The first day of September saw an interesting and unique event taking place at the Grove Road Social Centre, home to its own Residents’ Gardening Project (read the earlier article about this here).
The marriage of the community’s Social Secretary Terry McCarthy to Secretary Jan Tchamani saw a great deal of gardening activity.
An important part of the day’s events was the planting of a range of annuals, perennials and trees. Children and adults alike — everyone still in formal wedding clothes! — took part in the planting which included the first saplings of the estate’s planned apple orchard.
As a result, the estate now has two further beds, each several metres long, in addition to the vegetables and herbs planted earlier in the year. On the day, the focus was decidedly on the fun of the planting activities, particularly for the children. However, the Grove Road Estate clearly has an eye to the future. This is a great way of building future food resilience into the fabric of a community in a way that everyone can enjoy.
Thank you for this – it meant a lot to us, not just the bride and groom but all the neighbours who are taking an interest, to see the estate looking more attractive, especially knowing how much love was behind the giving of the plants. I have to thank the Kitchen Garden Cafe, York Rd, for agreeing to hold a wedding present list for us, source the plants and deliver them on the day – Tracey Fletcher is very helpful, and the plants she chose were just right. She took the trouble to come and have a look at our soil and research suitable plants. They’ve never done wedding present lists before, and I think that shows openness, and real support for community initiatives.