A NEW volunteer gardening and social group has started at the Ockment Centre — and residents are being invited to join in.

The meetings on Wednesdays from 2pm to 4pm offers a chance to meet up with others and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee while helping out with some light gardening tasks, such as planting up boxes and weeding.

Over the past year Ockment Centre trustee Tony Leech has been undertaking a project to make the community garden, which is in between the main centre and the hall, more manageable.

With some help from the local STOCs group, many of the old planters that had become root-bound or rotted out have been moved to create more open space and reduce the amount of ongoing work that the garden needs.

The garden is now ready for some regular volunteers to help with adding a burst of colour and keeping the weeds under control. Depending on how keen individuals are, there could be other tasks that the group are happy to take on.

Carol Ward, who is also an Ockment Centre trustee, said: ‘I like gardening and wanted to volunteer to help with some of the lighter gardening tasks, but I thought it would be much more fun if there were other people to chat to at the same time.

‘We can have two or three people working together on a tub so it makes gardening an enjoyable and sociable experience.

‘Some of the time might be spent just deciding which area of the garden to tackle next – and of course we will be enjoying a good tea break!

‘We want it to be a very relaxed group so it doesn’t matter at all if you have never done gardening before, or if you are an expert – everyone is welcome.

‘The Ockment Centre garden is accessible for everyone and we still have lots of raised beds so everyone can find a job they can do.’

If you are interested in helping out and meeting some new people at the same time, please just turn up on any Wednesday afternoon at 2pm wearing old clothes and suitable footwear.

You don’t need to be put off by having to commit to every week – you can just turn up when it suits you. The centre will provide any tools, gloves and refreshments. For more information please pop into the Ockment Centre reception, visit www.ockmentcentre.org or call 01837 53276.