Planting snowdrops at Wensum View Park

I spent this morning with other volunteers planting Bluebells, Snowdrops and Winter Aconites at Wensum View Park in Norwich.

Wensum View is a small park covered mostly in grass, with a row of lime trees along the south and west sides and the grounds of Wensum Junior School to the north and east. The entrance is on Dereham Road, just past Turner Road when leaving the city centre.

There is a small children’s playground at one end, which has seen better days. There are swings but just a circle of concrete in the ground where the roundabout used to be.

Members of the local community hope to turn the park into Wensum View Park Community Garden, but first Norwich City Council needs to undertake a public consultation to make sure everyone is happy with the idea.

Writing out ideas for the community garden

The grass is used by dog walkers and for football games, so the plan is to continue to allow these activities on the site, as well as planting a garden.

We took some first steps today by drawing up a sketch plan, and those present at the bulb planting wrote their ideas on Post-It notes and stuck them to the plan.

The Bluebells came from British Wildflower Plants at North Burlingham (who also supplied Grapes Hill Community Garden last spring) and the Snowdrops and Winter Aconites were donated by a local school.

The Wensum View Park Community Garden Group now have a blog, which will record progress on the garden – you can view it at http://wensumviewpark.org/.

November 2013 Update: See my more recent post Tree Planting at Wensum View Park for an update on the project. The group doesn’t have a website at the moment, but does have a Facebook page with news and photos.