The people who make a town’s ‘wonky garden’ grow

The RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park will showcase an array of perfectly pruned displays when it opens next week.

But a few miles down the road in Widnes there is a garden whose imperfections are its virtue.

Tucked away behind Ditton Community Centre near the town centre, the Wonky Garden’s ethos is in its name.

Nothing has to be perfect, and none of the trustees or founding members who created the thriving community space is paid.

Their reward, they say, is in sharing with others the fruits of their labours.

The Wonky Garden was set up in 2019 by Angela Hayler, originally from Liverpool.

She said it has tripled in size since then.

“Our volunteers, who are here for their own physical and mental health, are looking after the garden,” she said.

“They are nurturing it; they’re growing vegetables; they’re growing fruits; growing flowers.

“But then we’re gifting them to the community.

“It is another way that we can actually get more joy out there.”

In 2021 volunteers at the Wonky Garden prepared bunches of freshly cut flowers as gifts for people stuck at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fruit and vegetables grown in the garden are given away to local foodbanks, and Angela’s team helps other community groups pick up skills to help them transform other spaces.

Each member of the team has their own personal reason for getting stuck in.

Mary Roberts, who bakes cakes for her fellow volunteers once a month and on their birthdays, said she was “lost” after the death of her husband.

Mary bumped into Wonky Garden volunteer Jean Beesley while shopping in Tesco and was invited to try it out.

Mary said: “I’ve been here three years now and I love it.

“We have fun, we have laughs, I make cakes.

“Everything is fun. We work and we produce things for people and for charity.”

Mary added: “We never squabble. We have fun between all of us. I feel as though I’m at home and I always have done.”

For Jean, part of the fun is the interactions between the younger generations who visit the space and older members.

“Sometimes younger people don’t really mix with elderly people”, she said.

“They quite enjoy it because we tell them things that we’ve done.

“They’ve not seen us when we were young: they’d be surprised if they saw me in the 1960s in a mini skirt.”

For Jean, the garden is special.

“We enjoy coming, we learn stuff, we’re outside.

“And you forget other worries when you come here”, she added.