Derbyshire teenager puts down roots in the garden

A Derbyshire teenager who is being housed by Derventio Housing Trust has been finding space to heal in a valued gardening project.

Leo Webberley, 19, of Heanor, has been living with Derventio Housing Trust since just before Christmas last year.

The trust provides supported housing to hundreds of people across the UK who might otherwise be homeless.

Housing officers at the trust found shy Leo barely able to communicate just months ago.

Now they say he has been transformed into a confident young man a few months after finding his calling cultivating plants and growing fruit and veg right from seed.

Leo said he had always enjoyed spending time outside but has now truly found his passion in the garden run by Derventio Housing Trust’s Growing Lives project in Ilkeston.

Leo attends Growing Lives daily after being picked up by a minibus provided by the trust, and he has been busy getting his hands in the soil growing vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and sweetcorn.

Not just that, Leo has been turning his talents to growing plants and vegetables in the small outside space at his shared accommodation and has been using the fresh veg to cook tasty meals and cakes for house mates as well as staff at Derventio. He said:

I’ve always liked gardening and now I’ve just clicked with it. Last week I made carrot cakes fresh from the carrots in the garden!

Gardening is just peaceful. You can do whatever – and it just grows. I really like the energy at Growing Lives. You can do whatever you want. When you’re gardening, you can listen to your thoughts. If you put your mind to it, you can grow it.

Derventio Housing Trust housing and support worker Katie Rose said:

When I first met Leo, I would go to the house and he used to open the door a tiny little bit. He was quite shy and introverted and not comfortable. He started coming to Growing Lives and now he’s a major part of the community there. He went down to the greenhouse first and it’s now incredibly organised and tidy because of him.

Now Leo hopes to find work in a garden centre where he can instil his passion for plants into others.

It would be nice to get more people into gardening,” he said. “I did gardening at school but you’d find it would just be cancelled sometimes. They should at least have a session once or twice a week, based around the garden. It’s good for your mental health, and teaches you how to look after something in your life.

Sarah Hernandez, managing director of Derventio Housing Trust, said:

We are so proud of the journey that Leo has been on since joining us in 2024. At Derventio we encourage the whole person to grow – and Leo has been doing that by finding out his real passion lies in the garden. We are delighted that through our Growing Lives project he has been able to achieve such positive change in his life and on those of his housemates and the wider Derventio family. Congratulations to Leo for an amazing personal turnaround.

Photo shows: Leo Webberley pictured at Growing Lives, and with housing and support worker Katie Rose