Opened on Monday 19th July, a new community garden highlights the choices that Chelmsford residents can make when planning and planting their own gardens at home.
Weather patterns are changing and the forecast is for more extreme climatic events, warmer and wetter winters and hotter drier summers. Essex is already the driest county, so it is almost inevitable that gardening styles will need to adapt and the plants we use will change.
The new “Choices” garden, created at Brook End Gardens, was designed and built by young people from across the borough thanks to GreenPrints funding from SITA Trust. The successful bid was made by local environmental action youth group impACT, a project of experiential learning organisation the Wilderness Foundation UK.
impACT ran a series of workshops engaging the creativity and enthusiasm of the talented young people in our community, ranging from school classes to Scouts, Cubs and Guides, as well as older students from Writtle College, and it was their suggestions and ideas that influenced the overall design of the new garden. Everyone involved then set to work, transforming a previously lawned area within Brook End Gardens into a beautiful new sustainable garden for the community to enjoy visiting. The ultimate aim is that people will learn from visiting the garden and be able to takeaway a variety of ideas ranging from plants that can be kept quite happily with little watering, through to which materials to use when creating a new pathway.
The whole project was supported by Chelmsford Borough Council who provided the land and also supported the young people with choosing the most appropriate planting for the scheme. CBC will be responsible for the care and maintenance of the garden going forward, but young people will continue to play apart of the scheme, with the
introduction of trees later in the year and also bulb planting activities.
Richard Corby of the Wilderness Foundation UK said:
“We are delighted to have played a part in the creation of this stunning new garden for the people of Chelmsford. impACT is a youth-led group and I think that they, together with a wide range of young people from our borough, have demonstrated not only that they care about their local environment but that they are also are prepared to put in the hard work needed to highlight the issues that concern them, particularly around our changing climate. The end result that they have produced is something that we can all be proud of.”
The garden was formally opened on Monday 19th July 2010 by the Deputy Mayor of Chelmsford. Members of the public are be able to visit the new garden within the opening hours of Brook End Gardens.
Opening on Monday 19th July, a new community garden will highlight the choices that Chelmsford residents can make when planning and planting their own gardens at home.
Weather patterns are changing and the forecast is for more extreme climatic events, warmer and wetter winters and hotter drier summers. Essex is already the driest county, so it is almost inevitable that gardening styles will need to adapt and the plants we use will change.
The new “Choices” garden, created at Brook End Gardens, was designed and built by young people from across the borough thanks to GreenPrints funding from SITA Trust. The succesful bid was made by local environmental action youth group impACT, a project of experiential learning organisation the Wilderness Foundation UK.
impACT ran a series of workshops engaging the creativity and enthusiasm of the talented young people in our community, ranging from school classes to Scouts, Cubs and Guides, as well as older students from Writtle College, and it was their suggestions and ideas that influenced the overall design of the new garden. Everyone involved then set to work, transforming a previously lawned area within Brook End Gardens into a beauiful new sustainable garden for the commuity to enjoy visiting. The ultimate aim is that people will learn from visiting the garden and be able to takeaway a variety of ideas ranging from plants that can be kept quite happily with little watering, through to which materials to use when creating a new pathway.
The whole project was supported by Chelmsford Borough Council who provided the land and also supported the young people with choosing the most appropriate planting for the scheme. CBC will be responsible for the care and maintenance of the garden going forward, but young people will continue to play apart of the scheme, with the introduction of trees later in the year and also bulb planting activities.
