A community garden in the Heath area has been honoured with an RHS Wales in Bloom Award in the category ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’, writes Alys Jones.
Maes y Coed Community Garden has achieved the highest award in this category, Level 5 – Outstanding. The It’s Your Neighbourhood campaign supports local communities in cleaning and improving their local environment to create green spaces – whether it’s the street they live in, an existing community garden or a disused area in need of renewing.
The awards are run by Wales in Bloom, a competition which exists to help communities grow. This category is designed to motivate Welsh communities who have not previously entered Wales in Bloom.
The Maes y Coed Community Gardeners meet on Saturday mornings from 10am. Over the past 12 months they have worked hard to turn a piece of disused land into a community garden for others to enjoy. Their community garden includes flower beds and a feature lawn area, as well as a woodland walkway and wildlife garden which the gardeners are working on. The garden was officially opened earlier this year by Coronation Street star Beth Sutherland.
Garden leader, Darren Smart, said: “We have a great group of local people of all age groups who meet every Saturday to make the garden look good for the local community, last year we achieved an advancing award for our community allotment but we are hoping for a higher award this year. We are overwhelmed with the result this year, it really has been hard work but clearly this has paid off!”
The community garden is situated at Maes y Coed Community Centre which was owned by the council but has been taken over by volunteers.
Comments