THEY have done it again — the gardening efforts of the volunteers in Gunnislake have won them an ‘outstanding’, Level 5 award from the Royal Horticultural Society’s It’s Your Neighbourhood scheme.

It follows a visit on one of the wettest days of the summer by RHS assessor, Josephine Spring who made copious notes and took photos at the railway station, the community memorial garden, the new community edible garden and the various planters around the centre of the village.

Carol Green, chair of the It’s Your Neighbourhood scheme in Gunnislake said the village had won the award in 2019, then came the pandemic and most community projects ground to a halt.

‘The plants didn’t know that though and went on growing, as did the weeds,’ she said. ‘So when it was possible to work together outside, the keen gardeners of the village tackled the pruning, the weeding and the planting.’

‘It was a very encouraging visit by the assessor despite the downpour. Our now-familiar judge Josephine made sure she noted what additions and improvements had been made since 2019 and we were able to tell her our plans for the future too.’

The aim of the scheme is for smaller volunteer-led community gardening groups to focus on cleaning up and greening up their local area. Carol continued: ‘We have tried very hard to focus on the three core pillars of the campaign — to get the community involved, to be responsible for the environment and to do some jolly good gardening. If we continue to do consistently well over time we may be nominated to receive the RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood National Certificate of Distinction. Now that’s something to aim for.’

The recently-formed Gunnislake Gardening Club is growing in numbers and it’s hoped that new members of the club and community will join in with the local growing projects. The next big project is over the weekend of October 30/31 from 10am, meeting at the Orchard next to the Health Centre. Carol said: ‘Over two days the various planters around the village will be refreshed with the planting of bulbs for next spring and winter colour to cheer everyone up. All ages are very welcome. In fact, having some young families around to give us a hand would be great.’