Community groups have banded together to help prepare a space for people with disabilities to do some gardening and enjoy the outdoors.
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Not-for-profit disability services provider VMCH had been intending to set up such a space for its clients for some time.
A former staff member learned Ararat's Holy Trinity Anglican Church had a garden on an adjacent block of land it was not using.
Church representatives agreed not only to lease the land to VMCH but to also cover the cost of building a shed where the equipment for the garden could be held.
However, VMCH's team leader Kim Dallinger said COVID-19 then brought the project to a temporary standstill.
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"We had it established before everything got put on hold with COVID," she said.
"We were able to go back to the office mid-year and got clients planting seeds and getting seedlings ready so that we could begin planting. We were getting up to the garden and doing some weeding, and getting the beds set up."
While the pandemic has inhibited VMCH's use of the land, Ms Dallinger said it has also given the space added importance.
"We've found that some clients are still quite nervous about COVID and coming together with other people," she said. "So we wanted to get something outdoors and get the clients engaged."
But with limited manpower, Ms Dallinger realised some help would be needed getting the garden back to a workable state.
She contacted the Rotary Club of Ararat for some support.
"I knew with the rain and everything else things would be getting out of hand," she said.
"So, I went to Jenny (Beales) and asked 'can Rotary give us some assistance?'"
Several Rotary members then happily spent their Saturdays doing some much-needed maintenance on the garden.
Before the working bee, club secretary Jenny Beales said there was plenty of work the club planned to do to assist with improving the gardens.
"Some of the work has already been done, so we will spend some time pulling out old trees that have been chopped down and old rose bushes," she said.
"We'll do a lot of mowing, whipper-snipping, we'll paint the top of the garden beds yellow, for people using them who are vision-impaired.
"We'll also use some old pallets to create a workbench that they can use when they're in the gardens, for potting plants and things."
Ms Dallinger and her husband, Peter, joined club members to work on the gardens and together they were able to make significant progress. They will meet again on another weekend to complete the maintenance.
To find out more about VMCH's services and programs, visit www.vmch.com.au.
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