North Bersted's young flock to growing Trees project

The Let's Grow! gardening project for young people is helping the once troubled Trees estate become a much nicer place to live.

Almost 30 children, with nine adult helpers, have become involved in the scheme which has grown as well as the vegetables and fruit they have planted.

Potatoes, carrots, onions, runner beans, raspberries and cherries are among the crops being nurtured.

Most of the children, mainly aged from seven to 14, live on the estate. They have links with Laburnum Grove Junior School where the project is based.

The club meets two days a week and its members are joined by pupils from the school's gardening club.

Trees Estate Residents' Association chairman Gez Watson said: "The project that started so small has mushroomed into something we couldn't have imagined a few months ago.

"Without the support we've already received, we couldn't have been able to achieve what we have.

"That would have been quite tragic because the children's enthusiasm is so fantastic that it spurs on us older ones to continue helping them with this valuable project to keep them off the streets and out of trouble."

The idea for the club arose because of the lack of gardens on the estate. It was built in the early 1970s with mainly flats and maisonettes.

The area suffered a bad reputation because of the look of some of the buildings and the way they were used as a dumping ground for some residents. But the efforts of the residents' association have largely around the area.

However, many children lacked basic knowledge about how fruit and vegetables are grown.

A group of nine of them volunteered to plant trees around the estate to help it live up to its name. The number suddenly doubled and the keenness led to the gardening project.

Its original aim of container gardening in a small back garden grew into the school offering the use of its disused garden. One of the association's committee members, Jack Thompson, acts as head gardener.

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