A BUMPER cash windfall will help secure the future of a community garden in north Hull.
Rainbow Community Garden, off Levisham Close, will receive £10,000 for the next three years from The Rank Foundation, which will pay the wages of a part-time gardener.
It is not even summer yet and already it is turning out to be a fruitful year for the gardeners.
Earlier this month, the Neil Hudgell Solicitors Trust awarded the garden £750, and members have also recently learned they are to get £1,000 from the Community First Fund.
Jeanie Webster, a founder member of the garden, which was set up 15 years ago, said: "We are very grateful for all this money. It is absolutely marvellous and we are so pleased.
"It will secure the garden's future and enable us to keep on our part-time gardener, Brenda Elm."
Jeanie said the chief executive of The Rank Foundation recently visited the garden to see for himself the good work going in to create a green oasis on the housing estate.
She said: "We showed him around the garden and he was really interested in what we do.
"We will receive £10,000 and then, provided all is yet, we will receive two further amounts of £10,000 each."
Jeanie says the group will use cash from the Neil Hudgell Solicitors Trust to train families in basic woodwork, enabling them to build a sheltered area in the garden.
It will also help provide seeds and support to encourage families to grow their own fruit and vegetables.
Money awarded from the Community First Fund will be used for general running costs and help pay for materials.
Rainbow Community Gar- den volunteers have spread their good work across the HU6 postcode area, helping plant hundreds of trees, donated by The Woodland Trust.
Jeanie says the group has grand plans for the future.
"Eventually, we would like to create a nature trail around the HU6 area," she said. "We work with a lot of ethnic minority groups and we would like to increase that further.
"The future looks very rosy for us and we are over the moon."
Do you have something to shout about in Orchard Park or north Hull? If so, call reporter Kevin Shoesmith on 01482 315266.
