We are delighted to welcome back Oasis Community Centre & Gardens as the recipient of our Commitment to Excellence Award.
The multi-award-winning Oasis Community Centre and Gardens is a thriving community park and two-acre garden. With over 35 projects, groups and events for all ages and backgrounds, the site attracts over 30,000 visitors annually. Located in the Kilton housing estate in Worksop, North Nottinghamshire, the charity provides a safe place where people can come and find help, hope and healing.
The project has quickly become the heart of the community and a large part of that has been the beautiful two-acre garden, managed by the dedicated ‘gardening for life’ team, headed by Steve.
“The garden has been a real labour of love for Steve’s team and a testimony to dreaming big dreams and the hard work of creating an Oasis from a barren field. Anyone loving flowers should come along to the open days, cafe drop ins and special events going through to the end of May.
The Worksop community has been planting spring bulbs on the Oasis Community Gardens site for 15 years. The wonderful Spring Flower gardens are a stunning array of almost every type of spring bulb available. We start in January with aconites, snowdrops and early flowering species. Then we move on to crocus, miniature iris and miniature daffodils. Spring follows on with a stunning collection of daffodils and hyacinths, tulips and Crown imperials. Every summer, the gardens take on a magic of their own,” explained Oasis founder, site manager and pastor Steve Williams.
The Oasis Gardens are open to everyone and are accessible to visitors in wheelchairs or with disabilities/special needs. Many of the volunteer gardeners have special needs and find the gardening therapeutic, helping some recover from previous traumatic life events.
The Oasis Gardens have won many awards including the Green Flag Award and the RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood Award and featured in an memorable episode of BBC Gardener’s World a couple of years ago.
“A particularly interesting feature of the gardens in the Liquorice Garden. Liquorice was a heritage crop grown locally in Worksop, as one of only three UK locations and used for sweetening food and medicine. Oasis has a small thriving liquorice garden- the first in Worksop for over 100 years.
We have many events planned for 2025: April is the month for our Flower Festival events: a real Spring extravaganza. Then later in the year, we have a Family Funspace event.”
To find out about volunteering, attending classes or for more information, click on the website:
www.oasiscommunitycentre.org