Hats off to volunteers who look after our lovely gardens
Let’s talk about something positive. Let’s talk about gardens. Readers will know I look after the garden at John Pounds Church, Old Portsmouth.
If you’re in the locality, please pop in and have a look around. At the moment, the garden’s awash with colour, mainly from the wall flowers but all manner of other flowers are currently making a spring resurgence.
Our front garden here looks as if it’s been on steroids, it’s ‘mushrooming’ as never before.
Our garden here and the John Pounds garden are my happy places. Another local garden I’d like to draw peoples’ attention to is the Royal Marines Memorial Gardens, Eastney.
The Royal Marines Museum closed back in 2017, the garden is in the grounds of the former
Marines Barracks and can be accessed by a pedestrian gate just beyond the Yomper statue on Eastney Esplanade.
Last week, I took a detour on my way back from my morning walk and 'happened upon’ some of the volunteers who look after the Royal Marines Memorial Gardens. A couple of volunteers make the journey from Southampton. Increasingly, we’re being informed about the benefits of gardening to both physical and mental well being, plus the overriding importance of providing habitats for our precious, endangered birds and insects.
The coming together of up to a dozen people to do different tasks (apparently happily together) is testament to these volunteers’ commitment. The benefit derived from this commitment is there for all to see. Not only does this shared activity provide a sense of collective purpose, achievement and friendship, it also means that those whose ashes have been laid in the garden and those whose memorials are in situ, will never be forgotten as long as these volunteer gardeners are present.
The volunteers’ commitment is a mark of respect to all of those who gave their lives for us that we might hopefully live in peace.
I’m sure it must bring great comfort to the families of loved ones commemorated in this garden that their resting place is so well cared for. I came home with a very informative leaflet about the Memorial Gardens. What’s missing is any signage to inform people they can visit this poignant, peaceful garden. Perhaps the council, in collaboration with the volunteers, could remedy this?