Preston residents are being asked to vote for their favourite local community gardening project to receive support from Dobbies, the UK’s leading garden centre retailer. 

Three deserving community projects in Preston have been chosen by team members at the Preston Dobbies store to make the shortlist for Helping Your Community Grow, Dobbies’ landmark community support initiative.

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The scheme, launched last month, aims to work with existing groups to create 69 new or revamped green spaces around the UK, one for each of its mainline stores. 

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The three Preston projects have been shortlisted as they best represent an opportunity to create an enhanced green space that will benefit the local area, but the final choice is now down to local residents as they are encouraged to have their say and vote for their favourite on the Dobbies website.  

The three local projects competing for votes in Preston are Freckleton Lodge Care Home, Galloway Society for Blind and Kirkland and Catterall Primary School.  

Kirkland and Catterall Primary School is home to an after-school gardening club, Catterall in Bloom, which the local children just love. The club is in need of some tools to help empty the three raised beds, which are currently filled with heavy soil and weeds, and plant up some vegetables and flower seeds.

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The raised beds are perfect for children in Key Stage One and also those who have disabilities and may be in a wheelchair, and this after school gardening club could allow all children of all abilities to be involved, growing food such as potatoes, carrots and onions to make delicious soup this Autumn term. 

Galloway Society for Blind are hoping to add a scented area in their grounds for all visually impaired people to visit and enjoy. To make this possible, the society are hoping for a donation of beautifully scented plants to bring this scented garden to life. 

Freckleton Lodge Care Home looks after residents with mobility issues, where many spend their days looking out to the gardens. The team at Freckleton Lodge would love to provide residents and staff members with a beautiful view from each and every room, and to do this they need bright and colourful plants which will attract wildlife. In addition to the plants, the care home would like to attract birds to the gardens with bird feeding stations. 

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Graeme Jenkins, CEO of Dobbies, said: “Through Helping Your Community Grow, Dobbies is delighted to be supporting so many gardening projects in the areas around our stores. It’s a landmark initiative for us and we are so proud to be helping so many community projects across the country to create a green space that benefits their local area. 

“The team at our Preston Dobbies store understand the needs of their neighbourhood and have chosen three extremely deserving projects for the Preston community to choose from. We’re very much looking forward to finding out the results of the public vote, and we’re excited to help the winning project achieve its aims in the months to come.” 

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The winning Preston project will receive support from Dobbies, including products, equipment and even team support from the staff at the Preston Dobbies store, to help them create a green space that the local community can be proud of. The project with the most votes, from all areas across the UK, will be the national winner and receive additional support from Dobbies. 

The public vote is now live and will close on August 29. The winners will be announced in September.   

Votes can be cast here.

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