James’ big FitzRoy garden makeover

FitzRoy staff and two willing volunteers transformed an unsafe garden into a sanctuary. Bev Pearson, Community Fundraising Coordinator, raised all the money needed to buy materials for the big FitzRoy garden makeover. She told us how she even got the local council involved!

James is supported by FitzRoy in Nottinghamshire. He has cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy and the garden was becoming a hazardous zone. The garden had a big raised concrete bed which used to be an old pond. It was so large, you couldn’t even reach the middle of it, and came up to about waist height! The bed was smack bang in the middle of the garden which made the space less accessible. It desperately needed removing to be safe for James plant flowers and grow his own veg, which is something he loves doing.

We did the garden makeover in a couple of stages. Terry and Dave, our hard working volunteers, got to work on digging some new borders. Morrisons and the local council donated some plants which they put in place too, all with James’ help.

We started to demolish and remove the concrete raised bed, but had to stop as we didn’t have the right tools. We were pleased with what we achieved over six hours of hard work, however we needed to come back another day with more tools.

I contacted Mansfield district council to see if they could lend us some tools. Instead of lending us tools, they kindly sent some guys to help us with the final stage of the job! We have now a new raised bed made out of sleepers in its place. We also laid some new turf, which is growing nicely.

James can finally play football and enjoy his new lawn. The flowers are blooming and the potatoes planted in his raised bed have already produced a crop. Through donated funds we have also been able to buy some garden furniture just in time for James to be able to enjoy the sunshine!

Thanks to Mansfield district council and our amazing volunteers for their support and manpower. James loves his new garden.

At FitzRoy, we often have wonderful volunteers to help us do big jobs like this one. Find out how a group of 15 bankers turned into gardeners for a day to transform a garden in Norwich.