Good News Garden - the story so far
Reports are published occasionally in our monthly newsletter. They will appear here when they become available.
Week 7
Genesis 1:11
11 Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened.
This week’s progress:
What a week, what a transformation! The vegetable garden is complete with 5 new beds and one established, one edged with new railway sleepers (not an easy job to cut with a handsaw!).
The paths around the beds have been lined with weed suppressant fabric and topped with a thick layer of playsafe bark chippings.
Part of the wildflower meadow has been scarified and an initial sprinkling of wildflower seed distributed. Two magnificent compost bins have been constructed from pallets.
As one passer by commented- ‘you could keep a flock of sheep in there!’
Rather appropriate don’t you think?
MKM Building Supplies have given a whopping 15% discount and then, as if this wasn’t enough, they have thrown in the sleepers instead of more humble decking boards for the same price. Savi’s, Mr Potato and Dodos Pizzas have fed us all at a discount.
We are very much in all of their debt.
So, what of the week to come?
Well, next week will see us taking a well-earned rest, but on Saturday 29th May we shall hold our first Good News Garden gardening session between 9.30 and 11.00am. To mark the occasion and get the Spring Bank Holiday off to a great start we shall also be stocking our ‘Free Gift For You’ stand with any seedlings and baby plants which you can bring along. (Any green beans, beetroots, carrots or parsnips might be snaffled for our veg beds!)
EVERYONE is welcome. Don’t worry if Saturday 9.30-11.00am is not a good time for you, there will be another session on Monday between 10.00 and 12.00am and again on Thursday between 2.00 and 4.00pm.
Come along, check it out, and think whether you might be willing to put your name on a rota to lean on a rake and direct the action one session. No gardening experience is necessary!
Our Steering Team have all the expertise needed and will be producing a list of jobs which need to be done each week.
Finally, please keep those pledges coming! We are so nearly there, but we still need to raise more funds for the seats, raised bed for wheel chair users and paving. A durable, sturdy hardwood armchair costs £205, block pavers come in at around £20 per square metre.
Email your pledge – details of where to send the money will follow soon. Even a fiver towards one of these items would make a difference!
As ever, the biggest thing you can do to help is to pray.
Please Pray for the Prince’s Trust team as they continue with their course and for their lives beyond. Pray for sun and rain to nourish our new plants. Pray for lots of gardeners to bless and be blessed by our garden. Pray for continued donations and a generous grant from the Circuit for phase 2.
Pray that God will continue to inspire and guide us in carrying his Good News out of his church and into his garden.
Amen
Week 6
Genesis 2:15
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
This week’s progress:
Bright and early on Monday morning 11 students and their team leader from the Prince’s Trust arrived at Dale St with an assortment of garden tools ready to hit the ground running. At the end of the first week they have managed to clear the area of wild garlic near the Dale Street traffic lights where the compost bins are going to be built. This plant is apparently not a native to these Isles and invasive so we decided not to pot it up and put it on our ‘Free gift for you’ display stand! The three clumps of pampas grass have been removed along with a couple of bumble bee nests thanks to the combined efforts of the Prince’s Trust, Russell Blackwell (an ex-beekeeper) with a selection of electric hedge cutters, Graham Howe with an axe, and a neighbour from 26 Portland Place West with a very robust garden fork. The debris is too much to fit in the skip so a flotilla of Dale Street cars are being organised to take it to the tip in their boots. The turf has also been stripped in the area which will become the vegetable garden ready for veg beds to be installed with bark chippings around to create pathways.
So, what of the week to come?
We are hopeful that a local builders merchant, MKM based on the Tachbrook Park industrial estate, will be delivering all the materials we need early in the week at a discount price. The veg beds, planters and compost bins will then be constructed, the paths formed, and the remaining lawn area scarified and seeded with wildflowers. Plants are being offered from some of the Prince’s Tust for an extra flower/herb bed which is being formed near the car park entrance off Portland Place West, and we hope to leave everything ship shape and ready for willing gardeners.
SO… how will our new garden work? We have interest from Mutual Aid, a volunteer group who have been running errands for folk during lockdown but who also make regular phone calls to people who have been very isolated to use the garden space. They hope that their beneficiaries can meet the volunteers who have been phoning them in a safe place for their first tentative steps outside their homes. To facilitate this, and gardening by other individuals from the community, we are looking for a small steering group to oversee the garden, advise on planting, set out a list of jobs to be done each week etc. Then we will need volunteers to be on site for a couple of hours from time to time to ensure that there is a Dale Street presence whenever gardening is taking place. The slots we are looking for are Monday morning 10-12.00am, Thursday afternoon 2-4.00pm and Saturday morning 9.30-11.00am. If you are happy to chat and lean on a rake, or even join in with a little gentle gardening please email me on the fundraising website. The more people who can get involved the less of a commitment this will be so please think if you might be able to come down to the garden, even if only once a month.
