No slimeballs here

The latest band from Glasgow? A gang of local meanies? No, just hints at snippets of more moments of intrigue amongst the comings and goings in a typical Thomas Fortune gardener’s week.  Coming along for the first time was the lovely Ebbie who loves all things bright and beautiful.  Thankfully, Ebbie is an experienced and enthusiastic gardener so wasn’t perturbed by the depth of the mud or the other ‘to be improved’ soil on the site of our emerging sensory garden.  Going – to Edinburgh, in fact – was our new friend Nick who was sad to leave our group and the fresh, dewy air of Yoker, enjoyed on his Wednesday visits to help us out.  Nick will be missed and we all wish him well and hope to see him again before too long.

Say hello

Wave goodbye

So, back to the sensory garden, despite the ground being rather heavy going, I have to say I’m impressed by the determination of the group to turn this into something really special for the service users at Focal Point as well as our own service users.  The loss of the greenhouses from the site seems to have awakened some new energy, vision and excitement for the task.  It’s like the next round in our continuing battle with the elements, designed, ironically, with the ultimate celebration of the harmony of nature in mind.  Give Charles a spade and no terrain will beat him – so worms beware!  They may not like us just now but they’ll surely enjoy the resulting thing of beauty, to become our best friends once more.

Charles shows off his curves

We’ve established some shapes we like and planted up some trees, with plans for some beautiful Bamboo to screen off some building in the distance.  The sound of Bamboo is perfect for our themed garden and we hope to use the sound of water too, as well as attracting as many birds as possible to provide probably the most wonderful soundtrack imaginable.  We hope the mossy bank will offer a visual suggestion of texture as well as using textural plants which can be touched easily and safely.

Andrew has twigs

Border Control

Later in the week we visited Antonine Court, just along the road, where we agreed a plan of action with Jim, who had exactly the same goals in mind and on Wednesday Nick dug in – literally – for the last time in the border by the fence where we hope to establish some colour.  While Andrew M was away collecting his twigs we discovered signs of a challenge yet to come – slug eggs!  Food for the birds in my view but kindly Sally insisted we give the pesky things a fair chance and promptly re-buried them.

Slug eggs

We checked over the children’s garden, which is very much Mark’s project and we look forward to progressing this now.  Meanwhile Andrew found more places with twigs and he duly collected them to be shredded on another day.

Andrew with more twigs

Mark ready for action

Pete the pipe

Adnan keeps James in the loop

The value of friendship is never underestimated by our gardeners as David C reveals in the short film we made last year.  We know this so well in our daily routines and at times of real joy or sadness too.  Mates matter.  We began the week mindful of the forthcoming funeral of our friend Gordon but Monday saw the formation of a new team, comprising Charles, Sally and Derek, David T and Peter, giving us a more positive focus.

With the ground thawed we set to work on our long-planned sensory garden, removing the wind-wrecked screening and clearing more of the debris to reveal our work area.  We marked out a more interesting border and it all began to take shape.  There was quite a lot of moss to cut out to create the borders and rather than lose this beautifully coloured and textured resource we re-used it to form a bank around the trees.  This shady area will be home to bluebells and crocuses this time next year.  That’s  something to look forward to.

Beginning the sensory garden

On Tuesday many of our gardeners went to say good-bye to a valued friend after which some much needed relief was gained by Stephen’s suggestion of going to see the horses in the fields nearby.  This always relaxes him and now it had the same effect on the rest of us as the sun shone to brighten our mood just that little bit more.

We were joined by Angela from Burness on Wednesday and after a rapid litter-pick we moved on to more physical work to keep warm.  We worked on the borders to clear them ready for planting up and set to clearing moss from the path.  Andrew M insisted on collecting twigs of all sizes in anticipation of future grass-cutting and considering their potential effect on the blades.  Andrew loves the lawn mowers and takes great care of them, watching very carefully should anyone else use them.

