After many months Finsbury Gardens is now open.  The new grass is not quite established so still needs to be fenced off and this means the new picnic table cannot be used.  But all this lovely rain is good for new grass so hopefully it will not be long before this area will be open too.  The two flower beds will be planted up shortly and we are currently taking advice as to planting this area so it looks beautiful but does not make too much extra work.

There is a long list of people whom the Community need to be thank.  The volunteer were Caroline Simpson, without whose drive and vision this refurbishment would not have ever got off the ground.  Jim Friedman for his attention to detail and design has led to a much nicer Garden than we would have had otherwisel  Emma Willars for her expertise regarding Chirldren's Play area and influence in this area,  Catherine Heatherington who gave us her expertise as a landscape gardener and eye for design.   Gill Wynne-Williams who was our Lead Professional, Tim Baker, Project Manager for Haringey Council whose expertise in all areas was invaluable, Tony Healey for encouragement and finding the wherewithall to allow us to resurface the whole path and Community Spaces for£50,000 which allowed the project to take place.  All these people have given an extraordinary amount of time to create a lovely place in our Community which allows young children a safe haven in which to play and everyone else a lovely environment in which to sit, chat and just enjoy being outside.

I can only hope you all agree and if you have not yet been in Finsbury Gardens you will wander round and give us some feed-back.  So far almost all comments have been positive but the best bit for me was when two lovely little children arrived on my doorstep with a bunch of flowers to say thank-you!

We are going to lock the gardens at night to try and cut the chance of vandalism.  This is currently being done by a few people on an ad hoc basis but  we were hoping that someone who overlooked the Gardens would like to take on the role of organiser.

Finally I would like to thank the Finsbury Diggers.  This is not a secret society but a group of volunteers who give up two hours every month on the second Sunday of the month 2 -4 and weed, chop and do whatever is needed to keep the flower beds at the end of the Gardens looking so good.  Their commitment is fantastic but it would be so good if we could have a few more helpers to try and spread the load.  The Council only has funding to cut the grass 12 times a year and prune the shrubs once a year.  The rest is up to us.  It is quite a big task we have but so worthwhile and fun!  So how about volunteering to help?

We will have an official opening in September and a proper Festival next year. We need offers of help for that too and thoughts about how we fund it in future years as we are unlikely to be funded in future.