Community Allotment at Westcott Rec: first working party

 Two community gardening groups have recently taken on an allotment at the Westcott Rec site from South Swindon Parish Council. The site is over subscribed and there is a waiting list, but the plot we have been given at the extreme western end of the site which regularly floods when we have heavy rainfall.

The two groups working together on the site are Blooming Smiles and Growing South Swindon Community, an umbrella organisation for community gardening which I helped set up; we hope to encourage and support more volunteers in gardening projects in south Swindon. We held our first event on Saturday 14 January, and had a good time clearing the site. It was difficult to show the effects of a couple of hours work in photographs, but here's a selection of them:

Jess Halsall suggested we light a fire to clear some of the brushwood and shrubs on the site

and mostly what you can see, apart form clearance of the site is people talking 

and the fire growing from a small pile of wood; Jess suggested we bring food to eat since we met at 12 noon and worked until 2.30ish

the fire was smoking quite a lot

and finally really getting going well and giving out heat

after a week of rain, we were lucky to have a dry couple of hours

Below Jess carrying twigs to feed the fire

Becky took some photos from a completely different angle, I can almost smell the soil from these intimate photos:

Below Rafe looking not exactly keen to be working on the plot, but got really stuck in. I wished I brought some gloves for him

Our second working party meeting will be held this Saturday, I'm hoping lots of you will come and join us:

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this project progresses now we have a base from which to develop.