Information Law Team spends a day with charity Grow for Life

Grow for Life is a Bath-based charity that works in the city and across neighbouring towns and villages in north east Somerset. It aims, through social and therapeutic gardening sessions, to “see a world where people experiencing low confidence, anxiety, depression or isolation are restored to live life to the full”.

The charity has a beautiful walled garden in Newton St. Loe, on the outskirts of Bath, which, as Projects Manager Wayne McMaster (pictured centre) said, “for 30 years lay abandoned and unloved”, but is now “becoming a place of restoration for those in our local community. It is becoming a safe garden, a place for encounter.” This notion of “encounter” is at the heart of much of Grow for Life’s work, as the charity believes it is what sparks meaningful connection. Wayne said: “Encounter leads to people being known, which in turn leads people to know they are loved. When you know that you are well-loved, you can love well."

It was in support of this ethos that Stone King’s Information Law Team – comprising Tom Vasov (pictured far-left), Hannah Sterry, Zoe Dipple (pictured centre-left), Jo Lake (pictured centre-right) and Jemma Statham (pictured far-right) – used their yearly CSR (corporate social responsibility) day to don their wellies and warm layers and head out to Newton St. Loe.

The team worked directly with Wayne to prepare the ground and lay a new path, as well as move and prepare plant material for composting. Grow for Life will now also benefit from being able to make dandelion and burdock following Tom Vasov's harvesting of a large burdock root. “We are always so grateful for the support we receive from our corporate teams and volunteers,” said Wayne, “they’re helping us transform this walled garden”.

Jemma Statham, Data Protection Practitioner and source of the idea to spend a day with the charity said: “I came across Wayne and Grow for Life on BBC’s Gardener’s World and thought it would be a fantastic volunteering opportunity for the Information Law Team to give something back to the local community. We are now all very familiar with garden forks, wheelbarrows, shears, secateurs and wood chip, and we’re looking forward to helping again.”

As well as its Newton St. Loe space, gardeners from Grow for Life also visit private gardens and designated areas in the grounds of local care homes, supporting individuals in the maintenance of their outdoor spaces.

To find out more about Grow for Life and how you can get involved, visit the Grow for Life website.