The squad

Friday was showery and a bit cold so we used our recent Tuesday plan to good effect, flying around some of our sites, including Antonine Court and Drumchapel Sports Centre, to pick litter in short, quick bursts.  We made such good time that we decided to thank our DCB supporters for their kindness by clearing some of the litter brought in by the winds.

Fan-tache-tic!

Sally and Willie were on the ball and Adnan worked well alongside James who’d had a haircut in honour of our colleague Marie’s birthday party, to which we’d all been invited.  This would be a fitting way to end a bit of an emotional week and we all needed some laughter.  It’s never too far away with our team and Derek performed his impression of Jonny from ‘The Shining’ which always ends in the team shouting out their orders for kebabs as Derek slides open the window…

Here's Derek!

Stephen, the bus and David T.

The new, improved, more efficient and effective processes of life are often so impersonal that they lead us to question the authority, humanity, integrity and wisdom of those who decided to impose them upon us, but we’ve allowed it to become part of daily life now and we have little option but to sign up to it.  I say little option rather than no option because the news is as we, in our little group, explore the therapeutic benefits of gardening we’ve come to realise that all of our talk has encouraged each of our members to integrate more. Ideas are shared and may be challenged to find a practical solution in a pragmatic way. Next, we realise that we’ve learned a lot about listening and this all came by allowing the natural mix of our personalities to develop something beneficial to the group as a whole as well as being helpful to each individual.  That is, individuality itself.  It’s very old-fashioned but it’s very effective.  We talk, we listen, we react.  Each of our individuals makes a really valuable contribution to the group and, together, they’re really protective of the group, accepting no nonsense.  Together we’re stronger and more effective because of how we treat the individual.  We have a strong Respect for each individual, including ourselves.  This, in turn, helps to develop a sense of Responsibility for ourselves and towards those around us.  Individually and as a group we, most certainly, enjoy the Rewards.  We’re happy.  The 3 R’s work for us.
Simon was happy when we stopped off at the shop.  He likes to go in by himself and choose what to buy and he does it very well.  Back at base he had good questions when we went through the Gardener’s Handbook – new to this group, apart from James and Stephen who’d been with us last Friday.  They helped the others and answered questions raised and the quiz at the end seems to fit the bill too.  David C and Andrew S raised helpful points and put our discussion into action by double checking anything about which they were unsure.

On Wednesday we were joined by Nick from Burness who was raring to go.  We discussed our activities for the day and set to, arriving in good time to complete our litter sweep of the grounds and collect our fallen branches for chipping.  Mark took the task of Tool Monitor for the day, really embracing the responsibility well and checking everything out very carefully.  He carried the clipboard around with him for the whole session and clearly reveled in this new task.  The chipping went well and everyone was pleased to warm up over lunch.  Nick couldn’t believe where the time went – I can relate to that – and Mark checked every item back into the bus and out again at the unit, ensuring everything was clean and returned to the right spot.  Magic!

Success!

Somewhat on-the-hoof we had confirmation of a job and I set out with David T and Stephen, on Thursday, to collect storm debris, clear litter and leaves and tidy the frontage of the Drumchapel Sports Centre.  We devised our system, which was to clear away litter first, then larger twigs and rake up the leaves, leaving the area looking much smarter in a relatively short time.  The guys were really pleased with the result of their efforts and it was a rarity to work with such a small number but the contact and the outcome was a triumph for the therapeutic values we uphold.  It was two years to the day that I joined the group and this was a pleasant way to have spent it.

