It’s been a long time coming but we’ve finally got planning permission to turn a small parcel of land into a community garden in Farnworth, Bolton.

Initial clearing and digging of pathways was done by a group of fabulous Prince’s Trust lads.  We then got Ambec Fencing to come along and install a new fence along the front and back borders of the property.  The right hand-side faces onto a cricket club and on the left is Bolton at Home residential housing.

The project has been funded by Symphony Housing and is going to create a garden filled with lots of things including a playhouse, raised beds for growing vegetables, composting area, sitting areas, flower beds and fruit trees.  However there’s lots of digging and landscaping to be done first made much harder by the fact that a rubbish tip and half a housing estate seems to be buried under the ground!  Digging goes something like this… put your spade in an inch, hit something, dig around the two bricks you’ve struck, remove them, try putting your spade in again, hit something different this time, discover a black bin bag of rubbish, dig it out, try again and hey presto – you finally get to something resembling soil!

We’ll also be creating some art with local communities to put in the garden – this is likely to include mosaics and withy sculptures.  Alongside this, we’ll be creating a film about the process which will include some timelapse. some animation and also some interviews with our willing volunteers and other local people.