Lemon Tree Trust

Plenty of happy smiles from our gardeners of the future!

In the Hêvî Community Garden in Gawilan camp, young hands work alongside their mums, tending raised beds, harvesting herbs, aubergines, radishes, leafy greens, flowers and more 🥬💐

Brighten your inbox with our September email newsletter 💌

1. Meet Rûken, one of our Garden Facilitators

2. Check out the new portacabin and upgrades at the Hêvî Community Garden

…and more!

Landing tomorrow, 30th September! Subscribe now: lemontreetrust.org/newsletter/#...

Our beloved Annual Garden Competitions are back! 🏆🌿🎉

Seven garden parties across Kurdistan are celebrating the creativity and dedication residents put into their beautiful home gardens.

Winners receive a certificate, cash prize & Sidra Blend Tea, with time to connect over cake & refreshments 🍰☕

Back in March, the garden produced 250kg of food per month.

Now, harvests have quadrupled to 1000kg! 🙌

Each plate of summer veg, including okra, molokhia, courgettes & peppers, is feeding families and strengthening our community.

Thank you for helping Hêvî flourish 🤗💚

New this season:

– 2 shaded rest areas where women share tea & seeds 🌿

– Protective polytunnels & drip irrigation 💧

– Shaded walkways, flower planters & gravel paths 🌸

Our garden keeps growing, despite the intense 45°C heat! 🌞

Thanks to your incredible support, the Hêvî Community Garden in Gawilan camp is thriving, even during the hottest days of summer 💚💛

#GrowingHope #CommunityGarden #WithRefugees

Celebrating our Garden of the Month standout home gardens 🌿🥇

From 9 refugee & IDP camps in Kurdistan, these gardeners are building a sense of home, one plant at a time.

Winning gardens 🌱👇
Plaques, seeds & fruit trees awarded.

#GardenOfTheMonth #WithRefugees #GrowingHome

"The scent carries us back to the good memories of what we have lost" – Aveen

When Aveen fled Syria she carried her family's healing plant knowledge with her. Now our operations manager in Kurdistan she brews Sidra Tea daily bringing gardeners together.

☕ Recipe: lemontreetrust.org/news/cultiva...

Guljin grows okra & hot peppers in the Hêvî Commnunity Garden and bakes traditional Syrian bread in our bakery house🌶️🍞

“While the dough rises, I water my plants and harvest what’s ready. It brings me such joy and peace.”

lemontreetrust.org/news/hevi-co...

#WomenWhoGrow #WithRefugees

We don’t just grow gardens, we grow belonging 💚

Help us fund items like shaded rest areas, refreshments & a polytunnel for the Hêvî Community Garden in Gawilan camp, where temperatures regularly reach 45°C.

justgiving.com/lemontreetrust

Thank you.

#GardensOfHope #WithRefugees #WorldRefugeeDay

On #WorldRefugeeDay we stand with people rebuilding life after displacement to plant seeds of hope, memory and connection.

#CommunityAsASuperPower #CommunityGardening

We love this, Hazel. Thanks for sharing this with us 💛

What are you growing, creating or building in your own garden or community this week?

We’d love to hear – share it in the comments!

#CommunityGardening #GrowingHope #WithRefugees

Next: we’re raising $960 USD / £710 GBP / €846 EUR to make the space more inclusive + heat resilient ahead of the summer.

🌳 Shaded rest area
🍵 Tea & snacks
🌱 Polytunnel for year round growing

(Temperatures regularly reach 45°C)

Can you help? Donate: www.justgiving.com/lemontreetrust

Thank you.

Fresh from the garden: new photos from Hêvî Community Garden in Gawilan camp, snapped today! 📸🌿

🍅 92 beds full of produce
🧺 New benches built + painted
💧 Irrigation, walkways + lights added

#RefugeeWeek2025 #CommunityAsASuperpower

Some snaps from the past few weeks of our amazing community gardeners tending to their growing beds.

When we come together, great things grow – in the garden and beyond 🌱

That’s the power of community. Thank you for being a part of it!

#CommunityGardening #CommunityAsASuperpower

May in full bloom at our Azadî Community Garden in Domiz 1 camp! 🌿🌸

So much beautiful produce is flourishing, thanks to you.

This garden truly wouldn’t grow without your support 💛

#GrowingTogether #GrowingHope #OneGardenAtATime

Growing hope in your inbox, one email at a time! 🌱

Our refreshed newsletter now lands monthly with stories & snapshots from displaced communities.

Get: 🌳 personal stories 🥕 impact pics 🌍 project peeks 🤝 ways to help.

Sign up before the April issue lands! lemontreetrust.org/home/newslet...

Big cheers for our nine March Garden of the Month winners! 🏆🌱

Through sheer hard work and creativity, they’re greening homes and neighbourhoods in camps across the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Each winner gets seeds, a fruit tree and a plaque!

#OneGardenAtATime #WithRefugees #WithIDPs

Spring vibes! March highlights from Azadî Community Garden 🌸🌿

🥬 Abundant produce – our garden is thriving!
🔥 Newroz celebrations – traditional clothes, dancing & the Newroz torch.
🍞 Khubz (Syrian flatbread) baked & shared with families.
🐢 Surprise visitor – a tortoise in the garden!

#WithRefugees

Look at the garden grow! 🌱✨

A few weeks ago, we planted the first seeds in Hêvî Community Garden (meaning hope in Kurdish), in Gawilan refugee camp.

Now, the raised beds are flourishing with fresh vegetables and herbs! 🥬🧅🌿

#GrowingHope #WithRefugees

Happy to hear this! 💛

Roasting homegrown aubergines in the Azadî Community Garden bread oven – perfect for the dip, Baba Ganoush 🔥🍆👩‍🍳

Community-grown ingredients = great food!

Have you tried Baba Ganoush? Did you like it?

#TogetherWeGrow

Yes, absolutely! We create our own special tea blend, Sidra Blend, using rose petals and other ingredients grown, picked and dried by our gardeners at Azadî, our flagship community garden. We then gift these tea packets to displaced communities across the Kurdistan Region of Iraq 🌸☕

G’nite from #BrookwoodPointe! When all else fails, plant a seed! Yes, in January!

#GardenGrewPeas
#ResistanceGardening
#OneTomatoAtATime
#Gardening 🌱

Fresh from the Azadî Community Garden!

These vibrant radishes are more than nutritious and tasty food – they represent resilience, community and the joy of growing together 💚

Who else is growing their own? Share your harvest with us, #TogetherWeGrow

Thanks for your comment! This is just a small snapshot of the winning gardens – many gardeners also grow vegetables, herbs and fruit trees. Flowers, especially roses, play an important role in Syrian culture alongside edible plants. It’s great to see gardens that offer both beauty and nourishment 😊

Thank you 💚

Even in the bleakest times, there are moments of light