That’s when village manager Angela Carse suggested to the retired tradesmen of the village to build a vegetable cart in the village workshop.
“We had been using the kitchen trolley for the produce in the Community Centre foyer, but I had the cart idea from the social media site Pinterest. We painted the cart the same blue colour as our Bupa village logo. We have some very talented residents in the workshop and it all came together so fast,” Angela explains.
The cart took two weeks to plan and build (pictured below), was unveiled during the village happy hour and they now have ten keen gardeners tending to the community gardens. The vegetables are very popular with the residents and sell for a donation that’s then reinvested back into the gardens to buy garden essentials such as seeds, plants and fertilizer.
The community garden has expanded and now include four raised gardens, a pumpkin and potato patch, heritage apple trees and a tunnel house for tomato growing. Resident Community gardener Ian Davis says the village has a good group of keen gardeners to help maintain the gardens all year round.
“The residents love the fresh produce that we’ve grown. It also provides us with a lot of enjoyment so we all benefit,” Ian says.