Greenock bowling club bid to build community garden

Wellington Park Bowling Club’s bid to build the new green space is being backed by cash from the Inverclyde Community Fund, with Bruce Newlands of Inverclyde Shed also lending his gardening expertise to the effort.

The club’s committee hope the venture will give members another activity they can take part in at Wellington Park outwith the bowling season.

The aim is to have the project finished in time for it to be used in the latter half of next year.

Past president Martin Woodrow, who helped hatch the plan, told the Telegraph it was exciting to see the project beginning to take shape.

He said: “We had an area of old wasted space out at the back of the clubhouse, it was all gravel and weeds and we thought we could do something with it.

“We spoke about it at a couple of committee meetings and settled on the idea of allotments for members.

“We managed to get a grant for a community garden and allotments, and we decided to go ahead with it.

“That was when we met with Bruce from the Shed, who had all the knowledge and experience that we didn’t have, and he helped us hugely.

“The bowling season runs from April to October and during that time we’re a thriving wee community, but after that you don’t see many people up at the club.

“One of the ideas was to have somewhere we could get members up and involved during the winter.

“The idea came from secretary Stephen McLellan originally and I think it fits into our ethos.

“One of our members, Dougie Inglis, has been one of the driving forces behind this. He’s just retired from working in gardening and his expertise will be invaluable to us.

“We want to get more people playing and more members and I think this will help encourage people to come along.

“But the main motivationwas to get more people out the house during the winter."

Inverclyde Shed treasurer Bruce said he was delighted to see how enthusiastic the club had been about setting up the garden.

He said: “We started off last year planting some apple trees for them and from that their secretary Stephen had said they were a little bit idle during the winter months.

“They were looking for a project and had seen what we do with community gardens elsewhere in the area.

“They got me up and I had a chat with them and we ended up helping with the organisation of things like the compost and the whisky barrels.

“I think it’s a great for the club to have a garden, it'd be great if every bowling had one.

“It’s a very sustainable way to do things and I think the members at Wellington Park will find it very rewarding.”