Wombwell Station Community Garden’s Eileen Parr, Guy Fisher and Rob Punniss.
Ashley Ball speaks with the volunteers who have taken on a big challenge…
THERE must have been times that the members of Wombwell Station Community Garden wondered why they had taken on so big a task.
It was the idea of residents nearby the railway station to ask if a parcel of land, once used to store vehicles on during a bridge restoration, could be given to them for a community space.
Little did they know that pickaxes would be needed long before they could turn to the more conventional spades and trowels.
The walkway into the garden shows you the scale of the problem – it’s limestone underneath, uneven and there is no source of water.
The gardeners had to get creative and it has paid off.
In the five years or so they have been working the site, they have installed a sunken garden, two more flower beds, filled countless pots, planted up to 500 trees and installed beds which different people use as an allotment of sorts.
There is also now a greenhouse, seating area and vegetable beds. Wildflowers pop up and are encouraged.
Six large water butts were running on close to empty until the showers in early July but it’s hoped any fears of drought will be a thing of the past now they have survived a freakishly barren spell.
Additions to their collection, always by way of donations, are most welcome.
It is by no means finished but is any garden ever?
Once the trees around the site mature they will enclose the garden further and by then it’s hoped a new generation of volunteers will be using the garden.
Eileen Parry, Guy Fisher and Rob Punniss are among the current volunteers.
Eileen said: “The good thing about the garden is that it’s free.
“People can come down here if they want an allotment and we don’t charge.
“We get the money through fundraising, like with the open days we have and one or two bids we have been successful with as well as support from the local darts league.”
It has been a real challenge according to Guy but well worth it.
He added: “It’s been difficult but we are getting there. It’s very much building it as we go along.
“We are not expert gardeners but it is a sense of community.
“This site could have been left, there were kids coming down and fires.
“We try to collect as much rainwater as we can.”
People interested in visiting the site, donating or helping out can visit their Facebook page.