The first volunteer day! Yay!

The volunteers have just finished on their first day out in the garden and it was ace!


Throughout February the project recruited 6 amazing volunteers who are all super keen to get stuck in and get growing*. Today was hopefully the first of many days out in the garden!

1st of many Bees

Weed tackling!

We started out at Rusholme Jobcentre Plus, had a little ice breaker and discussed how confident we were feeling in moving into employment and then headed over to Trinity House Community Resource Centre in Rusholme. As soon as the tools were out and gloves were on there was no stopping us! In just a few hours the planting beds were free of weeds (hopefully for good - we'll see if those pesky weeks have returned the next time we are in the garden), the garden was cleared of litter and we even managed to plant some bulbs!! (Crocosmia were kindly donated by John who works for Stretford JCP). We discovered a tiny family of toys amongst the weeds (I took a photo but have no idea where it went), Anna saved a caterpillar (photo also missing, sorry!) and Ste found the first Bee of the summer. A tiny bright Robin also landed on the garden once we had cleared the weeds and rubbish! Hooray!

Clearing weeds and planning 

The Bee!

THE FIRST BULB OF THE GARDEN!

Making way for the first bulbs!

As we only had a few tools today - 3 trowels and one spade - we focused mainly on clearing spaces and thinking about what we want to see in the garden. At the end of the session the volunteers got together to discuss what skills we felt we got out of today and how that can be put on a CV or application form.


It's safe to say that everyone involved is super excited about the potential in the garden. We are hoping to start planting seeds and bulbs next week and hopefully we will start growing fruit and veg that we can take home and cook into something tasty!


A massive thank you to Anna, Mary, Ste, Geoffery, Billy and Sangeen - the lovely volunteers! Also a huge thank you to Chris and John who work for Jobcentre Plus and are both keen to keep up volunteering with the project. And of course, a big thank you to Matthew at Trinity House for giving us the opportunity and equipment to do the project.


The next volunteer day will be Wednesday March 21st at 5pm - if you want to get involved then please contact Becky on 0161 248 2929. If you want to donate any bulbs, seeds, planters, tools (we are one trowel down due to the unfortunate incident of Tool vs Soil - the soil won....booooo!), compost or fertiliser please please please do!


*Ha ha ha ha, it's a pun.

In the beginning.....

The first blog entry - Okay, so I have zero experience in blog writing so please bear with me! This is just a really quick introduction to who I am and what the project is! I currently work for Rusholme Jobcentre Plus and I am a Local Project Manager for Action for Sustainable Living too. I had this idea to build links with the jobcentre and its local community by.......


The Idea - to give those living in M14 who have never had a job or have been unemployed for a while, a chance to grow skills to put on their CV. It's aimed at those claiming out of work benefits from Rusholme Jobcentre Plus but any one in the local community who wants to get involved is more than welcome!


The Plan - to create a community garden in Rusholme that volunteers can work on together to grow their own fruit and veg! But also focusing on what skills volunteers will gain and how this can be reflected on a CV or job application form.