Community open event for MHA Aigburth to showcase “award winning garden”

MHA Aigburth will be hosting an open community garden event to showcase their award winning garden to the public.

The home in Manor Road, Oadby will be opening its doors to the public on Sunday 3rd July from 1pm to 4pm.

The garden is situated on the ground floor of the home, which provides residential and residential dementia care for 56 residents.

It was rescued from a bland landscape and turned into an insect and bird-friendly, attractive garden by the residents’ weekly Gardening Club and gardening volunteers.

The garden has proven to be a huge hit for the residents and their visitors and was awarded outstanding by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in their It’s Your Neighbourhood scheme.

Marilyn Bowes, one of the volunteers at the home said: “The RHS award highlighted the community involvement in the project with local people joining a volunteer team to plant and weed and learning how to do hedge-laying along the perimeter. 

“The residents support by planting seeds and putting them on, by striking cuttings from shrubs and perennial plants and by sharing their gardening wisdom, which is considerable.

“Consideration is given to plants the residents favour and enjoy in their own gardens, so that they can go down memory lane when walking along its winding paths. 

“We are also aware of what we need to do to encourage wildlife and have planted a wide variety of plants for pollinators, hedging for bird cover and nearly 50 small trees to do our bit for carbon sequestration.

“We are raising funds to continue this gardening work and to supplement The Amenity Fund which will allow us to take residents on outings to parks and allotments and pay for entertainers in the home.

“There are a lot of people who are interested in the event, after speaking with some of the family members of the residents they have been passing the message onto their friends and I am very confident we will get a good turn out.”