RHS Garden Day - Wales New Community Garden

The Plan Aden was a farming community in the 1970-90s, a open-day coal mine, and then Naya Workshop is a depraper area, you know, even though we got World Heritage status, the term is really lucky in everything. So something like this will bring the people together. Four sides of the village is out of rugby clubs since 1880. It stopped during the World Wars, it was reformed in 1947. They've been playing on here since then. On this ground. The rugby club itself is a focal have this two clubs in Blanavan, who you've got Blanavan and ourselves. Our club is sort of in the centre of the town, so you find a lot of people will sort of mix around that. We have a quite a few people when a well is nice come up to the ground, because there's nothing here. There's no benches, no seating or anything like that. You know, you don't sort of get the old person coming because you don't get any with the sort of sit, that's something that we want to address. We've seen the competition online, and you know, let's apply and let's see what's happened here. When it comes through and we'd actually turn around on when it much shocked to everybody, there's a right buzz around it around the town at the moment. The space at the moment is not really used for anything, it is just grass. We wanted to give something to the community. There's nothing in force, I village really. There's no meeting of points. The future plan is the build community kitchen, full poverty in the area is quite high. We've got a healthy town officer, Rebecca Smith. She comes out, she runs classes with school kids and single parents of how to cook, different vegetables, different fruits. There's a nice, related time. So pre-COVED 45.1% of people lived in poverty. And we don't know the afternoon figures. And it costs about nine p.m. to get out of time. And it costs an extra couple of p.m. to get out from four to side as well. On top of the nine p.m. to the local supermarket. So we're able to have a community garden that's been on my agenda for a few years. It's in four to five most people have got a yard rather than a garden. So this gives them the space to be able to grow those things. We're really one of the garden to bring a lot more people here. There's the area we live in. There's a lot of food poverty. So if we can out by growing veg, the people can take and help themselves. And hopefully they can come much as play rugby as well. So it's a big full circle, we help each other out. People will be more involved with the club. They have a purpose for everyone. So it's bringing the community together. Not much regard in myself at the moment, but I'm willing to learn and with this exciting opportunity. We have it's no doubt I'll get my own sturdy. Yeah, we were really impressed with how they wanted to bring gardening into the community and having it as part of the rugby club. It was just a really lovely way. It's a long skinny space at the moment and we're going to be designing sort of sort of call section of that area. But the idea is that the community can take the design and expand it over time. And one of the things that they really, really can do with to bring the industrial heritage into the garden. So we'll use rusty steel planters, which are going to really just sit into the land and get here and just be a bit of a nod to this sort of industrial path. Yeah, there's time pressure definitely, definitely a challenge, but we can definitely in that work. The sort of the plan is to plant, follow that process through the implant, look after it, grow it and then pick it, harvest it, and then actually cook with it and sort of the whole process from start to finish. Actually seeing the start of the work and how far it's come on this, it's really emotional and I'm just so proud of the achievement that the club and the community has made. Yeah, it's been pretty bonkers, I won't lie. I think this garden is totally unique. I don't think anybody's created a garden quite in this setting before, which is what makes it really really exciting and completely unique projects. So this area was the heart of the industrial revolution and everyone here is really proud of their industrial heritage. So we wanted to bring some of those elements into the garden. The planting we thought we'd have a bit of fun with that and we've gone for really fiery colors. So things that will represent the kind of fiery furnaces that would once build here. Everything we've designed is designed to be really robust. So we've gone for materials that will just wear the down really nicely. So rather than trying to sort of battle with the elements, we're kind of working with it. So we've really taken a cue from the industrial heritage of the area. So we've gone for steel that is going to rust down really nicely. We've gone for weathered bricks. Really robust timber that is going to silver down with age. The landscape around here is absolutely stunning and I think that was something we really keen to sort of hopefully enhance and not to track from. There are people who use the sort of surrounding area recreationally. They come, they'll hope they're passed through here so they'll hopefully come and enjoy the space. There's local ramblin groups that kind of walk through as the footpath goes past. So hopefully they'll have a little break and enjoy their sandwiches in the garden. So this is the greenhouse. It's done these that's out of layer on but it's a working progress. We're getting there and everyone's really excited about this space too because it gets so wild up here. I think having a cover area where you can still be amongst the plants. You can see some seeds hang out and have a chat as well. There's going to be a really valuable space for a long time. So we've got loads of places to sit in the garden. All of these steel planters have got oak tops going on. Those will be loads of places for people to sit. So even if there's just one or two people together on the benches behind here or like a whole group of people are kind of on all different angles that we really love to do for people to sit together and group. The difference with this job is it's for the community. I mean we work for customers all around south Wales all around different places. This is different because it's not just for one person. It's