Unfortunately, keeping everybody "sweet" isn't always easy. A great majority or our smaller visitors like to climb trees and play 'jungles' in our shrubberies- whilst others want to enjoy the ornamental trees and shrubs for their flowers, berries and fruit and the wildlife that they attract. This is a problem which troubles the Gardeners a lot. We want the children to be able to explore and learn as we did when we were young, but within the boundaries of a city park there will always be limitations.
We also seem to have a bit of a battle on our hands with litter - which is sad to witness. Reagrdless of the 29 bins around the gardens (including 11 recycling bins) some people are still failing to use them!! Not only is litter unsightly, but it is also a danger to wildlife and it takes up valuable gardening time!! Time is very important all year round but particularly now whilst we are preparing for the green Flag Award.
We do all love our jobs here at St Ann's Well:- callouses, muscle ache and litter aside, we love meeting lots of lovely people (including all of our 4-legged friends - you know who you are! Woof!) and getting feedback from the public is really rewarding. We feel like we are going home with a "pat on our backs" particularly on a Friday when we have finished all the mowing, tidied all the beds and cleared away all the litter...ready for the weekend.....ready to start again on Monday!