00:00I really wanted to do something to actually bring people together again, to create a space
00:04which is kind of the idea of the garden, especially being where I'm sat at the moment
00:10an actual space for people to come in, so what I really want is people to actually come here
00:14have meetings, have community events, later on we're going to build a barbeque area and things like that
00:20I initially thought of this, as I say, just before Covid, so wow, and it's four years, four years now
00:26So I personally live just next, but I'm in a flat, so it's an upstairs flat, I don't have a garden myself
00:32I'm lucky enough to have an allotment nearby, so that's absolutely fantastic, but half the estate is flat
00:38so a lot of the idea was, how do people actually get a garden? Because with the prices of everything
00:44going up and up and up, the chances of most people actually being able to afford a house with a garden
00:48is so rare, and for me I'm very much aware of the spaces between people's houses
00:53It's very easy to think, well you live there and that's your garden, but what's the space in between?
00:57And that space is so relevant, and I think community is based in that space in between
01:01I mean, it's been a long time coming, construction, but by the end this should just feel like a pretty nice retreat
01:08from being in your house, being able to come outside, be with your neighbours in a green environment
01:16I mean, soon when all the plants have grown in, you'll feel immersed in nature
01:20and there's sort of thinner paths going through, far less of that tarmac and hard landscape feel to it
01:26and really it's about bringing the woodland down, which is an ancient woodland and scraped wood
01:32so residents are able to enjoy it a bit more and more accessibly
01:38and just feel like you're not in an urban environment, but in a more natural environment
01:45One of the happiest things for me is actually getting Sam from the University involved
01:49So he's been liaising with us for a year now, so if you think that's a year of the gentleman's time
01:54he has not been paid for a single penny, but it was him himself that actually found the grant money
01:59which was £6,000, which we would never have had
02:04so not only did he go out of his own time, and as far as I'm aware he was probably turned down by about 10 grant funding things beforehand
02:12so it's not just a lucky first hit, out of his own time he decided to help the community
02:17and hopefully that would help himself
02:19Actually in terms of doing something with those skills, this has just been so satisfying
02:23and it's really the best possible way to learn, until you're digging into asphalt you don't really know what's underneath
02:30you understand all these processes, all the problems that come your way
02:34but all in all it's been brilliant and it's lovely to see the community engage with it as well
02:39I'd really like to do this sort of thing again, I felt a real calling towards more community based projects
02:44and more corporate work, I think just seeing how much the volunteers have benefited
02:50and enjoyed their time doing this sort of thing
02:53and what it can do on a small level with a really quality outcome to really change people's lives
