Footprints Garden Transformation

On 29 February 2020 Strode Park Foundation held a Volunteers Day at our Footprints Garden in Canterbury. The day was a great success, and the garden had started its transformation with plans to finish off the garden later in the year. However, then lock down came. Lock down created a halt to our gardening, which meant the Footprints garden went unloved for months and is now continues to need some attention. We want to change this, so we are asking for a team of volunteers to come together on 21 and 22 August to help us revamp this area and make it look amazing once more.

One of the complicated parts of our garden design is that we have to cater for the fact that many of our residents and future residents will not be able to weave throughout the garden due to their wheelchair accessibility, and therefore we are having to design large sculptures and interesting features that can be seen from any point in the garden, but also allows for those with more mobility to still go exploring if they wish. We were kindly donated large wooden disks with carvings of animals and bugs that we are going to paint and hang throughout the garden. We will also be upcycling some tyres, with a lick of paint and careful stacking in order to create some animal sculptures that can be scattered throughout the garden. There will be sections we will be thinning out the foliage and trees in order to allow more sunlight to reach the garden and there will be A LOT of de-weeding. We are hoping all this as well as lots more plants and exciting visuals will make this garden something to be enjoyed by the children who live in our Footprints home.

We were so kindly donated £3,000 towards this project by the Crown Charitable Trust and Kent Community Foundation and we’ve been getting creative to make our money stretch as far as possible. We have also had some extremely generous donations, which are making us incredibly excited to put them all together and see the finished piece.

We are asking for the public to come to the gardens on Friday 21 and Saturday 22 August in order to help us revamp this area. We don’t need you to have gardening expertise, just a can do attitude! We will need a hard working team to finish this. You do not have to come both days or even for full days, we appreciate any time that can be offered. If you are interested in joining please do contact us at volunteering@strodepark.org.uk

We are also asking if anyone is able to donate large garden sculptures that would be of interest to children to please contact us. We want to bring in as much wildlife as possible and are looking into Hedgehog dens and a massive bug hotel, but if anyone has anything else, please do contact us.

We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who volunteered their time back in February (even with the torrential rain we had to deal with) and everyone who has offered their services this time round, with your help we are able to make this garden a fantastic space for all the Footprint Children, you are all fantastic!