Lord Mayor Opens Community Garden At Grosvenor Manor In Chester
The Lord Mayor of Chester Councillor Sherin Akhtar, along with Father Paul Shaw from St Werburgh’s Roman Catholic Parish, have officially unveiled a new inclusive community garden at Grosvenor Manor care centre in Chester.
The new garden was the idea of the wellbeing team at Grosvenor Manor, senior wellbeing coordinator Lisa Forth and wellbeing assistant Siobhan Rands, who invited the whole community around the highly rated care home to get involved.
Reaching out to schools and community groups, the idea was well received and grew at pace with many donating knowledge, time and gardening expertise and others bringing energy, enthusiasm and equipment.
Land and sea were represented with the British Army and Royal Navy who were joined Cheshire Police and also the Salvation Army helping with all areas of design and construction.
Local schools were also heavily involved. Reflecting its passion for music and desire to provide a space to host entertainment for residents, Bishops High School worked to create a small stage area and ‘rock’ garden.
The Kings School undertook a number of watercolour painting sessions with residents, turning everyone’s works of art into an amazing backdrop for the garden, Kids Planet Nursery have created an area for an allotment so that they can grow potatoes and make homemade chips and children from Cherry Grove Primary School planted a cherry tree.
And Janet and Bronte the dog from Therapy Dogs Nationwide have worked with residents to brightly paint a number of pots for plants during their regular paws crafting sessions.
After a blessing by Father Paul, Lord Mayor of Chester Cllr Sherin Akhtar had the honour of officially opening the new garden for all to enjoy. She said: “This really has been a whole community effort and the result is a stunning new communal outdoor space for all to enjoy. It has clearly taken many hours of hard work to create the garden and is testament to what can be achieved when communities pull together. Everyone should be very pleased with their efforts.”
Senior wellbeing coordinator Lisa Forth said:
“At Grosvenor Manor we have some beautiful outside space that we enjoy making the most of and already had a wellbeing walking path that finished around the back of the home. It was a lovely and natural space, but nothing particularly special until we reached out to our wonderful local community and invited everyone together to create a fabulous space that could be enjoyed by all.
“Our fully inclusive community garden has been developed and created by the local community, not only for the wellbeing of our residents, but for the wellbeing and enjoyment of the whole community. Our residents have enjoyed watching and supporting all involved, but we don’t stop here, this is an ongoing project and we look forward to welcoming everyone into the home to tend to their parts of the garden and enjoy spending time here.”
