Community kitchen garden spruced up in volunteers week

14th June 2016

A team of 14 green-fingered employees from our head office in Flintshire has helped Mostyn Kitchen Garden turn over a new leaf with a makeover.

 

Organised as part of our activities for Volunteers’ Week 2016, the group transformed part of the garden, which grows fresh fruit and vegetables for the local community.

 

Run as a social enterprise, the kitchen garden regularly welcomes participants from schools and local groups, giving them the opportunity to get involved in all aspects of growing fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers - encouraging exercise, social interaction and new skills.

 

Our volunteers overhauled two of the main beds; removing undergrowth and weeds, tending to the areas around the raspberry bushes to encourage better growth and create room for extra fruit bushes to be added, and introducing some extra herbs.

 

Kate Harcus, sustainability and social responsibility advisor, said: “It was great to have a large group of us to blitz a big area and remove a lot of the weeds that had taken over. We’ve specifically chosen plants to attract pollinators to the garden and now they have a much better setting in which to grow.

 

“We’d like to thank our suppliers, Jewson, who have kindly provided materials to enable the Kitchen Garden to cover two polytunnels and build some raised beds. Some of our volunteers will be returning to fit the polytunnels over the summer.

 

“It’s a wonderful project that’s encouraging members of the local community to develop a love for gardening and home-grown food. We hope our day’s work will assist the Mostyn Kitchen Garden to generate more income through sales of produce.”

 

Members of our sustainability, commercial, design and technical and health and safety departments came together to take part in the project, along with our head office Pathfinders team, a group of eco-minded employees who are tasked with building on our company’s sustainability credentials.

 

Philip Handley, Mostyn Kitchen Garden manager, said: “We are amazed at the amount of work that the team from Redrow managed to complete in just one day. It was a difficult task for our volunteers to attempt but the two borders have now been transformed. The new herbs will be appreciated by everyone and add to the wildlife habitat. We would like to say a big “thank you” to everyone for helping.”