AN EAST Oxford community garden is set to blossom this spring with a bunch of events on offer.

The Barracks Lane Community Garden is to reopen today with a seed swapping day for residents.

The garden, off Cowley Road, was grown in 2007 on a former rubbish-filled garage site which was renowned for drug use.

And some 4,000 people visited last year for picnics, parties, and workshops.

It is now open to the public on weekends between 11am and 5pm until October.

There will also be a foraging for food workshop on Sunday, April 15, a plant swap on Saturday, May 5, and on Saturday, June 16, there will be workshops on how to pickle and preserve vegetables.

Oxford Lord Mayor Elise Benjamin is to officially open the garden for this year at 11.30am.

She said: “It is an honour and a pleasure, as a long-standing supporter of the garden, to be involved in the season opening and seed swap.

“There is always excitement every year when it opens for the season.

“I am pleased it is still here and still doing good work.

“It does valuable work helping and encouraging people to grow their own veg and to participate in traditional craft.

“It is just a lovely community resource.”

She added: “To see a former inaccessible garage site transformed into something usable for the whole community is exactly the sort of thing we need more of in the city.”

The garden’s co-ordinator Julieanne Porter said there was plenty to look forward to this year.

She said: “It is a really lovely space, partly because it used to be such a run-down place that was toxic. It is now a space people can come and use.

“And what is so nice about is it is really peaceful. There is something about the space that there is a sense of happiness.

“It makes me feel hopeful the world can be a better place.”