We had a plan to collect remaining plants in safe storage at Alderman Road Community Garden and bring them to the site of our proposed sensory garden but first we presented Willie with his copy of the Gardeners Handbook.  We went through it and Willie completed the quiz at the end in record time and with full marks, too.  Teamwork was the order of the day and the team was very much leading the way with this, being very proactive in organising how our range of plants would fit into their beloved minibus.  The care taken in their removal was equally impressive and we stored them by their intended location and, later, added those potted up last week before discussing our planting plans.  There were lots of good ideas taking into account which areas need to be screened and which tall plants would look good with the sunlight coming through them.  It was touching that our friend Gordon should be remembered in this and it seems likely that there will be an area where we can reflect on those we have known through the TFWC.  It’s rewarding reflecting on the day spent with the gardeners and the ideas they come up with and that, possibly, gives us the fourth ‘R’ to add to our steps to happiness; Reflection.

Reflecting on happy times last year, watch out for forthcoming events.  You may even be able to join us and meet some of the team!

After the storms

Martin plants a bulb!

This has been a great time for continuing to sow the remaining seed pots and I’m glad that they’re being checked and watered.  David C and Charles have added theirs to the line now.  We had some seed pouches extra, too and these could be coloured-in on the front of the packet.  These came from our Centre manager Anne and our Chairperson, another Anne, gave us a bulb to pot up too – thank you!

We were joined by Angela from Burness, who enjoyed working the chipper and helping to top up the path we created last year.  A new face always brings out some interesting stories from the team and we’re always interested in hearing form others too.  Mark and Andrew M continue to make a good team, sharing duties and seeing the job through and, of course, we had the usual litter-pick.  We’re hopeful that the Burness team will add to this blog to record their time with us, so, fingers crossed.

We’re pleased to announce that we are to have a greenhouse donated to our group which will be placed at Balshagray House.  This is coming from a very kind lady called May, who knows all about ENABLE Glasgow and the Thomas Fortune Centre.  May was delighted when I told her this is where we plan to site the greenhouse and who’ll use it.  Come Spring, we’ll be able to check on it when we resume gardening duties there and help the staff and residents to enjoy home-grown crops and take part in their development.

We plan to replace our wind-wrecked greenhouses and have identified a probable new site which offers better protection, as well as other opportunities to bring benefits to our gardeners and everyone at The Thomas Fortune Centre.  Our original site will enjoy modified plans to incorporate the original bases into an extended Sensory Garden, which should be a peaceful haven for everyone at Focal Point and the TFWC.  Meanwhile we planted the bulbs into pots which will, eventually, be placed there as well as tending our trees and planting more seeds!

Will these make it to the Sensory Garden?

We had a sad beginning to this week when we learned that Gordon, one of our pals from the Thomas Fortune Centre, had died at the weekend.  It was a comfort to everyone to be among friends on hearing such news.  It was a sharing of sadness but of the many happy memories the group recalled too and his picture was placed in his usual seat, out of respect.  We congratulated gardeners John and Francis on their birthdays, however, and continued as best we could.

George was unable to join us but Charles came along instead of on his usual Wednesday, to accommodate a REHIS course at Cafe Knowes on that day.  We opted for our spot litter-pick plan which works well with this day’s team, covers a lot of ground around different projects and offers short, sharp bursts of activity before returning to the minibus for the next location, ensuring we don’t get too cold.  Simon enjoyed his stop-off at the shop to practise independence skills and he’s doing very well at reducing his sweets and fizzy drinks intake.

We celebrated James’ birthday, this Wednesday, singing to him and giving him a card signed by all of his gardening group pals.  He’s less and less keen on birthdays but with his sense of fun and cheeky charm he’s easily able to keep up with the youngsters in the team.  Sally demonstrated our new ‘tool monitor’ form to give feedback on it’s progress.  All seemed well and the team embraced the idea.  This is that every member will take a turn at responsibility for overseeing that tools are checked out and back in, cleaned and any notes are logged.  We also use this to keep a record of weather conditions and the temperature using our thermometer outside.  David joined us, from Burness and it turns out he’s keen on photography so we may be pictured for their in-house publication if his lens doesn’t crack first.  He, too, enjoyed trying out the wood chipper and before we knew it we’d reached lunchtime.  Time flies when your having fun.  After lunch we continued to wade through the pile of wood to chip and were glad of being able to set up under cover as it was very windy and a bit chilly.

