Garden Nostalgia

Over the last 5 months, I’ve become involved with our local community garden and it really has brought back so many memories.

My dad, who sadly developed Alzheimer’s and passed away some years ago, for most of his life was a market Gardner and Nurseryman. He did it part-time whilst he had a growing family and then later full-time until he sold the business and retire in his mid 50’s.

During my childhood every weekend was spent in the garden. His place was beautifully situated in a shabby neglected Victorian walled garden and he gradually restored some of it and installed modern green house where they couldn’t be saved.

it was magical for children with lots of nooks and crannies to hide in, although nowhere near modern safety standards. We drank water from a spring fed system that was barely potable, played in mud, and ate berries and fruit straight from the tree. There were a lot of ‘minor’ injuries too, including falling into a nettle patch!(not me).

The reason all these memories have come back is that I have been using all the propagating and planting skills my dad taught me from a very early age. Sowing seeds, potting up seedlings, taking cuttings, all those skills came straight back.

My problem is that as soon as plants were ready to sell, they went, so I have very few after care skills but my fellow community gardeners are teaching me new skills. And I get to use my skills teaching another generation the joy of gardening.

The aim of our garden is to demonstrate that it can be easy to grow your own food and flowers in a way that benefits you and the environment, we want to educate and inform by showing people how to make the most of their space however big or small.

I’ll keep you updated on how our garden progresses but here’s the story so far.

In the future, we hope to be self financing but we have born a lot of the cost so far. We are looking for sponsors, both individuals and businesses. If you would like to help us, please email us with the word sponsor in the subject:

elswickcommunitygardens@gmail.com

Thank You