Yesterday saw the official opening of our new community garden on Sirdar Road. Long in the making, we were finally able to celebrate the addition of a beautiful new green space where residents and centre users can plant and tend to a myriad of herbs, vegetables, fruit and flowers.
After the recent icy weather BBC’s The Instant Gardener, Danny Clarke, Council Leader Cllr Elizabeth Campbell and RBKC’s head community gardener William Rallison helped local residents welcome in the new season by planting early spring vegetables such as beetroot, onions sets and garlic.
Our Health and Wellbeing coordinator Lauren Best-Shaw said:
We began in 2016 with a small herb garden and have gone from strength to strength with the support from the community gardeners at RBKC. The group meets to help work on the garden, keep the area tidy, take care of the plants, learn gardening tips – and take home the herbs and vegetables they have grown. Members of the community get to volunteer, meet new people, learn new skills and enjoy the benefits of spending time with nature. We hope even more local residents will be inspired by this to come along and see how they can get involved.
Several recent studies have shown that gardening improves wellbeing and even combats loneliness. This is one of the reasons why gardening has become an integral part of The ClementJames Centre’s Health and Wellbeing offer to the local community. The new kitchen garden is a quiet space at which local people can enjoy the therapeutic effects of gardening.