Please keep those pledges coming! We still need to raise more funds for the seats, raised bed and paving. A durable, sturdy hardwood armchair costs £205, block pavers come in at around £20 per square metre.
Email your pledge – details of where to send the money will follow soon. Even a fiver towards one of these items would make a difference!
As ever, the biggest thing you can do to help is to pray.
Please Pray for the Prince’s Trust team. Pray for a great discount on the materials. Pray for continued donations and a generous grant from the Circuit for phase 2. Pray that God will continue to inspire and guide us in carrying his Good News out of his church and into his garden.
Amen
Week 5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
This week’s progress:
The final preparation is done. The skip has been ordered, the tools and equipment gathered, the miles around Victoria Park have been walked. Cakes have been baked, raffled, won and consumed! The food has been organised, the Covid rules negotiated and agreed. We are still waiting for some final costings, still praying for a few discounts, donations and offers of help. But we are as ready as we can be to step out in faith into the garden. We are delighted to report that the costs for this first phase have now been covered by a mixture of your generous donations and a grant of 50% from the Circuit, however, we are still short on the total needed to complete the project with phase 2 planned for early August. This is when the paved area will be created, and the seating installed along with the raised bed for wheelchair users.
So, what of the week to come?
The team will arrive on site at Dale Street at 9.30 on Monday morning for their first day’s work. Hopefully the skip will arrive early that morning and the work of clearing away old plants and removing the turf from the areas to be given over to paths and veg beds can begin. New compost bins can be constructed from old pallets and installed ready for use. Plants which can be salvaged will be potted up and placed on our display stand for anyone to take and plant in their own gardens.
What can you do to help? Well, sadly please don’t bring home-baked cakes or cookies to site for the workers. This is against the current Covid rules. Please do pop along and say hello, give encouragement and express our gratitude to the young people who will be working very hard on our behalf. But while you are there, please don’t take any photos without asking permission of any of the team who might be caught in them. Some do not want to be photographed and we most certainly need to respect their wishes. (The picture below was taken with their express permission.)
Please keep those pledges coming! We still need to raise the funds for the seats, raised beds and paving. A durable, sturdy hardwood armchair costs £205, block pavers come in at around £20 per square metre. Email your pledge – details of where to send the money will follow soon. Even a fiver towards one of these items would make a difference!
As ever, the biggest thing you can do to help is to pray.
Please Pray for the Prince’s Trust team. Pray for the prompt delivery of the skip. Pray for continued donations and a generous grant from the Circuit for phase 2. Pray that God will continue to inspire and guide us in carrying his Good News out of his church and into his garden. Amen.
Week 4
Genesis 2:15: The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.
This week’s progress:
Well, this week has been all about money. We are awaiting a reply from the Circuit, but we are hopeful that they will match whatever we can raise! Our fund of pledges so far has reached £1310, which means we still have a rather long way to go – our target is £4000 – if we are to be able to buy the really big-ticket item of getting a properly laid and levelled block paving area below our seating and leading to a level threshold with the drive by the porch.
We have resolved our catering issues and made a decision to go it alone and buy the food from local suppliers who will deliver along with lots of drinks etc from Cost Co. Our wonderful catering team are on the case to get the costs as low as possible, but teenagers doing hard physical work are going to take a fair bit of feeding! If only we were allowed to contribute home cooked food! Sadly, it is out of the question.
So, what of the week to come?
We shall continue to wait to hear from the circuit and in
the meantime continue to pray for pledges and donations. Please keep those pledges coming! Perhaps a contribution towards a tree (£50) or an edged veg. bed
complete with good quality soil (£55)?
Perhaps you fancy sitting on a seat and remembering a loved one? A
durable, sturdy hardwood armchair costs £205.
Or sitting watching the butterflies and bees over the wildflower
meadow? 1Kg of specially selected
wildflower seed suitable for our soil type costs £114.
Email your pledge – details of where to send the money will
follow soon. Even a fiver towards one of these items would make a
difference!
The Prince’s Trust are doing their bit. They have decided a good way to raise funds while staying distanced is to do a sponsored walk. After doing some research they believe that Dale St Methodist Church was first built in 1869, which was 152 years ago. They plan to walk 152 laps of Victoria Park between them which works out at 76 Miles. This is going to be quite a challenge for them given various physical abilities, but they feel it is a significant number and links their fundraising to the church really well. (Anyone who would like to sponsor them should contact me on the email address above and I’ll arrange for the details to be sent to you.)
A list of materials and equipment that they will need has been drawn up in
collaboration with us at Dale Street and the team are now going to be
contacting local businesses to see if they can get discounts or donations.
As ever, the biggest thing you can do to help is to pray.
Please pray for the Prince’s Trust team. Pray for continued donations and a generous grant from the Circuit. Pray that God will continue to inspire and guide us in carrying out his Good News out of his church and into his garden.
Amen.