The Willow Incredible Garden
The Willow Garden is an exciting new project which will see an under-utilised area of grass, transform in to a community garden in the grounds of Forton Road Medical Centre, Gosport.
This is a really fantastic project which aims to reach groups that will benefit most from spending time outdoors and in the garden. Motiv8 and targeted patient groups will be the first to use the garden and help to develop it. We are looking for regular volunteers to help create and maintain the garden. Please see below for details of the WWW group. We also need materials and anyone able to help with heavy gardening duties. To express your interest in helping please contact us and we will be in touch soon.
In June 2022, the garden was officially launched, and the draft plan, drawn up by local surveyor and designer Brian Hindle, of BJH Property Services was available to view. After some feedback and suggestions, minor amendments were made to the plans. There are two elements to the garden. Click on the links below to view the plans:
The early development of the garden.
In October 2022, once the ground had softened, and with help from Brian to mark out the area, members of the steering group including Dr Robin Harlow, Janie, Emma and Steph, and kind volunteers Dean, Sean and Mark spent their Sunday digging out the path and growing area in the formal garden. The trees and shrubs by the bike sheds were also given a tidy up, and the brambles behind the pharmacy were reduced. All soil has been kept on site to line the bottom of the raised beds. We would like to thank Beaver Tool Hire for the free hire of their mini digger and rotavator.
At the end of October 2022, Emma, Steph and Janie visited the Healthy Haven Garden in Hythe. The garden is set in the grounds of Waterside Medical Centre in Hythe and so it shares some similarities to our Willow Incredible Garden. It was great to meet Chris who is the self-declared Head Gardener, and some of their fantastic volunteers.
The visit was to find out more about their project, which has similarities to ours, and to find out how they operate and involve the GP surgery, local support groups, the wider community and volunteers. It was a very inspiring visit and we picked up lots of ideas and enjoyed their warm welcome.
The Willow Welly and Wellbeing (WWW) group
In November 2022 we officially launched our Willow Welly and Wellbeing volunteer group (WWW). The group is going strong and is open to anyone who would like to help us to develop the garden, or benefit from spending time in it. We are a relaxed, informal group and anyone and everyone is welcome. Please wear clothing suitable for gardening and either wellies or stout shoes. We have a selection of hand tools and gloves available to use and there will always be a cuppa and biscuit. We are in the garden every week on a Thursday morning, and monthly on the second Sunday of the month. Just turn up. Please view the poster to the left for full details. We would love you to join us! If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to email Emma: hello@loveoutdoors.org.uk or click on the Contact Us link at the top of the page.
The garden diary and pictures
Since the first digger day in October 2022, changes are occurring frequently in the garden. Over winter 2022 the volunteers dug out wildflower bed. We decided not to use chemicals and instead we took the turf off and piled it up grass side-down, and this would be used later to line our raised bed. We also installed four raised beds and planted wildflower seeds just before Christmas and in the new year.
Early 2023 saw excitement when the first wildflowers appeared. We also planted fruit trees that had been donated to the project, the waterbutts were installed, and the raised beds were half-filled with the grassy compost and some bought organic fruit and veg compost. We were also lucky enough to have Thrive (social and therapeutic horticulture (STH) charity) visit us to run some training for both clinical staff (social prescribers and health and wellbeing coaches) and community groups and volunteers about how STH can be used in gardens to improve health and wellbeing. We also planted donated flowers from Abbeycroft Nursery, Titchfield and began the mulch path around the wildflower area too. A huge thanks to Skyfell Tree Specialists for the wood chips and also to Wickes in Fareham, which through the Community programme allowed us to receive a much needed tool store, fork and watering can.
In Spring 2023 we were joined by Motiv8 children for a half term session where we potted up herbs and planted seeds in pots, ready to go in to the raised beds in the coming month. This was the start of Motiv8’s monthly sessions in the garden. Spring brought more bulb and flower planting (thanks to Abbeycroft Nursery and St Margarets Nursery, Titchfield). We also had some more sleepers delivered to create an additional 6 raised beds thanks to funding from Brighterway. A huge thank you to Parcar for help building the raised beds and to Covers for providing the sleepers at a reduced price and giving us some offcuts for use in the garden.
Summer 2023 was a fantastic one. We were joined by Two Saints and our volunteer group really took off. The path to the raised beds was finished, and everything came in to bloom. We had a very successful growing season and we entered the Gosport in Bloom awards. We built a compost area out of pallets that we had compost brought in on, and started our very own bug hotel. The wildflowers were amazing, and this area was completed by a fantastic bench kindly donated by the Gosport Rotary Clubs Coronation Fund. We held an open day as part of The Big Help Out and saw new volunteers get involved.
Autumn 2023 saw further planting of the ‘long border’ alongside the back fence. This made such a difference and ensured there would be colour throughout the winter. Many vegetables continued to be harvested including a bumper crop of French beans, tomatoes and courgettes. The volunteer group enjoyed talking about what they could make with yet more courgettes.
Over winter there were plans for improvements to be made between the raised beds for accessibility, but the weather had other ideas. Instead, we made a new bed for the strawberries, planted more fruit trees and bushes and increased the storage in the garden.
Early 2024 was a wet one, but despite this we welcomed new volunteers and finally made progress with the new pathing. We also prepared the area where a greenhouse will be sited and topped up the beds with compost. We also planned what would be going in each bed including the four on rotation.
The wet start to the year put a delay on progress in the garden, and seeds were planted late and then took a while to emerge. However, the recent warm weather interspersed with rain has kickstarted the seedlings and we move ahead in to full growing season.
Love Outdoors CIC involvement in the project was kindly funded by the Moneybarn fund through Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Fund (2022/2023) and from Abri Community Fund (2023). We would also like to thank the following organisations for donating items for the garden: Wickes, Skyfell Tree Specialists.
