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What a fantastic day: no wind, lots of sun, free food and beverages from Asda and an endless stream of volunteers - just the right ingredients for a community garden social action project.
We started at 8:30am with the Council Parks Team and were immediately joined by a twenty strong group of residents. Little Alisha aged 5 has raked soil all day and has more mud on her face than on her boots but she's had a ball. Most of the kids spent the day dressed like NASA spacemen in white boiler suits and goggles painting the fences, sporadic paint fights caused much hilarity. Robert, the nominated caretaker whose garden backs on to the site has run backwards and forwards boiling his kettle for tea and letting desperate volunteers use his amenities! Mums Joanne and Chrissy have supplied sandwiches and soup whilst the Dads got stuck in with some hard digging. And that left the very special Maureen, Chairperson of the Residents' Association to keep the mood positive and the visitors happy.
Sam Cameron joined us to plant the first mulberry tree in the orchard area, landscape designer Jeff Hewitt was on hand to help with the digging - the ground was as hard as rock. She loved the raised beds and left the garden full of inspiration for her own back yard.
Councilor Ron Bell (Blackpool South)and Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveley) the candidates involved in the project lent their support as did a number of the Shadow Cabinet. Andrew Mitchell, David Blundell, Chris Grayling, Philip Hammond and David Burrowes all broke a sweat digging the back beds in preparation for turfing. A number of activists and MP's also joined us and discovered some interesting artifacts whilst raking the orchard area. Keenan our resident archeologist aged 10 is convinced they are of great historic value especially the china doll's head!
By 5:30pm everyone was exhausted and in real need of a cuppa, we were all starting to relax when who should turn up but William Hague, full of energy and ready for action. He spent 45 minutes digging with the kids and tussling with some tree roots.
After a hard day's labour we are all reflecting on the project and feel very proud that we've all achieved so much. The combination of Blackpool council, Blackpool Coastal Housing, the Grange Park Residents Association, the Conservative Party and Reassurance Plus is certainly a winning one!
Roll on tomorrow, we're ready for you.
Any questions, comments (but not rude ones) email me.
