Heartwarming nomination sees GreenThumb transform Doncaster communal lawn for free

The residents, who aren’t able to take care of the communal lawn they all share, will now benefit from a garden transformation.

GreenThumb, the UK’s most recommended lawn care service, will be treating the communal lawn as part of their ‘Share The Lawn Love’ campaign which will now see them treat over 160 lawns nationwide, free of charge in 2023.

The lawn is home to numerous benches that the residents purchased from fundraising by the Community Action Group and have become a regular meeting place for the residents. However, with no one to take care of the lawn, weeds have started to grow and the space is need of some tender loving care from lawn experts GreenThumb.

This inaugural campaign generated over 700 nominations with the successful nominees, including the residents of Manor Gardens, now set to receive a generous whole year of treatments from the UK’s biggest lawn care specialists.

Jill Milner was delighted to receive a year’s worth of lawn treatments.

She said: "We’ve have had three treatments and it’s made a huge difference to the communal lawn. The grass is looking so lush and green, we even held a communal BBQ on the lawn together recently and it was such a pleasure to be all sat with each other enjoying the rejuvenated space.”

Paul Edwards, Managing Director at GreenThumb, commented: “With everything that’s happening in the world outside our control, more and more people are turning to their gardens, local green spaces and nature for quite literal grounding.

“We’re proud to be able to help the residents of Manor Gardens at a time when transforming lawns into green sanctuaries will have an even greater impact on the wellbeing of the recipients.”

In partnership with the National Garden Scheme and Scotland’s Gardens Scheme, GreenThumb are advocates for the physical and mental health benefits gardens provide and are hoping this campaign will allow them to spread the personal and sustainable wins that green spaces offer.

Paul continued: “Lawns are so much more than just a carpet of grass, they provide both personal and social spaces for relaxation and recovery, happy places to unwind or share with friends and family, which is why it’s so important to look after them, because they look after us.”

All nominees were carefully selected by volunteers of Scotland’s Gardens Scheme or the National Garden Scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Chris Potton, from the Doncaster East GreenThumb branch who are carrying out the treatments, added: “As we head into those warmer months, these community spaces become even more important for local people, acting as welcoming, much-needed sanctuaries. We’re extremely proud that we’re able to help the community maintain their very own green space.”

Both these long-established organisations raise money for nursing and health charities through the opening of private gardens; charging affordable admissions and serving tea and cake to raise funds for the likes of Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie and the Queen's Nursing Institute Scotland.

The nomination process saw communal green spaces in high demand for transformations, with the likes of schools, churches and sports grounds receiving 23% of nominations in the hope of enriching the local community.

The campaign also saw plenty of nominations for deserving neighbours, with many people stating they’d grown closer as a result of the pandemic and now wanted to lend a helping hand.

Perhaps unsurprisingly though, family and friends nominating their loved ones was the most common occurrence with almost three quarters (71%) off all nominations keen to give back to those closest to them for a whole host of heartwarming reasons.