At YMCA DownsLink Group we are always looking for ways to reduce waste and recycle and lower our impact on the environment. Our team at YMCA Crawley Foyer set the Ground Maintenance Team a challenge to enable their residents to get busy in the garden this spring – a perfect antidote to the lockdown blues!
Our Crawley team take up the story:
“After seeing the amazing work that our maintenance team they had done making desks and bread boards out of unused pallets, reusing materials that would have otherwise been thrown away, we set them the “simple” challenge of building a greenhouse utilising old unused pallets and the least amount of money.
At Crawley Foyer we have a small allotment box where each year we attempt and succeed to grow vegetables throughout the summer. Last year we were donated hundreds of seeds so what better way than to grow your own – a perfect More Than A Room session with the residents to encourage and inspire them to become more aware of their environment. And from this the idea sprung – what about a greenhouse?
Al and Jamie (our amazing maintenance team) sprang into action and over the last couple of months in their spare time they have come up with this magnificent structure all costing around £90. All that we need now is the old reusable carpet and we are raring to go.
You will see from the pictures below how our attractive looking feature will blend into the large garden seamlessly. Timber is also the most effective choice: a natural thermal insulator and it enables it to maintain a constant temperature when growing our seeds.
We can’t wait to see what the residents grow in this later in the year.”
Pop back in a few months to see how the residents are getting on and whether any of them have developed ‘green fingers’. We certainly hope so.
