A community garden space for everyone to enjoy is taking shape at Bognor Regis Library thanks to a partnership with the Aldingbourne Trust.
The aim of the project is to create an inclusive environment for people of all abilities — the garden will also host activities by the library for children such as “rhyme time” and for people living with dementia.
And Lisa Palmer, the community garden project coordinator at the Aldingbourne Trust — which is dedicated to helping local businesses, communities and people with learning disabilities and, or autism to enjoy life — says it is great to see the progress being made. She said:
“The garden has been a long time in the planning but we have finally started to make real progress over the last month. It has been quite a journey so far from being an underused and neglected space to it being transformed into a hive of activity.”
The first set of volunteers were staff from supporters Southern Water — who have donated to towards the funding of the project — and they were given the honour of ground breaking the project back in June.
Artists from the trust’s creative arts studio, based in the town’s Aldwick Road, have also been hard at work creating a beautiful mural with a garden literary theme. They have created a giant bookcase and included characters from Wind in the Willows and Alice in Wonderland. And Lisa added:
“It is absolutely amazing and attracting many lovely comments from visitors at the library.”
The wood recycling team at the Aldingbourne Country Centre are making seating areas for the garden to allow people at the library to be able to sit and enjoy the new community space. This area will also be used to host some of the library’s activities — also being made are some wheelchair-accessible raised beds so that people with physical disabilities can enjoy garden too.
The horticultural team have also been praised for being “amazing at digging, and painting the fences and benches. The earthworks team, who are also based at the Aldingbourne Country Centre, are in the process of making a stunning peacock mosaic for our Secret Sensory Garden. Lisa added:
“This will look absolutely fabulous and be the crown in the jewel of our sensory garden. Here we will have lots of different plants that have different textures, smells and shapes. I really hope that people with disabilities and the local community can come together through a love of gardening in an inclusive environment.”
From September the team will be hosting supervised gardening sessions to help maintain the garden, on the first and second to last Saturday of each month. If you would like to take part contact the Aldingbourne Trust for more information.
