A few weeks ago, the gardening for well-being group decided to celebrate the new, purpose-built potting shed and veg planters in the garden at St John and St Stephen’s (Shal).
Ideas grew, as they do, and we were soon contacting local beekeepers, hedgehog rescue centres and the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust to see if they would come along to turn the event into an Eco Day.
They were all fully booked!
“No problem”, we said, “We’ll do it all ourselves and make it a proper home grown affair.” And that’s exactly what we did!
At the end of a rainy week, the sun shone down on the garden. Friends and neighbours pulled out all the stops, baking cakes, running pine cone bird feeder and bug hotel workshops, staffing the stalls and milling around chatting to people.
Margaret the bumble bee took people on a tour of the garden, explaining the importance of pollination and telling children about her favorite flowers.
We even had a poem written especially for the event, read by the poet himself, which looked back at the area when it was marshland, then looked at the present and towards the future when the community garden is fully flourishing. Keep your eye on our site for more news about that…
Our aim is to make the garden a haven for wildlife. We’ve planted wildflowers too attract bees, bugs, butterflies and birds. Because it’s autumn, the plants are not all in flower in this season, so we had photographs on garden canes to show people how beautiful the flowers will be in spring and summer. Margaret liked the photos very much!
We were delighted to see people going home with bags full of apples, beans and herbs that they’d picked from the garden. It’s a community space and we want people to stop and pick the produce as they pass by.
Fancy joining us?
We have lots of plans for plants and would value your input!
We meet at 1:30 every Thursday afternoon at St John and St Stephen’s on Roberts St. It would great to see you.
The children enjoyed our eco day so much that we’re going to have a junior gardening club. The first meeting is during half term on Wednesday 23rd October, meeting at the church at the above address. We’ll be composting the veg plants and making pine cone bird feeders.
Please email: carolyn@eastmarshunited for more details
