Raised Beds Bring Gardeners Together

Apr 16, 2015 | News

Ricky Anderson, Neil Cameron and Arthur Gasson of FAA

Ricky Anderson, Neil Cameron and Arthur Gasson of FAA

Frome Allotment Association is celebrating the award of £3,000 from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) to build raised beds for less mobile gardeners at the Muriel Jones Fields.

Volunteers from the Allotment Association will build the eight raised beds with materials purchased from local suppliers. The raised beds will be 3m metres by 1.2 metres wide and paved on all sides for easy access.

“This grant is excellent news. Our raised beds at Welshmill have proved extremely popular,” said Neil Cameron, Chair of Frome Allotment Association. “Some people want to grow vegetables and can’t manage a full size plot because they are less mobile, so the raised beds are ideal for gardening at waist height. There is a fantastic community spirit on our allotment sites and we want to give everyone the opportunity to join in. Gardening really does bring people together and enrich lives.”

The site of the raised beds makes good use of an area that would otherwise be left to grass and users will be able to access the beds close to their cars. The beds will be completed in the coming months and will be available to rent in 2015.

The grant comes from the National Gardens Scheme (NGS), which offers a bursary in memory of Elspeth Thompson who died in 2010. The bursary is administered by the RHS and provides financial assistance to amateur gardeners, either individuals or community groups, to enable them to create a garden or horticultural based project for the benefit of the community,