🌼 The Story of Rock Ferry Flower Gardens

🌼 Why I Grabbed a Spade

Well, two years ago I started working on a patch in Rock Ferry on the Wirral that I had seen for many years become unsafe for the Wirral community. That’s when the law of the pathway is handed over to the local community to make safe.

If any pathway in the UK is unsafe for the local community to walk on, then that’s when we get the right—by law—to fix the pathways and make them safe for the kids and wise ones of our community.

🧱 The One Stop Man Says “No”

So when I started this patch, it was right outside a council representation building, shared between a local union, library, and council proceedings.

I approached the person representing the council (if you’ve seen my first website, then you’ll know I called him The One Stop Man ha). I told the One Stop Man that I would be making the flower beds outside safe for my local Wirral community!

He said, “No you’re not.”

I pleaded with him that by law it was now my responsibility as a community helper to make the area safe for everyone walking past—and that’s when he agreed with me that it really did need making safe.

From that point on, if I had caused a nuisance or made the gardens look worse, I’d have been marched away from there every day. But as long as we try to make good what is bad then surely that’s good ; )

💬 Local Praise & The Power of Trying

I worked very hard on the car park over the next few weeks, but the amount of praise I got from the local community has to be unmatched, Thanks : )

I wrote some very emotional stories on the first site about the community and the flower gardens, and it’s kinda funny looking back and seeing how far we’ve come now at Rock Ferry Flower Gardens.

#AlwaysSmiling

It’s funny because there were so many doubters saying I’d never get affiliation with Wirral Borough Council regarding the gardens—and look at us now : )

💸 Austerity Explained (Short and Sweet)

The doubt is fair—but I put most of it down to austerity(tough times for everyone).

It all kicked off around 2008 with the big banking scandal, and ever since then, governments have been cutting back hard.

Back in the 90s and early 2000s, credit was flying and the economy felt massive. Then—bam!—everything reversed and the money rushed back to the banks.

But here’s the fun part: austerity is usually followed by prosperity(Good times for everyone).

If we had one year of cuts, we should get the following year of community treats—like free window cleaning for silver surfers.

If we’ve had 17 years of cuts…following 17 years……

we get free food and housing for the world, let’s hope it’s at least everything quite literally free for our treasures—wise silver surfers.

#AndHolidays

👁️ Tech’s Miracles

Sorry for babbling about economy and stuff—it’s just where I place the blame.

We have clear movement now, with a tech revolution happening day by day for us to catch up on.

One advancement story for me is the lady who had never seen her whole life, and now she has a piece of tech that’s helped her see for the first time in over 40 years.

Imagine that for a second! Living for over 40 years with your mum and never seeing her—then one day, after so long, you see her for the first time.

Years ago this kind of thing might not have been possible, but now it is.

☎️ Humans vs. Machines

For years, our services have all been moving towards phones and the internet. The local councils of the UK are leaders in this, because we’ve got some of the best tech guys in the world.

So why wouldn’t a governing body save money and use a computer to do the job?

A human to do the job is £20,000+ a year and 28 days’ holiday pay! Never mind that a human wants breaks and rights hehe.

If a computer does the job, it stays on 24 hours—no days off and no breaks—as long as you give it about £400 a year in electricity.

Better still for the governing body, if they put solar panels in place, then the electricity is free : )

As we advance with tech, it’s just going to get better and better but we need to use it in a right and proper way on how it replaces the human.

We can replace a mundane job with a robot but not a serious job with some level of care involved ? that would always need face to face to show the care would it not ?.

Right now, it still feels like we’re talking to a robot with the latest automated answering machine. Very soon, it’ll feel like we’re talking to a real person—but really, it’ll be the most up-to-date AI automated answering machine, learning from every interaction.

This will be the boiling point for local communities, I think?

When we’re being tricked that much by screens or phones, we’ll realize the only way to find out the truth in a serious situation—is to go face-to-face.

🌳A Responsible Revolution

I used tech revolution already in my story and I never wanted to, but now it comes up again—sorry!

But in this kind of evolutionary change, some really big things happen in later years .

