THE team behind an ever-growing garden project in Greenock are looking for more volunteers to pitch in this summer and help make their ambitious project a success.
Over the past year green-fingered volunteers have transformed a former derelict site off Banff Road into a thriving outdoor space, dubbed the ‘Larkfield Guerrilla Garden’.
Volunteers flocked to the garden on Tuesday to lend a helping hand in planting flower beds, building a polytunnel and tidying up the site, making progress towards their ultimate goal of having the garden be fully open for visitors.
(Image: George Munro) Larkfield resident Kirsty Cairns founded the project with help from Matt Ross and Jackie McPherson.
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Together the trio created a community garden and produce growing space on the site that had been lying empty for 17 years.
Kirsty said: “We don’t have a food panty in this area anymore, so the idea is to grow food here and give it away for free because there is a lot of food poverty in Inverclyde.
“If this is going to work it needs to be a bigger team effort and Matthew and I would still try to make it work on our own, but we need the community to help bring it to life.
“We need more input from the community and not just through gardening work but also input on what they want to see this space used for and how it’s going to work best for locals.”
Vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and onions are already being grown at the garden and will be distributed among the community when they are ready.
(Image: George Munro)
(Image: George Munro)
(Image: George Munro) The small Guerrilla Garden team plan to open the gardens to more locals, but they say more volunteers are needed to maintain and complete the grounds.
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Matt added: “Every time we come down here there are always lots of jobs still to be done and with it just being the two of us, we can’t get everything finished ourselves.
“With more people here, we would be able to grow more.”
(Image: George Munro)
(Image: George Munro) But luckily for the garden, help has been coming in from all quarters.
Staff from the RBS call centre in Greenock recently got in the gardening spirit with a group of a dozen workers taking part in a team building day at the site.
Local politicians have even put their gardening gloves on with Greenock MSP Stuart McMillan having helped out on the site in the past and returning on Tuesday to join in with the latest effort.
He told the Tele: “I have been helping out here a few times now and it is a great project, Kirsty and the team have done a magnificent job.
“They had the foresight to do this and use this piece of land that was sitting doing nothing and turn it into something for the community.”
Anyone who is interested in getting involved with the garden should contact Kirsty via the Larkfield Guerrilla Garden Facebook page.