In February 2024, our Environment team began the work to clear the garden space around Unit 12 in Winnall. We then invested around £15,000 in the design and creation of the new community garden.
Since then, the team have on occasion returned to provide a helping-hand to enable the local volunteers to keep on top of things. This time around, 9 of us descended on the garden on what was a thankfully a relatively cool day, though it was pretty humid.
The third photo of the right shows team members on a well-deserved tea break in the main garden area which remains in excellent condition despite recent heatwaves.
A big “thank you!” to Lara Tarrant, Community and Building Manager for keeping us supplied with tea, coffee, biscuits and cake. All essential for keeping the troops happy.
We focused on the area down beside the building, where the community grows vegetables and makes compost in hot bins. Out tasks included:
- Weeding
- Reattaching the bamboo screening to the wire fence
- Sorting through crates of potted plants for those that were still viable
- Clearing away all of the waste materials that couldn’t be reused or recycled
The team also attended to the small planted area at the building’s front. It was previously untouched and overgrown with brambles and weeds.
Whilst sweeping up the debris on the pathway, the pupa shown in the final photo suddenly appeared. As is usual these days, we resorted to our mobile phones and determined that it was a Privet Hawk Moth pupa, which we safely returned to the raised beds.
See here for additional photos.
After three hours of hard but very satisfying work, we called it a day, with 5 of us decamping to the recently opened First in Last out (aka the Filo) pub just down the road, enjoying the garden which overlooks part of the River Itchen that runs through Winnall Moors.
