CRL Chesterfield partners with Flower Pod to enhance their outdoor space…
CRL Chesterfield recently teamed up with Flower Pod in Southwell to repair and restore outdoor facilities. Six CRL colleagues spend two days on the Flower Pod site, completing multiple projects and meeting the wonderful clients and volunteers.
Who Are Flower Pod?
Flower Pod is a social enterprise in Southwell, Nottinghamshire that offer people with learning disabilities the opportunity to enrich their lives through horticulture and associated activities. Projects and activities are accessible and designed around clients’ needs, enabling them to learn new skills and make friends in a safe and supportive environment. They are part of Reach Learning Disability, a charity that provides day services and care support for people with learning disabilities across Nottinghamshire.
What Did We Do?
We replaced and repaired sections of wooden retaining wall which were had become rotten and unstable. Having successfully restored the wall, it is now safe and strengthened to hold flower beds in place on either side of the path. Better still, we were able to use wooden sleepers that Flower Pod had collected but had not found use for (great to inject life back into spare timber!).
Three picnic benches have been fully repaired and are waiting to be painted by Flower Pod clients (we can’t wait to see them once they are painted!). They are now ready just in time for the spring and summer weather. A special thanks goes to Travis Perkins Nottingham Branch who generously donated the timber we needed to replace the bench seats and tabletop.
A refrigerated container repurposed by Flower Pod as storage unit for gardening equipment was in need of waterproofing to fix the leaky roof. We replaced the motor/compressor box on the top of the unit with a window made from spare Perspex acrylic sheets. Sadly, due to wet weather conditions, we were unable to finish waterproofing the roof and will return apply another coating soon. Stay posted for photos of the finished article!
We removed the wooden decking area which is now prepped for Flower Pod to turn into accessible raised flower bed area for clients to use. We look forward to seeing what it looks like when finished and in use.
Feedback and Thank You…
During our brief time at Flower Pod we were able to see how important it is for the clients and what an amazing job the staff and volunteers do. It was an absolute pleasure to work with all at Flower Pod and we are grateful to be able to support such a worthwhile charity. We hope clients, staff and volunteers alike enjoy the projects we worked and hope this is the beginning of a strong partnership between CRL and Flower Pod.
A special thank you to Travis Perkins in Nottingham, for their general timber donation for the new picnic benches. And of course, a big thanks to the CRL colleagues who worked very hard while on site in Southwell. It was especially nice to see Flower Pod’s kind feedback on their Facebook page!
“Heroes! Absolutely brilliant work by some of the chaps from Concrete Repairs Limited - CRL who have spent 2 days making a difference at Flower Pod Southwell. We have 3 revamped and now fit for purpose benches (no more splinters). We have a retaining wall made safe and an area well on the way for accessible beds. THANK YOU. Really big thank you!”
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