Working on the Garden #3

Yesterday afternoon, on a very hot and sunny day, Liz, Moyo, Emma (our Envision co-ordinator) and I met up for a trip down to Homebase to buy some plants for the new flower bed we wanted to create. We knew that we wanted more colour and smells so we set out looking for the most suitable flowers- and we did, thanks to some guidance from one of the staff at Homebase. 

What seemed like a never ending walk up Kings Heath high street, we carried our purchases back to the care home with the flowers surprisingly still intact! Unfortunately Moyo had to leave us when we got back but Liz, Emma and I continued on to start our work on the flower bed.

Upon settling on where we wanted our flower bed to be, we began our intense digging session on the very unco-operative grass! Using all the tools available to us, we dug up the thick layer of grass- finding all sorts of 'treasures' underneath the surface (e.g bricks, pieces of pottery, shiny rocks, tree roots, ant eggs...).   

Once we had done the main bit of the work, the residents and the carers came out to the garden to help us turn up more soil and to actually plant in the new flowers. Everyone had their own space around the patch of soil and we all had fun working together to bring it to life.

The three of us had never done gardening before and so it was an extremely proud moment for us to see the finished flower bed. Some of the plants have yet to flower and I'm sure in the summer, the garden will look more like an explosion of colour (and more so than it has ever done in the past).  

Photos from the day:

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And here are some photos to show what the garden looks like now:

- Amy

All Fired Arts

Here are a couple of photos from when Alice, Immy and Bethan went down to All Fired Arts to collect the residents' personalised plant pots.

"It has been a real pleasure working alongside Envision and the girls from Camp Hill School on the Magic Beans Project. We loved the sensory garden idea straight away as it appealed to our sense of community development and working together to enrich the lives of local residents. The link to this project has been of great help in giving our apprentices a real context in which to deliver community focused arts activity, they have been adding to their portfolios which will lead to a level three community Arts apprenticeship. The residents and staff at the care home really enjoyed taking part in this creative activity and now have a colourful, personalized addition to their garden in the form of hand painted plant pots.

Really well done girls, all communities need committed, compassionate and creative citizens like you! " - Annie, All Fired Arts

-Amy