The last big change for me was the birth of electricity for human needs—from Nikola Tesla and his bunch ; )

Just over 100 years later and look how dependent the world is now on electricity.

This is happening again now with computers. And we are the pioneers, watching the birth of a new revolution.

So are we going to set a good example and lock ourselves away in a make-believe world of social media and games?

Or are we going to have the real thing—human honesty and touch?

We are literally setting the mark for years to come, and it’s our responsibility to find a happy medium between phones/screens and real life.

This brings me back to my number one goal:

“To get things done for my Wirral community i will never use the phone and only reply to emails. I will never send the first email.”

🪴 Meet “Miss Tree”

And we’ve done it at Rock Ferry Flower Gardens—in much less time than I expected!

I’ve never phoned Wirral Borough Council about Rock Ferry Gardens. I’ve only replied to emails sent to me by a high-level manager from the council, about times and dates to meet up.

From now on, I’ll call our amazing manager: “Miss Tree.”

Miss Tree was absolutely amazing to spend time with at a local spot in Tranmere—turning it into a new haven for the local community.

That’s when I had my manners on peak performance ; )

I knew this was a lady who could get things done face-to-face. I could tell she held old-school values dear, like me.

I knew she’d prefer honesty in the eyes rather than mystery on the phone ha.

🌼 The Cheeky Window Cleaner Strikes Again

That’s when I made my first cheeky request:

“Is there any chance we can meet up at Rock Ferry so I can show you what me and the local community have achieved in a short time?”

Miss Tree left no mystery and said: “See you there soon.”

I couldn’t believe it—the cheeky window cleaner now had a gardening date with a high-level council manager to show off the flowerbeds : )

🌻 Miss Tree’s Visit

Miss Tree met me at Rock Ferry Flower Gardens and loved my ideas for new pathways and wild/bedding flowers.

She told me she’d be in touch soon, as she knows the person directly in charge of the gardens within Wirral Borough Council.

I couldn’t believe my ears.

I was so close to getting full permission to maintain the flowerbeds and even plant new ones—all through face-to-face, and never a phone call : )

📩Approval made by literacy ; )

A month or so passed. I expected it to take much longer, as it’s usually very time-consuming to get approval for community gardens.

Then came the email—from Wirral Borough Council and the amazing Miss Tree. It was to meet up at Rock Ferry Flower Gardens to make new pathways, plant wild seeds and shrubs, and do a little labour work.

We met up, done the work, and the change in the gardens was appreciated by everyone.

I’ll never forget the smile on the face of the local librarian walking past watching us, saying: “It looks amazing.”

🛍️ A Final Cheeky Ask

I probably gave Miss Tree a data overload during our time working together, but I really wanted to make a good impression—as she cared so much about nature and our pathways

rumors say her magical team has planted over 80.000 trees on the Wirral ovs with Miss Tree’s direction.

#MissTreeIsTheBest

So now for my final cheeky request.

“Is it OK if we pop over and talk to the local shop owner across the road? She’s really respected around here and has been worried about what’s going to happen to Rock Ferry Flower Gardens.”

Miss Tree replied: “Of course, let’s go!”

So we went over and spoke to her for a few minutes, and then the flamboyant community shop owner asked the best question I’ve heard in ages:

“What’s going to happen now with the maintenance of the gardens?”

I said: “Funny you should mention that—me and Miss Tree were just talking about it, and I’ve been given permission to maintain the gardens two days a week.”

I adore our flamboyant shop owner—she’s always on the ball. Her next question was:

“So do we just give oavo the flowers now and he plants away?”

And I said again: “Double funny you should mention that—that was the other thing I asked Miss Tree, and she said yes.”

🌟 Face-to-Face Wins

So this “yes” to flowers and maintenance came from the council member in charge of Rock Ferry Flower Gardens.

It was all finalized through face-to-face meetings—with me, Miss Tree, our community shop worker, and the people in the shop hehe.

But never, ever—really never ever—did I make a single phone call to Wirral Borough Council.

This is how face-to-face will overcome the reliance on phones/Internet and automated answering services. 🙂