Building a wellbeing garden

We were recently awarded funding from the Postcode Society Trust to develop a new wellbeing garden and are delighted with the progress so far.

The funding will help us rebuild the raised beds outside the Hut, adding sensory and therapeutic planting as well as new seating. With the help of the amazing park and Community Garden volunteers, Stephen and Bill from Urban Canopy have have cleared the space of dilapidated beds and nearly finished building new raised beds with integrated seating. GoodGym visited to help fill the beds with soil.

Stephen and Bill also cleared and repaired the poly-tunnel, which soon started filling up with seedlings. They created beautiful purpose-built tool racks in the sheds and made them safe and super-tidy. We are making signs from the off-cuts from sleepers and we hope to have everything in the gardens labelled for the benefit of volunteers and visitors alike. We are now in the process of buying herbs for the sensory beds which will be planted alongside the ones we rescued from the old beds, to get them planted before winter.

Groups from local organisations supporting people with specific health needs will be supported to make use of the space. We have recruited a part-time Gardener – the lovely Jody Gillett – who has started a soft launch for the project and is regularly supporting a group from SLaM NHS trust on Friday mornings. With the help of volunteer Sam and the park attendant Tim, the group are already enjoying a lettuce harvest from their new vegetable growing bed. We hope to have more user groups start up in the new year.

Visit our What’s On page to find out more about all our gardening opportunities.