In October 2014 my husband John and I noticed what a mess Sandown Castle ruins looked as it has been overgrown and uncared for for many years.
After much discussion and deliberation and living so close by we decided to do something about it and set up Sandown Castle Community Garden Group.
We had some response from the local community willing to help us.
After talking to many of our friends we found that most of them had never even walked to the castle ruins as they thought there wasn't anything nice there to see.
Our vision is to create an attractive eye catching formal Summer display to encourage people to take a walk along the seafront to see what we have all been up to.
Dover District Council kindly cleared some of the larger weeds from the site and arranged for permission from English Heritage for us to proceed with the preparation of the former tiered gardens at the beginning of January 2014
Since then our small group have planted over 3000 donated bulbs in the grass on the first tier down.
We have been very busy tidying up the paved areas and steps and have started clearing the grass back to the top soil in the former flowerbeds which were planted and at their best in 1950's.
As these haven't been dug since around the 1970's it's been a very difficult task for our small group.
At the end of May we hope to be planting the lower levels with geraniums ready for the Summer and the top will be left with the wild sea thrift and other wild plants.
We have started raising money to pay for plants and items we need as since we started we have been using our own money to fund this project. Deal Lioness Group are running a quiz night in April on our behalf and Deal Lions have offered to help us out soon with a donation.
If there are any other local community fundraising groups or individuals who would like to make a small donation to help our project please do get in touch with us. We would be most grateful for any assistance.
If anyone would like to join our voluntary group to help with digging and planting please contact us - Linda & John Ford on 07751 362949
Email sandowncastle@hotmail.com
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