We had a couple of people absent on this very icy Friday but Stephen joined us to meet at the unit to collate our new Gardener’s Handbooks, before we read through them together, discussed the contents and finished off with a quiz to check the information had been understood.  This was taken very seriously and gave me some pointers for when we introduce our individual study programmes, when I shall discuss with each gardener what they would like to achieve in the coming year and work out a plan to aid progress.

We had an early lunch to attend a meeting at ENABLE Scotland HQ in the city.  Our gardeners were to join others to voice their views about the way information is made available to them to make recycling easier to understand and practise.  Sally knew the way and ensured we got there and we were made very welcome.  We may be asked to follow-up with views on any conclusions drawn and the team was proud to have played a part in helping to form decisions and strategies – in much the same way we do every morning over a coffee and a biscuit.

Adi adds more

Flick through flickr…

Coupled with optimism was enthusiasm.  After the festivities everyone was like a coiled spring waiting to get out and do something – anything!  Some of the group brought in their seed pots and we watered them and placed them on a warm windowsill.  The rest are keen to bring in theirs to join in the (unofficial) competition.  A short first week back but clearing slippery leaves and tree debris from Drumchapel Sports Centre was the perfect task to ease back into it – and warm up too.

Monday was greenhouse day though, sadly, it was a reclamation programme for the day, sifting through the remains to recover what we could from the aftermath of the storm.  Sally, Derek and David worked really well at gathering the staging and some of the cold frames etc.  We took them to storage and planned our return to dismantle the remains of the greenhouses themselves.  That was a job for the Tuesday group and it was beginning to feel like normal again, after the break.  George was a dab-hand at dismantling the greenhouse frames and David, Stephen, Andrew, Simon and James gathered nuts, screws and glazing clips which were strewn everywhere.

On Wednesday we were joined by three volunteers who will rotate attendance for the next few weeks.  Angela, David and Nick from Burness Solicitors in Glasgow will enjoy some fresh air and exercise with our team and, hopefully, have some fun too.  We began by having a chat with the gardeners, to get to know each other and have a look around the unit.  Each sorted out one of the seed pots given to the gardeners for Christmas, which went down well and then we went to Yoker and showed them where they’ll be working, while with us, starting with litter-picking.  Soon it was lunch time and we were well looked after, as usual, by Jean, Lizzie and the boys, after which we tended to damaged trees.  Sawing and lopping are quite popular tasks, so we got a fair bit done.

Later in the week we returned to Drumchapel Sports Centre to clear more of the car park leaves and we hooked up the chipper, giving Stephen, Martin and David their first experience of this.  They loved it, took in the safety talk and worked really well.  We had a good system going keeping the branches lined up and each taking a turn at the machine.  It was sunny and pleasant too – everything gardening therapy should be.

It’s been good to get back to our routine.  As we’ve mentioned before, it’s so important and this week confirmed that – as if that were needed.  We wish all of our followers the very best for the new year and we hope you continue to enjoy reading about our exploits.  Happy new year!

Why not check out our section ‘The Gardeners’  there are some shots of our gardeners’ Christmas party, courtesy of our sponsors -  Drumchapel Community Business. Thank you!

There are some unintended shots too?

"I'm really proud"

“Oh, I’m really proud of myself!”

Words we may hope to hear at any point in life.  I’ve been privileged to hear those words and see that look time after time, over the last two years.

Most recently we heard Aileen say this when she joined in a pre-holiday activity open to non-gardening group members. It was a demonstration and practical experience of making festive table decorations using foliage donated by our friends at Yoker and led, most generously, by the very kind Sheila.  The group loved the experience and had something to take home and be proud of.  Reports back were that family members were impressed too, so well done!

