{"id":158,"date":"2023-12-12T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T09:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/?p=158"},"modified":"2025-07-30T09:18:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T08:18:39","slug":"kent-stars-green-thumbed-gardeners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/2023\/12\/12\/kent-stars-green-thumbed-gardeners\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent Stars: Green-thumbed Gardeners"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month\u2019s Kent Stars are Kent Community Oasis Garden Ambassadors Charlie and Ameira. They help mentor students, host events and promote the garden on social media, all with the aim to make the space as welcoming and friendly as possible.\u00a0<\/strong>Hear from Charlie and Ameira:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Charlie<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cHi, I\u2019m Charlie (he\/they)! I\u2019m a third year Politics student. When I\u2019m not studying, I spend all the time I can at the community garden or cooking nice warm meals with the vegetables we harvest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ameira<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cHi!! I\u2019m Ameira (she\/her) and I\u2019m a third year English Literature student!! All my friends know not to bother me on Wednesdays or Fridays because I will be at the garden and I spend the rest of my free time with friends, reading or playing board games.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Charlie<\/a><\/p>\n

Tell us about the Kent Community Oasis Garden and what you get up to as a KentCOG Ambassador.<\/h3>\n

Both<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cKentCOG is a partnership project between the University of Kent and East Kent Mind, a mental health charity. It\u2019s a lovely space for students, staff, and community members to learn and practice sustainable gardening, and socialise. We thrive to create a space that\u2019s open and respectful of everyone, and also the natural habitats and biodiversity on site. We want this space to not only be about gardening but also about connecting and enjoying yourself with nature.<\/p>\n

Even in winter, there\u2019s always things to do in the garden, both outside and inside.\u00a0<\/span>There\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0usually plants to care for, bulb planting, maintenance to do around the garden (weeding, bark chipping, dead hedging, etc) arts and crafts activities, and we start planting seeds in February.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As student ambassadors, we aim to participate in making this space welcoming for our fellow students, as well as work on social media outreach and represent the student volunteers in management meetings. We want to make sure each student feels safe and heard at the garden!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ameira<\/a><\/p>\n

What advice would you give to other students?<\/h3>\n

Both<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cMake time for yourself to spend time around nature! It\u2019s so beneficial for your mental health. We really recommend coming to the garden, even for just a little bit of time. There\u2019s always a variety of activities to do, from planting to harvesting to more hands-on garden management. It\u2019s also a great opportunity to socialise if you want to. If you don\u2019t know anything about gardening, don\u2019t let that stop you! There\u2019s always time to learn any skill from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are your plans for the next year?<\/h3>\n

Ameira<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cI\u2019m still at the stage where I\u2019m trying to figure myself out but I\u2019m most likely staying in academia for a little while longer to pursue a master\u2019s degree! Feeling very sad that I won\u2019t be around KentCOG but I\u2019m always going to find time to come down even after I graduate from Kent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cI\u2019m a bi-diplome student between Kent and Sciences Po Lille, a university in France, so I\u2019m leaving Kent at the end of the year. I hope to restart an abandoned garden project in the school building\u2019s yard to keep the passion going!\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Kent Community Oasis Garden<\/a>\u00a0is located near the end of Park Wood at our Canterbury campus. KentCOG is open on Wednesdays and Fridays 10:00-14:00. Students, staff and the local community are invited to attend these open gardening sessions, no experience necessary.<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you know an inspirational student or student group? Let us know.<\/a><\/p>\n

Learn more about the Kent Stars campaign.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month\u2019s Kent Stars are Kent Community Oasis Garden Ambassadors Charlie and Ameira. They help mentor students, host events and promote the garden on social … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40853,"featured_media":159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[312383,309363],"tags":[223264],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40853"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions\/160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}