Residents at Newton Heath’s
Averill House residential memory and nursing memory care home, have been getting green-fingered as well as celebration Pride this month.
This week was the first vegetable harvest, homegrown on the home’s allotment.
Residents have been working hard with the garden, Colleagues and Residents have dug and made vegetable patches using recycled materials. They have grown from seed and been working in conjunction with Stott Street allotment and the growers there who kindly donated seedlings and given a bank of advice.
Domestic Colleague, Karen, is also an allotment owner herself and has been sharing handy advice and tips.
So far, the home has planted kale, peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, pumpkins, spring onions and sugar snap peas!
Today after a lot of hard work from sowing the seeds, making the planters and everyday weeding by Residents in the gardening club, they had their first crop of vegetables; lettuce, kale, spring onions and sugar snap peas. There was loads of tasty, healthy and sustainable produce which will be served and prepped by Residents as a summer salad tomorrow. Everyone can’t wait for the rest of the veg to grow.
Wellbeing Coordinator, Jodie Yates, commented, “I am shocked the veg tastes so nice, I still cannot believe that we have grown all this!”
Also, this month, in celebration of Pride and being proud, Residents and Colleagues discussed the gays rights movement and the hardships of same-sex relationships. They also talked about LQTBQ and being proud of who we are despite our differences. Equality and inclusion were big topics throughout the discussion.
It was an open and frank discussion led by Jodie, and many Residents participated and asked questions. They also talked about stigma and how things have and are still changing.
Mina Shaw, Resident, remarked, “I didn’t know, I just didn’t know how bad it was. How sad, all for being in love! We should be proud no matter who we are.”
Jodie added, “We then spoke about what makes us proud and our differences and then we wrote little messages which were worked on as a group and displayed in the home.”
“We picked the colours of the display to match the gay pride flag that was designed by Gilbert Baker, the gay activist, and is now a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community.”