I am currently recuperating from an exhausting day of work. I occasionally help out in my own garden, but mainly it’s the province of my wife because she has the time and the inclination to do the mundane gardening work. I must say that ordinarily I get called upon to do the bigger heftier tasks, or I take it upon myself to do some special project such as growing a magical herb garden, or a future idea I have to create a turf labyrinth. That kind of thing. So it came as a big bodyshock to me when I had to spend all day gardening in a local primary school’s “Writing Garden” – a space that they had let go to a state of disrepair over the years.
I, and a select band of volunteer colleagues that I work with, spent our designated volunteer day working at this local school. I was appointed Team Leader for the project, so had the additional burden of the form-filling, the team selection, acquiring resources for the project, risk assessment and all the other tasks that no-one wants to do. With the help of my deputy and our incredibly useful and dedicated admin lady, we managed to get everything prepared in time for the work.
The garden is space needed several key areas fixing: the perimeter path needed completely clearing of root and weeds; the planted shrubs needed tending to and giving some breathing space from the invasive lime tree saplings that had self-seeded; all the wooden benches needed sanding and re-painting; and a wall that had been stripped of ivy needed cleaning and painting. Here’s how the garden looked before we started work:
Here’s a closer look at the drab back wall:
Within a day we had performed something of a minor miracle. A team of ten of us, dedicated hard-working people who practically spurned taking any form of break or stoppage throughout the whole day, such was their motivation, together we transformed the garden into a working safe and tidy space for the primary school children who would use it to inspire their creativity.
Here is the newly-painted ivy wall, now all clean and bright, with paths that were safe to walk on, and sown with wild flower seeds:
There were a few other additional touches that we added to the garden, such as potted bushes, a water butt to collect rainwater, bird boxes and a gravelled path:
Chi8ldren can now walk safely all around the garden and access the whole space even on bad weather days:
The whole experience was heartening, motivating and left us all feeling thoroughly worthy. Every single team member put in every effort they could to make this happen within a single working day, and I heard not one single gripe or moan throughout the whole day. It was simply magical to be a part of such a project.
Gwas.
