Why did you start the project?
The Weirhall Road Community Open Space is full of nettles; knotweeds and fly tipped rubbish. The state was unpleasant.
I always wanted to do litter picking and clear the weeds away, the COVID lockdown in mid-March spur me on to take action.
I was furloughed from work, so each morning, I went to the space and started to do little picking and pull out the weeds.
I was cleaning a metre square at a time or one bag of rubbish at a time between 15 mins to 30 mins. As time went by. I extended my time spend on cleaning.
Why is this project important?
This project is a demonstration of a positive impact of community social action and act of good-will for a shared open space.
This is particularly important during the COVID lockdown period where people rely more on local access to resources and to connect to one another in a safe space whilst they spent time closer to and at home with reduced travelling.
This positive action shows that a local diverse community is capable of sharing positive action to improve an open space, thus connecting people together under the unprecedented circumstance.
The act of litter picking; ground cleaning; food growing; sharing food and gardening skills becomes the common interests for the local community.
Parents and their children have access this open space to demonstrates that gardening is a fun and healthy lifestyle for families to adopt.
There are volunteers who are offering their time and expertise to help and educate people who would wish to use the space and to maintain and to keep the space open.
This project introduces people to the benefit of green space for better environmental health; physical health; mental health and social health. This is particularly important during COVID 19 pandemic while health is a priority for all.
How is this project making a difference?
These are the testimonies from the community stating how the project made a difference in their own words:
The space looks magical, it is loved and well looked after
I am inspired to clean and grow in my own garden
I am painting something for the first time
I did not realise composting was so easy
This project affirms my love for nature and growing
I have a lot of seeds and plants to give to this space
I am inspired to grow my own food
Me and my daughter have never seen a baby pumpkin before
Further ideas development
The project encourages the community to share their aspirations for the space:
Build a mushroom farm
Conduct a tree survey
Plan trees
Raise funds for facilities
Collate receipts
Install a water-well
Establish a formal group
Check out the garden harvest rate from link below:
https://www.goodtogrowuk.org/login/?pid=&view=4