Work-Shop Garden – 2021 update

Over the past four years, we have been slowly chipping away at our garden project. As we are now looking to the summer, we thought it would be nice to have a re-cap on our progress and to look back at our humble beginnings…

We first inherited the garden space from our kind landlord, David. He generously gave us a space which was fenced out and left for us to create our allotment space.

The first few years were slow to begin with, but we persevered and attempted to grow our own vegetables. We quickly found that we needed a solid surface as well as raised beds (for better access). This was our first task that we tackled and with funding, we were able to get installed.

As more time passed and we learnt how to utilise our space, we decided that we needed a shed and polytunnel. It was felt that two dry spaces (for potting and preparing our plants) would be our next big purchase (again, thanks to donations). Both the polytunnel and shed were build by volunteers over a few weekends and have been invaluable!

At the end of September 2019, volunteers from Orbit came and installed more raised beds and new turf. This made even more use of our space as well a better ground for our participants to work on. The volunteers were so impressed by our garden that they donated an electric lawnmower for the new turf!

We were really excited for the new season in 2020 and was about to get stuck into the garden when COVID started… Thankfully, our volunteers maintained the garden and kept everything growing and ready for our return. The space also served as a safe area for participants to visit and water the plants (without any contact with others).

Looking at our garden space now, it is easy to forget the enormous amount of work and time that went into its creation and all the people who have helped on the way. All of this has been capable due to the support from volunteers, staff, participants and doners throughout the garden project.

Thank you