Prospect Roof Top Garden

Hidden above the shopping centre is Our Roof top Garden, our own little garden filled with lots of great plants and herbs for Prospect’s staff to enjoy.

We created this space during the 2nd lockdown and our motivation for doing it was Mental Health Awareness and Environmental Awareness. We wanted to create a space staff could use to and relax away from the daily stresses of life and the busy high street and take in the surrounding of the garden or get involved in growing some plants of their own, this could be herbs, vegetables or just plants to look at, and for nature to enjoy.

The idea for the project was to use as much recycled materials as possible, by doing this we would be upcycling disused mall benches, use palettes from deliveries to make planters and artificial event grass that was no longer used.

We asked our retailers what they thought about the idea, and they loved it, B&M donated bamboo fencing, Wilko donated seeds and Prospect centres Management team brought the project to life with weeks of hard work, painting, laying tiles, and grass, planting, and placing a water system in place for the garden.

We now have a signing in system for the garden so anyone who would like to use it just signs out the key for the gate and then signs it back in when they are ready, this way we know who is on site regarding health and safety, also we can ask for comments and feedback on the garden.

We see our garden as a project that can be developed further as there is more space to add planters, we also have on site green house for people to use, which would be ideal for fruit and veg.

Evidence shows that most people turned to nature in their own gardens and the great outdoors on their own doorstep throughout the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 so this garden to us is our outdoor space for the same reasons everyone else needed it.