Over the past year though, Mark has developed real pride in the work he’s put into his garden for the children at Yoker, while Stephen and Simon have been proud of learning how to use the lawnmowers.  David T is proud of joining the group and learning gardening skills as well as coming up with some great ideas which we plan to put into practice in 2012.

Andrew S has shown real skills at weeding while Andrew M has been great at helping newcomers learn how we all work together – a worthy mentor.  The ladies in our team have done themselves proud too.  Sally has organisational skills which every gardening group would be grateful for and Marie has developed her photography skills to record our activities and she’s persevered through illness to attend our gardener’s Christmas bash and show off her dancing.

Adnan, another fine dancer, has had some amazing ideas which we look forward to working on together as group next year and he’s worked so well on focusing his attention and improving his skills that he’s another team member who can feel truly proud.  David C is a real asset, sharing his experience and skills and setting a good example to the youngsters (and not-so young!)  and we’re delighted to have been joined by James C and Denis from Balshagray House when we’ve worked there.  They’ve been proud to contribute to the look of their own garden.

Our James O is proud that he has made more gardening days than anyone else and he’s able to jump into pretty much any task.  He even fancies trying out the lawnmowers next year.  Raymond can take pride in being very obliging and capable and helping the group numerous times, to make it all work out.

William was pleased to make a return and his strength of character has been a valuable asset to our group.  Newcomers Charles and Martin have each settled in well and seem like they’ve always been with us, such is the high-standard of their work!

Jeffrey remains an honorary member, such has been his contribution in the past, while Jim can be proud of his work with the group while having to sort out a million-and-one other things, which is a lot to deal with.

Peter has been so pleased with his work that he came back from semi-retirement to make sure we’re all keeping up to his high standard – thank you Peter – and Francis came back to meet up with his pals and for a good chat about the old days.  We chatted about his work atAntonine Court, when we really needed all hands on deck.  Derek can be truly proud of his contribution too.  He is our recycling supremo and spots every opportunity to join us for an extra session, showing his dedication to a team with whom he is so proud to work – and I can echo that feeling too.

We’ve all been proud to work with some amazing volunteers to whom we owe a great deal, so thanks go to Andrew, Brian, Charis, Frank, George, Gordon (or Gordo in our blog (only)), Natalie and Stuart.

We’re also proud to have received such support from Councillor Paul Carey, Liz Atkinson, John Oliver, Drumchapel Community Business, Glasgow West Regeneration Community Planning Partnership, BAA Flight Path Fund, Drumchapel Life, all of our projects and everyone at ENABLE Glasgow and the Thomas Fortune Centre for such support and encouragement, for which we are so grateful.  Thanks to everyone – all the best for 2012.

Click to view slideshow.

Adam volunteers for a daunting task.

The first task of the week for our gardening project was mine to complete and instead of donning the usual overalls, Hi-vis jacket and safety boots, etc.  it was into the kitchen, fully cleansed and sanitised, wearing an apron and a paper hat straight from the set of South Pacific.  I was to complete my task with the help of a non-gardener, too (I didn’t realise such people existed).  Adam volunteered to work with me for my practical task which goes towards my REHIS Food and Health qualification and we set about preparing and cooking a healthy meal.  Now, given that the goal of every gardener is to enjoy the fruits of their labour by some means – be it floral or oral – we’re thinking ahead to the days when our fruit trees and bushes, rhubarb, salad and other small crops treat our taste buds and inspire new thinking and enthusiasm among our colleagues at TFWC, for fresh, nutritious and simply made foods.  We hope to share this maxim with some of the people we meet at the projects we work at, too.  It’s amazing how much better it tastes when you’ve grown it yourself!

We’re returning to the weather we enjoyed with our Australian gardening chum, Andrew, this time last year and the story of his first snowman has been doing the rounds again with smiles and fond memories.  Then there was the second snowman, after the first was culled, cruelly but not without some amusement.  This gave us a bit of time to continue preparation of our many benches for communal areas both for our own greenhouse project, TFWC and some of the other regular projects we work at.  Plans were also laid out for a gardening group handbook to ensure everyone feels their ownership of the special group we have and that we welcome new members as best we can with minimum disruption to the equilibrium achieved so far.

