The Roots Guerilla Gardening group are celebrating the success of their community garden project, after transforming an unloved piece of land earlier this year.
Since the project kicked off in April, the recovery group have been working hard every Wednesday morning… and now they are celebrating their first successful harvest.
Red Rose Recovery Team Leader, Rolonde, who has been overseeing the project and ‘mucking in’ since it began, said: “The fruit isn’t the only outcome. It’s the process – it’s a beautiful thing really”.
Broad beans, potatoes, strawberries, courgettes are just a few of the items grown on the land successfully, along with a whole range of herbs.
After they were dried, the herbs – including mint, thyme and coriander – were on show at the monthly Roots Community Forum event on September 25th.
Red Rose Community Engager, Dwaine Chadwick, proudly showcased his homemade ‘Roots’ mint sauce – which was created using mint picked from the garden.
Dwayne said: “The garden is a great way to bring everyone together and share inspiration”.
At the beginning of this year, Roots Community organisers were granted funding from the Community Asset Fund, which is ran by Community CVS. The small community grant allowed them to buy the tools, protective clothing and seeds they needed to make their garden a reality.
Many other items they used to grow their fruit and veg were also donated from the community, including plenty of tyres from local garages, which were soon turned into planters.
Joanna, a regular volunteer down at the patch, said: “It’s a good bunch of people and it’s a nice way to give back to the community”.
The Roots Community is part of the Spark recovery collaborative. As a group, they provide services and support to help people in Blackburn with Darwen break free from drug and alcohol dependence.
Thanks to the ongoing success of community-based engagement programmes, Roots Community and Red Rose Recovery are going from strength to strength. They now have more people than ever in paid full-time and part-time positions, many of whom started as volunteers.
To learn more about the project and what Roots Community get up to, please contact rolonde.bradshaw@redroserecovery.org.uk
