A video of a community garden project created by a Northampton charity is to feature on the BBC’s Gardeners’ World on Friday 8 November.

The amazing Tropical Tunnel - which features plants and a waterfall - can be found at Workbridge, the educational and commercial arm of the complex mental health charity St Andrew’s Healthcare.

Workbridge provides a vocational learning service to people who attend daily sessions, to help people work towards life and employment skills. There, the learners attend different learning programmes across food and health, creative arts and innovation, design technology and engineering, digital skills, and gardening and the natural world.

But, it was the attendees of the gardening and natural world sessions who came together to create the tropical tunnel, after being asked to think of how an old polytunnel could be reused.  

Jenny Lane, Workbridge Manager said: “We encourage our learners to think creatively about items and how we can repurpose and reuse them. Much thought was put into what we could do with the polytunnel and it was eventually decided that we would try to create our own tropical garden on site.

“It is a fantastic resource for us and means we can teach our learners about climate change, eco-systems from across the world, and sustainable living.

“At Andrew’s we know that co-production benefits everyone, and this has been a perfect example of how we can achieve something wonderful by bringing our service users, learners and staff together to share their creative ideas and energy.”

Workbridge learner John from Northampton said: “Working on this project was so much fun. I learnt a lot about gardening and team work. From the very start my ideas were listened to and we were so pleased that our waterfall idea was made.”

The creation of the tunnel took several months of hard work and alongside the learners, St Andrew’s volunteers and staff helped out to dig out the foundations of the installation.

The tunnel also features a waterfall, which was imagined and created by one of Workbridge’s tutors, Richard and a group of our learners from old pallets. Many of the plants that were used have also been grown on site.

The project was finished in June last year and staff, patients, learners and Workbridge visitors can now visit the tunnel when it is open, taking in the bespoke eco-system that everyone created together.

Jenny explained: “We are incredibly proud of the tropical tunnel and how many, many people from across our charity – including patients and learners – came together to create this wonderful community project. It’s shared and loved by all of us and we wanted to show the world, which is why we decided to submit a short video to the BBC’s Gardeners’ World. We were thrilled to hear they would be broadcasting it and we want everyone to remember to tune in to watch it.”

St Andrew’s Healthcare’s CEO Dr Vivienne McVey said: “I am a huge fan of Gardeners’ World and have watched it for many years. I have always viewed the community projects they broadcast with interest, but never imagined that the work we do at St Andrew’s and Workbridge would be featured.

“As a charity, our purpose is hope, and this project has shown us that with imagination, determination and hopefulness, you can turn an old unused polytunnel into a thing of beauty.

“The Tropical Tunnel is an excellent example of co-production where we work with our service users to implement what they have suggested. I could not be prouder of the team and what they have achieved together, and I will be definitely watching the programme when it’s broadcast on Friday.”

The Workbridge Tropical Tunnel section will be featured on BBC Two’s Gardener’s World on Friday, November 8, from 8pm.