Bright garden in Leicester

Stephen has helped tenants and staff from Lifeways to brighten up their garden by building flower beds and sourcing the materials.

Progress Housing Group, which RWP is part of, funded the mix for the post panels which Stephen sourced. Our tenants and support staff from Lifeways came together and covered the cost of the compost and plants. They picked a wonderful range of vibrant plants and flowers for the flower beds and hanging baskets.

Stephen explains the stages of building the flowers beds, which took a week to complete alongside work at other supported living schemes.

Preparing the posts: “Under the top layer of soil was lots of concrete that had to be broken up and removed. There was also a small brick wall running along where I had to level with a lump hammer and bolster, and where the post had to go. I had to chisel down 12 inches through the brick wall to set the posts!

Building and adding the posts: “I had to cut the post to 3inches x 24inches and the same with the corner post, then modify a corner post by grinding out a groove down one side, so I could use it on a straight section. This project certainly had its share of challenges, but I think it was worth the effort.”

Adding a privacy cover: Stephen also added a privacy cover to the fence following feedback from support staff from Lifeways and tenants. This will enable tenants to enjoy a safe outdoor space.

Planting the flowers: Support staff from Lifeways got involved with selecting and planting the flowers. Stephen said: “Support workers Ataf and Alex finished the project off by adding 5 bags of compost and planting the plants which look amazing.”

Team effort

Support workers from Lifeways Ataf and Alex wee happy to support Stephen with the garden project. Ataf said that the garden needed a huge amount of maintenance and work to improve the space and create a relaxing environment. “It was just soil, moss and a lot of weeds”.

Alex and Ataf also helped to prepare the hanging baskets and plant the flowers. “Alex and I got all the flowers and planted all the baskets by hand. We added the compost to the flower bed and then bought and planted all of the flowers, too. There are so many of them, all different, including evergreen ones as well. It took us 3 hours.

“Stephen put a lot of hard labour into the garden and came up with the idea of adding a flower bed. He will give his heart to any project. The tenants love the garden,” says Ataf.

Ataf organised a scheme with tenants and support staff to raise funds for the garden project, including materials, flowers, and furniture. Ataf said: “I want to give something back. I put the scheme in place and then we collected the money every week and we built it all. We collected £3,000 for the furniture.”