The Red Lion Community Garden in Paulton is set for its very own makeover thanks to the owner and volunteers working with Avon Wildlife Trust to turn it into a hub of activity.

The Red Lion owner, Ellie Harle, wrote the following about the project: An area once overgrown by weeds, and overtaken by brambles, which holds infinite possibilities.

A patch of land is just that, a piece of earth set to a specific boundary, with nothing particularly special about it. That is, until there is a dream. A dream leads to a vision, eventually to a plan, and if there is a group of people willing to work hard at it, a dream can become reality. The Red Lion Community Garden is a dream waiting to come to fruition, a patch of land that had been given over to weeds, but with a little care could become a hub of activity, growing, and learning.

What better way to spend a spare hour every week than to wander over to The Red Lion Community Garden, and do a bit of weeding, some watering, and planting every now and again – especially when, eventually, you can spend an extra few minutes a week reaping the fruits of everyone’s labour, and being able to go home with freshly grown produce, tended to by the village, for the village.

The dream for the Garden is that everyone will be welcome to turn their hand to a bit of planting, and learn about the process of growing your own vegetables, while also finding out about how to be more eco-minded, and how to cater for wildlife on a bigger picture. A centre hive for activity and knowledge, The Red Lion Community Garden can be a place to meet people, and to get out in the fresh air, with the collective goal of growing food for everyone to share.

Together with Avon Wildlife Trust, we at The Red Lion are excited to turn our dream into a reality, and want as much of the village to get involved as we can get. Starting in the Community Garden, and slowly spiralling out into the village to bring wildlife and nature into our lives, we want to let everyone know about our plans, and let everyone get involved.

The first meet-up work day will be on March 9th at The Red Lion Community Garden, starting from 10am. There is a lot of work to be done to turn the land into the dream, but it most certainly can be done, and it will help to bring life and hope to an area that was abandoned to waste – come along and help us raise the phoenix, and turn this piece of land into something that everyone can enjoy and benefit from.

There will be something for everyone to do on March 9th, so come along prepared to do a bit of digging, a bit of clearing, and hopefully we can get everything ready to finish the day off with our first bit of wildflower planting. We are super excited to get things moving and can’t wait to watch the Garden grow, as more people find out about it and get involved.

We hope you can come along to help create a collective dream, and turn it into a reality for all to enjoy.