sensory garden, car park, benches for passers-by

It may be one of the biggest roads leading directly to Spaghetti Junction but there’s nowhere to sit ! “What about knocking down the church car park wall by more than two feet, building raised garden beds with plants to encourage all the senses and putting two benches in an alcove so folk trudging up and down to the shops and buses can sit awhile and rest?”

It sounds simple yet there was much talk of “People can sit down when they get home” or “Who would want to sit with their feet virtually on the main road? The car fumes will choke them!” But now, there is hardly a time of the day when you come past that someone isn’t sitting on one of the two benches put there for that purpose: young mums with push chairs, elderly people resting between doctors and home, young lads perching on the back seats having a can of pop or school kids waiting for a lift; people from the mental hospital across the road and lonely people hoping someone will stop for a chat. A great cross-section of the community descends here and, as the bench plaques say “Be still and know….” and “Rest awhile….”

There has always been a lovingly-tended garden here filled with spring bulbs, autumn flowers, winter pansies, small rose bushes and previously, a half-circle of grass around which some cars squeezed on to park. Now the car park has been redone, increasing the much-needed car spaces, creating a one –way entry and exit. The raised garden beds and low walls  mean that the  flowers are better visible from the road, the benches face outwards to the world for people to rest on and another bench faces the church, whilst all across the front  is a beautiful garden with lavenders and flowers that smell, or rustle in the wind, that look bright and cheery or taste good!

Thanks go to the regular gardeners who keep it all looking smart and well-cared for, full of interest and a welcome sight for passersby who yearn for a bit of greenery and see there plants to bring a smile to their faces.