Following on from this month’s Community Garden Week, at Little Bramingham Farm, the Luton-based residential care home run by charity Friends of the Elderly, which is celebrating its 120th Anniversary this year, the care team has welcomed back its community partner, YAWN Life, a Community Interest Company (CIC) and the day service related to the YAWN charity, which was created specifically for sociable young at heart adults who have learning disabilities, these green fingered gardeners are looking forward to the summer.
The YAWN Life Group have been visiting Little Bramingham Farm for nearly two years and visit the care home every Tuesday for three hours to help with the upkeep and maintenance of Little Bramingham Farm’s stunning gardens. “It’s wonderful to have the YAWN Life Team back for another year,” said Emma Lawrance, the Registered Manager at the Care Home. “Since the gardeners started their regular horticultural visits, the gardens have come on leaps and bounds and never looked better.”
To start this year’s ‘blooming adventure,’ Karen Charity, Little Bramingham Farm’s Activities Coordinator, Emma and the YAWN Team visited a local store to pick out a selection of seeds for the gardens. “The YAWN Team and I went to The Range™ and purchased a wide variety of various seeds which they will be planting for us this spring. They included flowers and vegetables as our Chef, Jim Wright, loves to use the fresh produce that is grown in the vegetable patch in his delicious meals,” said Karen.
“Our clients thoroughly enjoy their weekly visits to Little Bramingham Farm. It’s hard to say what the favourite gardening task is as they enjoy everything from planting, watering and weeding to caring for the colourful flower beds and vegetable patch. Each activity is undertaken with such care and diligence, it’s great to see,” added one of the YAWN charity Co-founders, Jeanette Tennyson.
The weekly YAWN Team visits are a firm favourite on the care home’s vast Activities Calendar. “The residents look forward to the weekly gardeners visits and like to pop out to the garden for a chat with everyone,” continued Karen. “Chatting about their own past gardening experiences is a lovely reminiscing exercise and they like nothing more than sharing their own green fingered tips with the YAWN Team.”
“The residents also offer up their own gardening advice as well,” added Emma. “It’s amazing how knowledgeable they are about plants, shrubs and flowers. Since the YAWN Team has been visiting Little Bramingham Farm, the gardens have undergone a terrific transformation, the YAWN Team even built a selection of six raised flower beds in the allotment vegetable patch section of the garden, they really do a great job each week.
“We decided to keep Tuesdays as the YAWN Team day as this coincides with our Susie’s Tea Room being open which gives all the community a chance to interact and engage with the YAWN Team members, the residents and each other, it’s a real community day. During the warm spring and summer months, the residents love nothing more than sitting in the gardens, admiring the gorgeous flowers, having a natter and enjoying a tasty treat from Susie’s. The other day a resident said to me that spring is just the warm-up for the real party – summer and they are all keen for the warm weather and good garden days to arrive,” concluded Emma.
