The community garden is now in its 10th year and some of our facilities needed a bit of an upgrade. The space is now used in many different ways, we have regular campfire evenings, Outdoor Tai Chi and more recently, meditation sessions. Our neighbours are a pretty busy Men in Sheds group and so we wanted to create a private little Idaho for our well-being sessions.

This was going to be quite a big and expensive job. We applied to the National Lottery’s Local Connections fund to help us upgrade our facilities and create a beautiful space for our well-being sessions. Early in February we received the fantastic news that we had been awarded the grant. All work had to be completed by the end of March! In normal circumstances this would have been a breeze, but we had a few supply challenges to overcome, but we made it!

After a few discussions we realised that the best solution to deal with a problem area within the garden was to have some of the top ‘soil’ scraped off, in an area approx. 500m2, and this soil/sawdust/weeds mix was used to create a bank. We plan to keep the bank looking pretty wild, mixing up things like geranium, corn flower, ferns and primroses in with wild flowers like poppies and pink campion. We have also added a few trees for stability.

The first job was to take down the old toilet shed. This had been propped up with posts for the past 5 years.The posts were starting to rot and various sections of the shed were rotten.

  • The toilet shed has been a bit wonky for years
  • when you see it like this it’s hard to comprehend how it is still standing!
  • it didn’t take very long to take apart
  • A new definition of outside loo!
  • The base for the new toilet shed
  • Lots to do, we decided to make the benches funky colours
Getting ready for the new shed to arrive, volunteers built the base for the shed while others assembled and painted the picnic benches
  • The day has arrived when the shed goes up.
  • We added extra strength to the base and lined the interior to make it feel more like a room
  • There is now plenty of space for baby changing and easy access
  • With the addition of a tin roof and a coat of paint, we think it looks very smart
The new, bigger toilet shed has arrived.
A top layer of weeds and sawdust being scrapped off ready for grass seed to go down. The bank will remain pretty wild but there will be some bits colour added. We have hedging to be planted along the fence-line of willow and dog wood, along with wild roses. The ground is now flat, making it better for activities, such as Tai Chi. The bank and new hedge will offer privacy for participants.
The community of volunteers who made all of this possible.

Published by Okehampton Community Garden

Our mission is to bring together members of the community to support and encourage gardening of all kinds, especially the growing of food. We are in a beautiful location on the edge of Dartmoor. We are located in Fatherford Lane, just off Exeter Road, you can find us on Google maps.

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