All for one...

We were buoyed by the beautiful sunshine as we arrived at the Unit to prepare for duties at Yoker and astounded by the ferocity of the hail stones which turned everything white by the time we came back out to set off – but, of course, it was sunny again by the time we arrived there.  Sally, Mark and Charles, who is still excited about his recent birthday, set about a chilly litter-pick and we were then joined by James.  We covered the whole site before reviewing the raised-bed area and discussing our plan for after-lunch tasks.  Now, what we choose to do after food can be critical and for some gardeners more than others.  We need to consider who becomes re-energised, the opposite or even virtually dormant and tasks have to be meted out with this in mind.

Hands on

Lizzie, from Yoker Resource Centre, helped out in this respect, as she’d had some spring bulbs to plant for a while but not got round to it, so we collected these from Sandy and set to work after our first Christmas dinner of the season.  It worked well.  We took turns to dig, select the bulbs, cover over and pat-down and we covered a fair amount of ground.  Perfect.  The team loved the task and were enthusiastic about seeing the results of their efforts next year. It’s always a bonus to have something to look forward to.
Thursday was the second course of Food and Health training and it was good to hear of the others’ experiences.  The more we discussed it, the more relevance I could see to our group and to the future of the project and I didn’t feel guilty about calling off gardening for the day as we had the strongest winds for a very, very long time (I know I keep saying this but they are getting stronger) and most public buildings were closed early or didn’t open at all and people were advised to remain at home.  The course was my cup of tea but wasn’t a piece of cake and I enjoyed every bit of it.  We sat the examination and headed off into the wilds for home.

I visited Phoenix Hall on Friday for its official re-opening and, though we’ve tended the grounds outside, I really got a sense of the value of this facility for having spent some time inside it.  There was plenty to talk about with other local groups, many of which I’d like to join forces with for various gardening projects around Drumchapel and some others will be of interest to many of our service-users at the TFWC.

In the soup

So in a week which began with Adam and me preparing a meal of red pepper soup with avocado, steamed salmon with dill, steamed potatoes and red pepper, followed by blueberry and raspberry fool – and nothing but happy musings from Adam for the week afterwards (thankfully), I reflect on how much more Adam and I have come to learn about each other – in just that short time, through a shared experience.  It reminded me of the times I’ve got to know each of the gardeners, similarly and it always seems like such a break-through, opening the door to further understanding and ever-deepening respect for the achievements of this amazing team.

Not just another course

Some of the ingredients in this week’s post were grown on my plot at the allotment while some develop at the Thomas Fortune Centre.  We made a meal of them – without any fuss – and  I’m pleased to confirm that no colleagues were injured in the making of this meal.  A huge THANK YOU to Sally for acting as official photographer, recording our cookery experiment and sampling our efforts with such delight.  It appears that the proof of the pudding really is…

Tidy

You just can’t beat nature but half the fun of gardening is that constant challenge of dealing with ever-changing parameters as many supposed clues to our next course of action turn out to be red herrings.  If you like puzzles and have a taste for the outdoors then gardening is for you.  If you’re less keen on the outdoors then there’s plenty to keep the indoor gardener busy too and our current challenge of protecting our greenhouses in readiness for such activities sums up beautifully, what we do and what we’re about.  The sudden changes to our routine will provide many an opportunity to re-group, re-assess and open the flood gates to a torrent of ideas from the group, too, which is one of my favourite experiences.

