The volunteer gardeners who spruced up a section of Highgate Road

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A CRACK team of green-fingered citizens have spent a sunny Saturday helping improve a shopping parade in Highgate Road – and were treated to a slap-up Italian feast for their efforts.

At the weekend, volunteers from the Carroll and Sanderson Close tenants’ and residents’ association, the Dartmouth Park Neighbourhood Forum and charity Growing Green descended on the stretch.

And after clearing up litter and some sad-looking bushes, they put in new beds and shrubs more suited to the site.

Backed by £500 grant from refuse firm Veolia, the volunteers planted shade-loving ferns and flowering shrubs for pollinators to bring some colour to beds that had long been left neglected.

Growing Green’s Jeska Harrington-Gould said: “It was fantastic to see different community groups working together to create something beautiful.”

And as well as the joy of getting mud under the nails on a beautiful spring day the volunteers were treated to a post-dig feast at the critically acclaimed Italian bistro Rossella, which is based on the same parade.

John Corrigan and chef Alex Perndonka from Rosella

The groups had been meeting in the popular eaterie in Highgate Road as they planned the spruce-up.

The restaurant’s manager John Corrigan, who looks after the businesses’ voluntary work that sees them provide NW5 events and charities with support, suggested they relax post-gardening in the bistro.

He told the New Journal: “We joined their discussions and said that anyone who comes to lend a hand improving the neighbourhood deserves a treat from us.

“They’ve done a lovely job and certainly deserved some pizzas for their hard work.”

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