Support for local Community Garden

The NW Ipswich Community Garden, within the Castle Hill allotment on Ashcroft Road, received a number of free products from Wickes, including compost and sand to help with general maintenance. The donations were provided as part of the Wickes Community Programme, an initiative which aims to support local groups and organisations by providing relevant products to help them with essential maintenance, renovation or to complete new projects. Wickes prides itself as being a part of its local communities and is always looking at ways to best support. Four years ago a number of volunteers got together and transformed an underused space within the Castle Hill Allotments into NW Ipswich Community Garden to provide an outside space where the local community can come together to garden, learn, socialise and craft for free. The garden plays an important part in the community, especially for those living in flats or homes that don’t have the space or knowledge to grow their own food. The volunteers have run ‘join and learn’ sessions twice a week (Wednesdays and Sundays) to share knowledge on gardening and also the natural environment and tips on how to look after and encourage wildlife into your garden. Their latest project is ‘Square Metre Gardening’ to demonstrate you don’t need a lot of space to grow your own food. Available to all ages, they run sessions for children that are fun and educational. When children are involved in planting, caring for and harvesting, it helps them to understand the growth cycle, encourages them to understand the changing seasons and gives them ownership over the crops, making it more likely that they will be happy to try the fruits and vegetables they have helped grow.

NW Ipswich Garden Volunteer, Tracey Dockery said, “The benefits of community gardening are not just limited to growing and eating your own produce. Many other factors come into play, such as helping people to make new friends who may be at risk of isolation, offering an improved quality of life, lower family food budgets, conservation, better eating habits and much more. We are so grateful for the products we received from Wickes which have made a huge difference to us”.

Wickes Martlesham Store Manager, Chris Bennett said, “We know it’s really hard for charities and community organisations. Our Community Programme is about making a difference where we can in our local community”. The Wickes Community Programme is open to all local community groups seeking help for improvement projects, and any groups interested in applying for a donation should head into their local store to speak to the manager.