It's a turf job, but somebody has to do it!

With crossed fingers that the rain would hold off, (difficult when cycling) I headed to Hillfields Community Garden to help prepare an area to be sown as a wildflower meadow. Sarah (the coordinator) said, "We hope this will become a Pollinators Paradise". Working alongside volunteers of all ages from the local community we removed turf, stacking it up to provide shelter for the plants and also hopefully prevent the park keepers from absentmindedly "mowing the meadow". By 12.30 we had cleared the last of the grass (before and after pics attached). The area will be initially sown with Yellow Rattle to deter grass regrowth and then seeded with wildflowers. Goodgym have previously visited this project, stacking tyres to assemble planters and raised beds, and it was great to see it thriving and well used by the community. Whilst my group worked on the turf, others were weeding and generally tidying up, whilst another group built bird and bat boxes to be put up around the area and in gardens. Hot drinks and biscuits were generously on offer throughout the morning and when all had finished there was the wonderful surprise of homemade lentil and vegetable stew to share, with chocolate cake for dessert. Sarah and her team have taken over responsibility for the community centre, so as well as gardening there will be the opportunity to support indoor tasks as we move into autumn and winter.