On Tuesday, Lower V volunteered at the Royal Berkshire Hospital Wellbeing Garden. 

The garden was set up for the NHS workers during the COVID-19 pandemic to give them an area for them to be peaceful and alleviate stress. The students spent the day gardening with Dave from the Royal Berkshire Charity who taught us how to weed effectively and how to care for plants. 

Despite it being a very hot day, we felt we were very useful and were successful at removing weeds, planting and watering the beautiful garden which was an array of colours and filled with edible plants and herbs, ranging from tarragon to raspberries and gooseberries. We were even able to put some of the leaves which were similar to rocket in our sandwiches, and we were also tempted with fresh mint tea of different flavours. 

Dave was an excellent host for the day and he even taught us how to make a zero carbon footprint garden, using old pieces of saturated cardboard to cover weeds which will eventually decompose to provide compostable material, adding carbon back to the soil. During the day we were able to see the positive impact of the garden as it was in constant use by all of the NHS staff, who were able to relax in a quiet space away from the hustle and bustle of the hospital environment. We thoroughly enjoyed our day and found weeding surprisingly relaxing!

Shefali, Lily and Sophia