not just for one family. It's for the community at the end of the day. Rugby clubs are the heart of most towns in Wales realistically. It's a wild thing. It's our heritage. So for people to be able to come in and be able to use it, do the planting, come up with the generations for everyone. It's nice for us to be able to do something fuller and to help the community a lot as well. We've got some lovely blue breeze here that are already starting to flower which is exciting. So hopefully in a couple of months I'll be some gorgeous fruit to eat. We're going to plant these blue breeze in a month some of the fruit trees which I'll be really lovely and surround them. We look so colorful, herbaceous plants, I'll be a mix of edibles and ornamentals. I think you're looking really nice. Seeing the progress on this garden is just incredible. This was just a plain piece of a new land and now we've got all this paving and raised beds. The flowers just seems a dream for us. I think the locals are going to be so excited about this. The few we've talked into already are just so excited and can't wait to be part of this as it grows. So the plants are just arrived which is very, very exciting. It's just lush to see some greenery go into the garden finally. It feels like we're on the home straight now which is amazing. This isn't everything. There's going to be lots of things growing from seeds so that's where the community are going to really get stuck in themselves but these are the perennials which will be a sort of backbone of the planting. It's nice to see some greenery going in, isn't it? It can sit by you. It's civilised. If they were going out there. Yeah. These are bits of salt. We all faster. Sorry, you can do this. Today's been absolutely amazing. I've been blown away by how much progress I've made. Even in the last two hours, loads of volunteers have come to get stuck in and I think that's what everyone needed. Like an extra boost. All those extra perennials have made work and everyone's just stuck in and made such a difference. Today's been a productive day. We've got a lot of done. So kind of raises for it. It's made us think we're going to leave the end goal now. Sort of thing where as I said this morning we were a bit scared to the last two whether we'd get it all done but without we've had today a long positive now. Yeah, I think now that the plants have gone today or started to go on at least everyone can see that it's really starting to take shape and it's starting to feel like a garden. I rather than a building site so it's really cooking probably. Nice to meet you garden Yay! Woohoo! A really good buzz, good atmosphere. Everybody's been talking about your garden. They've been talking about how they can get involved in the garden. What the artists have done as well. They've just happened. Yeah, fantastic, fantastic opportunity. Please drink. Please drink. Thank you, guys. It's wonderful to be here today, Marking the Royal Horde cultural societies garden day. And really gardening is so, so important. This is going to evolve now over the years. As people from around our community come in, make their mark on it, make a difference. We've got lots of people to clean up. But you and I have to get good work to eat! And in communities like this, where maybe many of the houses don't have a back garden, this can be their back garden. So lots of kids can come, learn about how to plant, learn about how to grow, and then if they're lucky enough, they can take what they've grown and feed it. The joy of National Garden in week is that all of the young kids that we've met here today, they're eating things that they've never eaten before. Yeah, they have, I mean, an especially important one you can just pluck it out and go and take as much better. But you don't have a back garden. You can come here and run around with your friends, plant some wonderful vegetables. And of course, those vegetables will change through the season, so you can eat all your around for free. And I just hope that this becomes a wonderful community hub. I've been the sector for a number of years now, and I knew what this grown did, like, and look at it now, it's absolutely transformation and it's going to be a wonderful benefit to the wider community, not just the rugby club. We'll look to work with local schools and things like that and get children up here and get them interested in gardening. And obviously, if they don't have that experience at home that they can have it here, so we will be looking to do that throughout the course of this, the next few years. You know, it's a long project, this will be and we all look to improve and improve every year. For me, it's just everybody's pulled together. They've got this completed. This couldn't be just a few people. This was a good community effort together, this finished, which was excellent. Fantastic to see the community at the celebrating this fantastic treatment. Yeah, so I think so in the Plenavone and Ford Sirens-Rananeri, we've been lacking this just something that everyone can get involved in, and just having an area that you can stress with friends on. Let's have a day, if it's nice and sunny day, you can come up here, help out. It's just a really nice sense of community. It's just show us what people can do when they pull together. It's such a privilege on behalf of the RHS to be here at this amazing garden in Wales. I've just been completely blown away by how many people are here. There's so many different generations mixing in doing things, seeding, planting, doing flower crowns. It's just such a lovely celebration, and I know this garden is going to be such an amazing asset for this community. Yeah, I feel really proud, really proud of the project, and yeah, just so happy to be involved with it. Wherever a community garden is grow, it's really important to the people that actually build these gardens, because it brings everyone together. It's massive social connections. It's amazing for wellbeing. It's really good for the environment, and it is my complete passion and privilege to do this on behalf of the RHS and see the amazing things that are achieving communities across the UK. It's been amazing today. It's been such a lovely atmosphere. Everyone's been buzzing, and it's just so great to see the garden finally become alive.