Volunteers welcome at Glencairn Community Garden

Thursday July 28th 2022

Church Army Evangelist Stephen from Connor’s North Belfast Centre of Mission in the Glencairn Community Garden.

Glencairn Community Garden is full of colour and life, and Stephen Whitten and his team would love to hear from anyone who would like to volunteer to help in this wonderful natural haven.

The garden, on an acre of what was previously derelict land beside St Andrew’s Parish Church, Forthriver Road, was established in February 2020, but development work was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since restrictions eased, Church Army Evangelist Stephen from Connor’s North Belfast Centre of Mission, and a core team of enthusiastic volunteers have been busy planting, painting, building, harvesting and more.

And now the garden is bursting with vegetables – some have already been gathered and distributed to pensioners in the local area – as well as flowers, trees and an abundance of wild grasses and wildflowers.

We paid a visit on July 28, to find Stephen and regular volunteer Isaac Castle busy painting a container which will be used for storage and shelter at the site. Another volunteer was lending a hand, but, as you will see from the photo below, there is a long list of jobs to be done to keep the garden at its best – including the erection of two new polytunnels.

The ‘to-do’ list!

Volunteers are welcome to join Stephen on Tuesday and/or Thursday each week at the Community Garden anytime between 9.30am and 3pm. If you would like to find out more about getting involved, please call Stephen on 07704 481489 or email him at s.whitten@churcharmy.org.uk.

We will explore the Glencairn Community Garden in greater detail in the autumn issue of the diocesan magazine Connor Connections, but have a look at our gallery below to see just what a fantastic space it is!