Digging up the stories behind the Secret Garden…

Both plants and community are starting to grow again in the cleared space at the secret garden!

​There have been a lot of volunteer hours put into building raised beds, shifting soil and clearing the greenhouse to prepare it for growing… and it is! Check out our peppers and chillies:

A bunch of brilliant gardeners have been filling the first raised beds with veg - sweetcorn, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and lettuce, to name a few, and we're now harvesting! There’s no water connection on site but our plants ​have kept hydrated thanks to our very generous neighbour who has been keeping the water butts topped up while we plan for building a better water collection system along with a shelter and composting toilet. We're currently clearing a space for the shelter and need all the help we can get...

As well as getting stuck into the garden, local councillor, Alison Clarke, has been talking to neighbours who have told stories about the gardeners that used to care for this amazing space and the community that formed around it. 
Tommy was a veteran who fought in Burma during WW2. He held the biggest plot full of fruit trees and three (possibly more) huge green houses. Tommy would regularly host his fellow veterans and ​neighbours to share cups of tea and BBQs on his allotment. Some photos were shared by his wife who still lives over the road… look at the amazing onions, toms and dahlias he grew and shared with his neighbours. Some serious motivation for us gardeners and a lot to live up to! 

Would you like to be involved in transforming the Secret Garden into something that can be shared by the community again? Faiths4Change will be running a weekly garden group Wednesdays 10am – 12pm starting from the 6th July. We’ll be maintaining the garden space as well as clearing space and building a shelter for those warmer or wetter days.

Get in touch with Rachel to take part: [email protected] / 07715 087655.