Volunteers from RainbowBiz’s weekly gardening group “Digging Deeside” joined members of Quaystone Chapel’s congregation on Wednesday morning to support the church in the bid to win a Community Gardens Award which is to be judged from July 4th onwards.
The Quaystone Chapel Ecumenical Church (which is a partnership of the Presbyterian and Methodist Church), High Street in Connah’s Quay, next door to Wepre Post Office has long been noted for its large gardens to the front of the church hall. The gardens are difficult to maintain and the congregation often struggle to keep the annual weeds at bay. Derrick Lea visited Connah’s Quay Allotment a few weeks ago and spoke to the RainbowBiz Digging Deeside team and asked if they would like to help the chapel in their quest to win this prestigious award through the RHS. The volunteers were keen and arranged 2 days of work at the garden.
RainbowBiz volunteers were blown away by the support of the congregation members Margaret Roberts and Christina Copack who tirelessly made cups of tea and toast for the hard working gardeners. RainbowBiz has links with Tri Ffordd a Flintshire County Council service where one of their Directors is a member of staff. A group of keen, hard working volunteers came out to help RainbowBiz from Tri Ffordd which doubled the members of the gardening group. Derrick Lea said “I see you have brought an army to help today”
Volunteers from RainbowBiz and Tri Ffordd worked really well together and made a huge difference to the gardens, more than 15 bags of waste were bagged up, large shrubs cut back, flowers dead headed, dandelions dug out and new plants put in. The work has not been completed yet, the team will be back next Wednesday morning at 10am to offer another day of support to the chapel and the gardens. If anyone would like to join the team, please come and join them as more hands make lighter work. Please bring your own spade/gloves etc as they have limited tools and transport.
Christina Copack, one of the congregation who was there on the day said “We are extremely grateful for your contribution to helping us with the grounds and gardens RainbowBiz, we are hoping to be successful with our bid in the competition”
“Digging Deeside” is a weekly gardening project that runs throughout the growing season and meets at Connah’s Quay Allotments every Wednesday at 10am. The group runs on donations and through fundraising. Anyone is welcome, tea and coffee are made on a camping stove, there are always biscuits and time for a chat. The group asks for a voluntary donation of £1 each week to help to buy gas for the stove, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, biscuits and new equipment.
To keep up-to-date with the latest RainbowBiz community projects, take a look at www.rainbowbiz.org.uk