After helping clear paths Harbottle Park a few weeks ago, this time we were just down the road at St Lawrence Park. There were two tasks for us to complete. The first was digging an overgrown flower bed ready for local school children to plant all different flowers. The second involved installing a raised planter for them to grow vegetables. This was inspired by the book they are reading ‘Oliver’s vegetables’ to encourage then to eat healthier. Task owner Mike met us with a truck full of hammers, racks and different types of spades. We got stuck in right away. Amy and James started hammer the raised planter together. Me, Andrew and Miranda began digging and turning the soil in the huge over grown flowerbed, even removing a small tree!

The moment of truth was when the fully assembled raised planter was placed in the ground in the holes Amy and James had dug. Would it fit? Would all the holes be the right depth? Everything lined up perfectly and it all came together.

Half way through we had a break for tea, coffee and ginger nuts. It started to drizzle so we hid from the rain behind Mike’s transit van. I couldn’t resist climbing up the geometric bouldering balls in the park. The first holds were higher than expected considering it is clearly aimed at children and there was a moment of not knowing how to get down before I less than gracefully jumped off.

Back at it after the well-earned drinks Amy and James filled in around the wood base of the planter with the soil they dug out earlier, and compressed it with a mallet, to make the raised planter nice and secure. Me, Andrew and Miranda ripped out the remaining weeds and nettles in the flower bed. We finished right on time, just before the rain intensified.

Mike assured us there would be future tasks in the park in the coming weeks, so hopefully we will be back!