We get great results.  Our team contributes to our local community.  Each member plays a vital role in what we achieve as a group as well as their personal achievements and each provides empathetic support for their gardening colleagues and it is truly a privilege to witness these moments unfold.  Things go wrong too and occasionally we discover the odds are against us – but what a team for working through situations to reach the conclusions which have brought us so far in such a short time.  Of course, we could never achieve these individual and collective triumphs if it weren’t for our supporters but we certainly could not achieve these successes if it weren’t for the individuals we’re so fortunate to work with.  It’s like a second family – a place of safety and comfort for a group which deserves all that we have.

Our last gardening day with Charis was spent getting creative at the greenhouses, fixing the panels, clearing the borders to create a garden along the fence line while knowing that we’ll miss her cheery and very valuable input.  Andrew S was particularly poignant in his expression of how much he’d enjoyed Charis’ presence.  That was a speacial moment.

We’ve worked at Antonine Court, Yoker and Pineview in between some pretty threatening weather and finally the day came when we had to say ‘goodbye’ to Charis and Stuart but not before Stuart had worked his magic in printing out my responses to the Gardening committee in an easy-read format.  Andrew S, Raymond and Mark presented Charis and Stuart each with a plant and cards from the gardeners as well as lots of hand-shakes and hugs and the rest of the TFWC crowd joined in with gifts and cards and many best wishes.  We look forward to seeing them again soon – we like our Christmas parties!

We’re really making headway with our benches now and we’ve agreed how many and where we can set them out.  Two will border our feature paved area and we’ll donate three to our generous hosts and neighbours at Focal Point.  They’ll create an area for their Day-Service users and we will all join in the enjoyment of the greenhouses over the coming seasons.  We look forward to integrating our two groups and can anticipate some lively inter-activity if our lunches at Yoker are anything to go buy as we share the dining space there with the local Seniors’ lunch-club.  I’m not sure who’s more cheeky, sometimes, but there’s definitely a spark and a good bit of fun and a laugh which is a crucial element of our brand of gardening therapy.

Alongside the therapeutic benefits of gardening and the evident benefits of our group interactions, we encourage each other to overcome any little struggles we might have such as tying our laces, eating fewer sweets or cutting back sugar in our tea.  One gardener had five sugars in his tea when I first joined and he is happy enough now with just one – just for being asked to try it.  Combine this with the physical graft he’s happy to take part in and the combination and the prospects for his health, improve.

With such elements being an important part of the make-up of the group and with our plan to grow and sample our own fresh produce, giving endless scope to give examples of healthier lifestyle choices, I attended the first of a two-part  REHIS course on Healthy Eating.  Already I can see the potential benefits of this extra knowledge, even though I eat a pretty balanced diet myself, I am realistic about lure of a biscuit or two.  Anyhow, this is expected to be another valuable outcome from our wide-ranging and ever-expanding range of topics covered in our gardening group and our greenhouses widen the opportunities even further for everyone at TFWC to become a part of what we’re doing and benefit in a number of ways to suit each individual.

For now, though, between the storms, we’ve continued with our bench-sanding, our gardening, including a visit to Balshagray House where we managed to finish just before the worst of the weather kicked in – again – and our litter-picking.  We even managed a major tidy of the store room to accommodate the ever-growing mountain of materials to make the Sensory Garden and our Fruit Garden something else really special.

We’ll have more pictures next time, hopefully, if we resolve a technical gaffe – that will be really special!

Gardening Blog Update

Sadly I think this will be my last post.  9 weeks has certainly gone quickly!  The feedback from the committee meeting has been fed back to Richard and he has already responded to the issues and suggestions brought up at the meeting.

(Gardeners): Please check the notice board in the centre or at the Unit for the response.  It won’t be long ’til the next committee meeting so good luck with that.  I hope it continues to be a success.  I would like to thank all the gardening group for making my time in the project so enjoyable.  I only hope that I have been of some help!   I’ll make sure I keep up-to-date with the group by logging on to the website.

Thanks again

Stuart

Aww, we miss you already Stuart and the response from the team must offer some reassurance that your input has been both welcome and extremely valuable to our project with lasting effects.  Thank you from all the team. 

R.