Dannielle Jemmott has helped shape ACAVA’s Cultivate Create programme since its early days, supporting families to grow food, explore nature and build community together at Maxilla Walk Gardens in North Kensington.
This summer, ACAVA will launch a new publication celebrating the people, stories and relationships that have shaped Cultivate Create since it began.
In this Q&A, Dannielle reflects on her journey with the programme, her connection to Maxilla Gardens and what makes the Cultivate Create community unique.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your interests and how you got into this work?
I started at ACAVA on Flourish as a project assistant, supporting sessions as and when they were running. I really enjoyed it. I like working with children and families.
During lockdown, we did Flourish in the Forest, where we opened up our garden for families who didn’t have access to outdoor space, and for children with autism who weren’t able to socially distance in the parks. It gave them an enclosed, safe space where they could have some hours in the garden and some sense of normality.
That’s how I got into the garden work. It felt more explorative than other projects. You had the whole garden to do what you wanted.
Then I was asked to help out with a couple of Cultivate Create sessions, and I started alongside Maria Cabrera, our former Cultivate Create lead gardener. I didn’t have much gardening experience at that point. I was learning alongside the families, which I think was actually a very special part of it. They had one expert and one new person learning and on a journey with them.
And many of the families had a lot of their own gardening knowledge to share. People would talk about how their grandmother used to do things, or how it was done back in Italy. Lots of cultural threads started coming in, and once people felt comfortable sharing their backgrounds and getting comfortable in the space, it just took off from there.
What are your connections to this neighbourhood, and why do you think Cultivate Create is so important?
Maxilla Gardens has been part of my life for basically as long as I can remember. My mum used to work there when it was a nursery, and both my sisters went to nursery there. I remember when the garden was a playground and school garden, when the art studios were the “red room” and “yellow room” with coloured curtains, and when the gallery area was a stay-and-play space for newborns.
I actually got introduced to ACAVA through word of mouth, through Lisa Nash, who used to work at Maxilla and then became Curator of Social Practice at ACAVA, and who I’d bump into locally. And I think that’s probably how most people know about us: word of mouth.
Families don’t realise how impressive the garden is until they come in. From the outside, you wouldn’t guess that underneath the Westway we’re growing tomatoes and purple broccoli, and that people are in there sharing life stories and recipes.
We have parents who are doctors, teachers, artists, people who potentially would never have met each other, and they meet in our garden, sowing seeds together, talking about everything from their medical work, to working in Harrods, to makeup, to school trips. It’s amazing.
What excites you about making a book about Cultivate Create, and what are your hopes for it?
What excites me most is seeing all these children from really different backgrounds and different schools come together and share their views on the garden, a place they spend every other Saturday. They’ll leave birthday parties early, arrive at birthday parties late and bring friends with them. It’s something that needs to be celebrated. And the sense of community that comes out of it… you can facilitate it to an extent, but you can’t replicate it unless you have the right people, and we’re just lucky enough to have them.
Parents will order three large pizzas so that everybody can share. When we ran out of water one Saturday, people just pulled together. Everybody looks out for each other’s children. Parents will find themselves gardening alongside children they’ve just met.
And children who’ve been coming for a while, as soon as they see a new family, are like: “I’ll show you where the toilets are, this is where the snacks are, this is the forest school.” It’s special.
What can people look forward to in the book?
The main thing to look forward to is getting everybody’s different cultures and perspectives in the same space, but in their own words and feelings, and that’s really special.
We also get to share bits of their families, people who’ve come before, great-grandparents. Every story is different.
Can you sum up Cultivate Create in three words?
Growth – not just from the food, but from the people.
Surprising – the garden is different every single time, not just the families and the activities, but the garden itself. Sometimes there’s a samba band, sometimes there’s a fire engine, who knows?
Unique – the Westway is unique in itself, and the way we’re using that space and the people in it makes it unlike anything else.
The Cultivate Create book will launch at the programme’s Community Open Day on Saturday 22 August 2026, celebrating the stories, plants, recipes and people that have helped the programme grow since it began.
