Garden project is helping to grow community spirit
A GARDEN project is aiming to brighten up and bring the community together in Firgrove.
The project began as a litter picking exercise during lockdown before the group decided to work on a community garden opposite the Crown and Shuttle pub.
Run by volunteers who meet every week to improve the garden, the project achieved a level four out of five at the last Rochdale in Bloom competition.
Lead volunteer Dean Larder said that areas like Firgrove can often be forgotten when it comes to projects like his. He said: “During lockdown a few of us got together and decided to tidy up the area.
“When you look at Milnrow, Littleborough and the town centre they’ve got lovely gardens but it was a bit boring here so we tried to tidy it up and get it to the next level.
“It moved on from doing the little picking and we put it out to the community and it attracted a lot of support. We’ve had many different volunteers form many different walls of life.”
Dean, who offers gardening lessons during the meet-ups, said the project is open to anyone.
In summer residents will be able to pick and eat veg grown at the garden and a newly acquired allotment and admire the flowers donated by the council and HMP Buckley Hall.
“It’s not about Rochdale in Bloom really, it’s about people coming together once a week for a couple of hours,” said Dean.
“I think this is the future, people being involved with their community. It’s the only open public garden that Firgrove’s got so it was something different.
“People like the fact that something part of the community is part of the community quite literally.”