A GROUNDFORCE team whose organisation helped to sow the seeds of an east end oasis got stuck in to help it grow.

Big Lottery Fund staff swapped their office for the great outdoors to do their bit to maintain Belville Community Garden in the east end.

The fabulous five-strong team got digging to spruce up the area as part of a Make a Difference volunteer day.

Janet Colston, Belville Community Garden officer, said: “It was a great day out for the volunteers. It was very nice they came to Greenock to support the garden and were able to see what we managed to achieve.

“The idea of the project is to bring the community together, encourage people to grow their own vegetables and fruit and, as part of the initiative, teach youngsters where their food comes from.

“Its greatest success has been partnership working.” A whole host of local groups have benefited from the community garden.

This includes REACH for Autism, Parklea Branching Out, Your Voice, West College Scotland and local schools King’s Oak and All Saints.

The project will also celebrate its first harvest this year and Belville Community Trust plan to work with other organisations to turn produce into jams, chutneys and soup. The community garden was created with £610,000 from the Big Lottery Fund, plus investment from Inverclyde Council and River Clyde Homes, the housing association which owns the land.

The team involved in this week’s spruce-up exercise had a great day and thanked Janet for organising the activities.

Big Lottery Funding officer Martin Grant said: “It was a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit exhausting day.

“Being in the fresh air all day was invigorating and satisfying.” The makeover follows another volunteer day earlier this month when 15 SSE engineers created a raised bed from stone recycled from the area.

It now contains sensory plants and herbs supplied by the Parklea Branching Out gardening project.

They also established the foundations for another raised bed to supply winter vegetables to Inverclyde Foodbank.