It may be winter, but that doesn’t mean our green-fingered contractors can’t get to work early in planning for the summer. Our partners WG Wigginton have been busy over the last few weeks, donating and planting five types of dwarf fruit trees in our care homes, sheltered housing schemes and Your Choice Barnet services.

Led by The Barnet Group’s Charmaine Carr with support from Deborah Beckford, this was a new initiative for our residents and service users

The project was part of WG Wigginton’s social value commitment, in giving something back to the communities that they operate in. This means that their contribution will now bear fruit for many years, and hopefully generations to come.

Danielle Richardson, Compliance and Safety Manager at WG Wigginton said “Donating and planting ‘Mini Orchards’, five species of mini fruit trees to Sheltered Housing Schemes and Care Homes has made us very proud! We had great fun meeting and reconnecting with residents, explaining the benefits of fruit trees, not only to the environment, plant and animal ecosystems, but also to residents, and all their family/visitors. With some love and care the trees will be fully mature within a couple of years, providing fresh fruit seasonally. The trees will also grow to a manageable height and width which makes them easy to look after. We look forward to returning and checking on them in the spring/Summer!”

One of WG Wigginton’s Resident Liaison Officers who works closely with our residents, Abbie Clark helped plant the trees and said “I was kindly invited on the journey to plant many fruit trees in these wonderful residential homes, and it was very satisfying. Seeing the residents faces when they saw what we was doing was very much worth it! These trees will bring a lot to the community within these homes and also provide options of lots of fresh fruit!”

We can’t wait to see the trees grow and start to produce fruit for residents to enjoy!

The full list of sites where trees have been planted are:

Barnet Homes Sheltered Housing

  • Christchurch Place – five
  • Market Place – five
  • Wimbush House – five
  • Prospect Place – five
  • Rectory Close – two

Your Choice Supported living

  • Quartz Court – five
  • Agatha House – five

Your Choice Care homes

  • Meadowside – five
  • Dell Field Court – two

Barnet Homes Garden clubs:

  • Woodburn Close – two
  • Bittacy Court – two
  • Martins Walk – two