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Background |
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The Triangle
Community Garden was started in 1999 by a small group of Hitchin
residents, keen to create an open space that could be used creatively by
the community. Once the site was found, and permission granted by North
Herts District Council, public design workshops were held to decide what
people wanted out of the Garden and what form the layout should take.
Common themes emerged such as
gardening
organically, encouraging
wildlife
and the idea of the garden as somewhere peaceful, attractive and
restorative. |
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The first five
years saw the creation of many of the
features originally planned, such as the pond, raised vegetable
beds, the willow maze, and the central meeting space. Some of the
features you can see at the Garden today have evolved through
discussions at our public progress meetings, like the sensory garden,
the orchard and the spiral earth mound. The gradual development of the
Garden has been accompanied by a proliferation of wildlife, including
frogs, newts, lizards and butterflies. |
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Once the Garden
had been substantially laid out, we started to plan ways of extending
its benefits more widely within the community, particularly towards
disadvantaged groups. Inspired by other community gardens such as
Earthworks St Albans
and the work of
horticultural therapy charity
Thrive,
a pilot project was started to provide gardening sessions for people
with learning difficulties, run by volunteers and aided by community
care workers from local day centres. That was back in September 2005 and
the pilot has been a great success. The core group is currently seeking
funding for a part-time project leader to expand this provision and
develop a social enterprise at the garden.
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home |
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