Our eldest resident, Mary - and Gail, Activities Co-ordinator, are the driving force behind our beautiful garden here at Athelstan.

We run a regular garden club in spring and summer that ensures all the residents have an opportunity to plant seeds for our garden, so that everyone feels involved with what is planted.

We have amazing volunteers and relatives who always donate plants from their own allotments. John Charlesworth and Julian Ponting in particular have been a great help. The team help by donating plants too. Jane Furniss helped to produce the shoe rack for our plants, so it has been a whole family and carer affair!

Many, many thanks to Nurden’s Garden Centre for donating plants for our garden, the hanging baskets are beautiful and couldn’t have been done without their kind generosity.

The residents and families even help to water the garden when Gail is not about.

And this horticultural dedication meant that we were all thrilled to have won several awards in the recent Trust in Bloom garden competition; for best hanging basket and planter, as well as best vegetable patch and also runner-up for overall best grounds and gardens.