From bare earth to green bounty, a thriving garden has sprung up, explains Turning Point service manager Claire Gallagher.
Over the past two years, the gardens at Turning Point, Scotland, a service for homeless people, have gradually transformed from a bland and tired space to an oasis in the heart of the city, thanks to the hard work of our ‘handyman’ Dennis Curran and our service users, including Anthony, Annemarie and James (pictured above).
The service users have landscaped, planted bulbs, made timber planters from old office furniture, created wildlife and vegetable gardens and planted a vast array of flowers for every season. They have taken enormous pride in raising seedlings in their rooms, which have gone on to become delicious-tasting strawberries, onions, potatoes, garlic, Brussels sprouts, carrots, herbs and leeks, to name but a few. The gardeners love seeing their produce, they even compost their own food waste to help generate the next crop.
‘Glasgow translates as "dear green place", and we really feel we have a dear green place here’ explains Claire Gallagher.
Having such a beautiful garden is important to our users and to staff, providing a tranquil, therapeutic space for respite. We also receive many emails and telephone calls from strangers to say how the garden cheers them up on their way to work as the glimpse the green from Glasgow Central Train Station.
