Behind the New Horizon Centre you may see that our partners idVerde have started work on the garden plot. This work is being funded by Public Health Merton as part of a push to encourage more people to get involved in local gardening projects and to teach children and young people about how food is grown.
This week’s work is the first phase of the work because as you can imagine, we have to fundraise for every aspect. This phase will expand the plot area and renovate the fencing. A gate will be put in at the head of the garden and a compacted gravel surface area will be created so that the plot is easily accessible for people using wheelchairs and is nice an even for those with limited mobility or who are worried about falling. We are looking at different designs for raised beds for people in wheelchairs, people who find it difficult to bend down because of back problems, assisted tools etc. If you have any ideas we would love to hear from you!
Gardening can also be therapeutic, as can just sitting in a garden space for a while and we want to ensure that as many local people as want to can easily access the plot. We will be discussing this with our lunch clubbers as well as with others who use the New Horizon Centre and anyone else with an interest. These conversations will help us to write funding bids that show that we are consulting local people and involving them as much as possible. So please do get in touch.
The photos show very clearly that often ‘things look worse before they look better!’ and that is probably where we are right now. But our idVerde friends are quick workers and we hope to be able to share our progress again on line in a week or so.
