Leigh Park Initiative

(Registered Charity 1112936)

"Planting Kingdom to Grow Church"

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Jubilee Herb Garden

In 2002, local Leigh Park resident Ken Goodman won a design competition organised by the Daily Echo and Southern Electricity, for his design for a communal herb garden. The prize of £2002 enabled his design to be created, with the help of a number of individual and commercial sponsors. Eventually, with a lot of hard work, the garden became a reality and was opened by the Mayor of Wimborne in the spring of 2003. Here are some photos of the construction of the garden between November 2002 and the summer of 2003. It is also visible from space, and if you use Google Earth, see if you can find it!

Sadly, Ken died in June 2005 but the garden has become a significant part of Leigh Park, and is the site of a number of our open-air Christian celebrations and events. The herbs are for both medicinal and cooking purposes, and are available for any Leigh Park resident to use. If you are interested in helping to maintain the herb garden please let us know - it needs occasional weeding, and the herbs themselves need cutting back at different times of year.

Criminal Damage - We are sorry to report that on the evening of 17th October 2007 this memorial garden was desecrated with criminal damage to the trellis work. With the co-operation of the authorities, we are confident that the criminals who carried out this damage will be confronted with the reality of what they have done, in damaging property belonging to the whole community, desecrating the memory of a much loved local resident, Ken Goodman, and also the memory of the late Mayor Ivy Ellis who did much to support the garden and Leigh Park. A police investigation has resulted in formal reprimands being issued to two boys, and a restorative justice process has resulted in some of the boys helping to make good the damage. We would like to thank the witnesses who reported this incident and the police who conducted an efficient and successful enquiry. There are some photos of the damage here - what a sad comparison with the positive contributions shown by local residents, Barclays Bank employees, and Wimborne volunteers, who helped create the garden five years ago.

While we are talking about gardening, because of a small grant from the Baptist Union of Great Britain "Against the Stream" fund, we have been able to help some apartment block residents improve the area around their flats by providing FREE hand gardening tools, and wall planters and hanging baskets, to improve the appearance of their homes. You can see the effect of this in this photo album here. Let us know if you are interested in getting a scheme going in your apartment block by ringing 889545.