Palmeira and Adelaide Garden Fund has big plans for their garden

Palmeira and Adelaide Garden Fund has been maintaining the 19th century gardens since 2019 by pulling up weeds and planting more than 5,000 spring bulbs and wild flowers.

The group, a community interest company, hold a "clean and clear" event on the first Sunday of every month.

While during the week, volunteers help with the garden using bags and other equipment given to them by Cityclean.

The group has been cleaning Palmeira Square and Adelaide Gardens.

They now “want to help” the council with plans to redesign the garden with a flower planting scheme.

Stuart Grainger, chair of the group and a resident in Palmeira Square for the last 35 years said that the group came together initially to clear weeds out of the pathways and gullies.

Cityclean provided the group with some of the essentials to help maintain the gardens.

He said: “So we started doing the pathways in the garden and then the gulley round the square, just bagging it all up.

The group have worked tirelessly to keep the area clean.

“I met a guy, who is part of Cityclean, and he said ‘you’re doing a great job, do you need any help?’

“I said I could do with some bags. Anyway, he bought me bags, clothes, brushes, gloves. That has been an absolute god send, it saved us so much money.

“They come and collect all our bags with the rubbish, I can’t praise them highly enough.”

The group clean the gardens year round.

The group decided to do some community events in 2019 to raise money. This included a table top sale in the garden, an Easter egg hunt and a raffle. Their raffle had more than 200 people queuing down the street.

Donations and all the money raised from their events is used for maintenance and improvement of the gardens.

Judith Taylor, director at Palmeira and Adelaide Garden Fund and a resident for 23 years, said it was on a 2019 summer afternoon when they realised how much the group meant to people.

She said: “I remember turning to Stuart on an event when the weather was particularly beautiful and I remember saying ‘we have started something here but I’m not quite sure what it is'.

“There was clearly a massive hunger for the community to come together."

The group has been active since 2019.

While the garden does have council-employed gardeners, the group think it is necessary to help out by also maintaining the gardens.

The group now have ambitious plans to redesign the gardens.

Judith added: “What we’re doing now is a redesign of the gardens. Not in terms of where the paths are but a planting scheme.

“That can cost a few thousand pounds so it’s relatively modest but that’s what we’re raising money for so we have got a proper plan to present to the council.

“This is in support of Cityparks. That is what we want to do, we want to help.”

The group wants to have a garden plan so they can enter into competitions like Brunswick in Bloom.

They also have another event on September 26 which is a table sale, as well as a dog show in Palmeira Square which all are welcome to.