassan Eido. One of the walls of the tented shelter is covered with many types of beautiful flowers.

Domiz 1 camp: Hanaa Youssef Antar. It’s clear to see this gardener’s love for and interest in gardening with such a variety of plants and trees.

Domiz 2 camp: Husssin Mohammed Abd alhnan. This garden was chosen for the beauty of its greenery, diversity in its flowers and tubs full of flowers.

Essian camp: Khdr Saado Khdr. This garden provides a wonderful view from one end of the camp. All the green and colourful plants are organised well.

Our monthly award celebrates the innovation and creativity of war gardeners throughout the year. Each winning gardener receives a special award plaque, a selection of seeds and a fruit tree 👏😃

#WithRefugees #WithIDPs #GrowingHope #OneGardenAtATime #GardenCompetition

The extended area of the Azadi Community Garden is

The extended area of the Azadi Community Garden is flourishing 🌿

In just a few short weeks since opening the new area and welcoming in our 50 new gardeners, seeds have been sown and grown, and are being lovingly nurtured - look at all that green 🤩

As well as all of the delicious produce being grown, it's amazing to see the many friendships blossoming. We might be a little biased but community gardening is the absolute best 💪

It’s thanks to the generous donations from our amazing supporters, plus our brilliant gardening team, that we have been able to increase our gardening resource in Azadi. Thank you 💚

#OneGardenAtATime #CommunityGardening #WithRefugees #WithIDPs

We believe every person has the right to feel safe

We believe every person has the right to feel safe; to live freely, without the threat of violence or persecution. We support people who have been forcibly displaced by war and persecution to grow food and flowers at their homes and in communal gardens. We believe gardens and gardening provide a common language for conversations of hope and beauty even in the midst of despair.

Anemone coronaria – pictured here flowering on the Ninevah Plains in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq – grows in wild abundance across the Middle East, including in Israel and Palestine. We hope that the search for common ground in the region will continue, and we support all those striving for the safety of forcibly displaced people everywhere.

The following Israeli-Palestinian organisations are focused on supporting families and women and we stand with them in their search for peace:

🌿 @theparentscircle is an organisation of over 600 families who have lost an immediate family member to the ongoing conflict
🌿 @womenwagepeace is acting to promote a non-violent, respectful, and mutually accepted solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
🌿 @women.of.the.sun_ is an independent organisation supporting women

We know there are many more organisations and individuals working tirelessly to support people in Israel and Gaza. If you know of any and would like to share their names, please add their details to the comments.

Thank you for your ongoing love and support.

Photo: @brittwilldyer

#Israel #Palestine #OneGardenAtATime

Lime, green and red chili pepper, pomegranate, aub

Lime, green and red chili pepper, pomegranate, aubergine, squash, rose and lots more! 🌶️🍆🌸

There's so much delicious and nutritious produce growing in the Azadi Community Garden in Domiz 1 camp. Our gardeners have been harvesting their vegetables, fruit and herbs. And we have been weighing and bagging up surplus produce and gifting it to vulnerable families.

What home-grown food or flowers are you nurturing right now? 👇💚

#CommunityGrowing #CommunityGardening #GrowingHome
#HomeGrownFood #FlowerPower #OneGardenAtATime #LemonTreeTrust #WithRefugees

Azadi multi-tasking: Swapping gardening tips whils

Azadi multi-tasking: Swapping gardening tips whilst preparing molokhia 💚

Molokhia is the name given to the harvested leaves of Corchorus olitorius, commonly known in English as jute mallow.

It’s a popular ingredient in middle eastern dishes and is grown widely by gardeners in refugee and IDP (internally displaced people) camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

The tasty, nutritious leaves are stripped from their stems in preparation for cooking with.

🧑‍🍳 If you fancy getting your chef’s hat on in the kitchen this weekend, check out the recipes on our website that our gardeners have kindly shared. You’ll find Noora’s delicious recipe for Molokhia with Chicken & Simple Tabbouleh over on our website (link in bio).

#Molokhia #CommunityGarden #GardeningFriends
#CommunityGrownProduce #WithRefugees #OneGardenAtATime

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Opening ceremony of the extended Azadi Community Garden

To celebrate the completion of the extension to the Azadi Community Garden in Domiz 1 camp, and to officially open the space, we organised a small opening ceremony and party. All our new gardeners, who have been given a new raised bed in the extended area, were invited to join our celebration, along with our … Continued

Thank you for supporting our Community Garden Appeal

You did it! 🥳 Thanks to your generous donations, our Community Garden Appeal raised £3,662 GBP ($4,530 USD). Plus, every donation has been matched by one of our most generous supporters, meaning the appeal raised an incredible £7,324 GDP ($9,060 USD). Thank you so much. And we loved receiving your messages of support throughout our … Continued

Cultivating hope: stories of triumph from Lemon Tree Trust’s 2023 Annual Garden Competitions

Every year, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, our garden competitions shine a light on the green thumbs and resilient spirits of camp residents. Home gardens in refugee and IDP (internally displaced people) camps are more than just plots of land; they represent resilience, creativity, and a connection to a gardener’s past. Here are some … Continued

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