Preview: Horsforth Community Garden launch

The Lord Mayor of Leeds will launch the Horsforth Community Garden in Horsforth Hall Park on 22nd March - here’s how it’s shaping up.

Transcript

00:00Here we are in Horsforth Hall Park just in front of the Japanese Garden and we're at

00:05the site of the wonderful new community garden.

00:09From a seed of an idea to reality, the Horsforth Community Garden has been a labour of love

00:15for the Friends of Horsforth Hall Park since 2021 and they're almost ready to officially

00:20launch their green haven.

00:22Four years ago during lockdown when we were doing food parcels, one of the volunteers

00:27said wouldn't it be great if we had a community garden and so that was Janet Little.

00:33We are lucky enough to have an ABCD asset based community development community builder

00:38in Horsforth, Claire Evans, so she worked with Janet and then brought together a team

00:44of people, did lots of consultation.

00:46The Parks Department were able to give us a guardianship of this piece of land which

00:50was just a patch of grass four years ago.

00:53One of the benefits of that is we're next to the yard so we've got access to water and

00:56storing tools and access to the parks tools as well.

01:00Locals have been proud to invest time, effort and funds into the development of the space.

01:06We've raised about £25,000, we've installed accessible paths, that was the first thing

01:12we did because we felt it was really important that we wanted it to be for the whole community

01:16so for the paths to be accessible, so that was the focus of the first year and then we

01:23then went on to build raised beds, so we've got a system of beds of different heights,

01:27some ground level beds, going up to sort of waste level beds, again one of our main volunteers

01:34is in a mobility scooter so she enjoys gardening from the higher beds.

01:40We've had funding for an orchard so we've got apple trees, espalier and cordon apple

01:45trees, pear trees, plum trees, soft fruit.

01:50We've got a herb garden and then in the middle, because we wanted the garden not just to be

01:55productive for edibles, we wanted it to be a beautiful space that people could be good

02:00people's mental health and well-being, so we've got a lovely sensory garden in the middle.

02:04The stone circle was donated by stone traders at High Trees and then we paid a local garden

02:10installer to install it for us and then we've designed some really beautiful sensory planting

02:16which will last throughout the year and so it'll get all the senses, so movement and

02:23touch and sight.

02:25Bugs will be able to check in to their own hotel and the garden is sure to benefit all

02:29Horsforth residents for years to come.

02:32We've also got a little veg library which is a Leeds initiative, building on the little

02:37free libraries so where people can swap anything to do with gardening, so plant pots, seedlings,

02:43magazines and so on.

02:44We all know how good gardening is for our mental and physical health and that applies

02:49to everybody, young and old, when I do a lot of volunteering, some of it is to do with

02:54organising and behind the scenes work but what I really love is getting out and doing

02:57the practical stuff and that really gives me joy.