An appeal to re-create a Victorian garden has been launched by an Essex group.

Blackwater Task Force - which provides work opportunities for people with mental health problems - has launched a £22,000 public appeal.

The aim is to build the garden at the project's headquarters at Southminster, on the Dengie peninsula - between the rivers Crouch and Blackwater.

Workers at the site are hoping for local community support to get the project off the ground.

The new two-acre garden would include herb and ornamental gardens as well as soft fruit and vegetable beds, to allow the 23 members extend their horticultural and food-growing work which already forms an important part of the programme at the Steeple Road site.

While reflecting the spirit of the original gardens at the former Knightswood farmhouse the project would also address environmental issues, being almost totally organic and with a keen focus on waste management and recycling.

Project manager Andy Scott explained that the garden had already been designed by University College of London student Warren Alexander-Pye who had been partnered with Blackwater as part of the STEP - Shell Technology Enterprise Programme - scheme.

Now funding is needed to make the plan a reality.

A large part of the money would go to building an access road on to the site, Andy explained, thus allowing access to the garden and making it easier for the project's other activities, mainly furniture distribution to the needy, to take place.

"This is a real chance for the local community to support the work we do," Andy said. "We need money and practical help as well as more volunteers.

"The new garden will benefit the people who come here on a day-to-day basis by giving them confidence and self-esteem through work.

"We have found that gardening is a tremendously therapeutic activity for people with mental health problems or learning difficulties and of course gardening helps improve skills for life, an air of excitement and a feeling of achievement to those who take part.

"The Victorian garden is an exciting project but we need help to put it into action."

Andy explained that although Blackwater is working in partnership with the Dengie Project Trust on the landscaping of the seven acre site, it is responsible for funding its part of the work itself.

"This is a tremendously exciting project but until we raise some money we can't get it started. We don't want it to sound as if we are begging but we really do need help on this one."

Blackwater Task Force is a branch of Maldon (Essex) MIND which has been running community projects for people with mental health problems since 1974.

If you can help the Victorian garden project at Southminster then call Andy on 01621 774261 or write to The Garden Project, Blackwater Task Force, Knightswood, Steeple Road, Southminster, CM0 7BD.

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