CARING volunteers have planted a tranquil garden in the grounds of a Christian centre thanks to a cash injection from the Gazette's annual award scheme.

The team from Pilgrims Hall in Ongar Road, Pilgrims Hatch, created the new-look sunken Italian garden after being named last year's winner of the Heart of the Community environment prize.

The prize not only acted as a morale boost to everyone involved in the project, but also came with £1,500 to help pay for plants and vital tools for the summer transformation.

They now encourage everyone in Brentwood to nominate worthy causes for this year's newly titled Heart of Essex awards.

Volunteer Sylvia Conlon, 65, who led the sunken garden project, said: "I think first of all it has boosted morale because we did not really have a budget for gardening.

"Whatever money was spent on the garden came from the sale of secondhand books at Pilgrims Hall.

"To be able to spend that money on the sunken garden and restore it with the plants has been such a great project.

"We were able to do it in the summer and a landscaper called Barbara Skerry gave her services totally free.

"It also enabled us to buy the tools to do the job. We had a lot of broken ones before."

She added: "We would not have been able to have completed this project without the money."

Existing plants that were removed from the garden were then moved to other parts of the 19-acre site, which provides a sanctuary and peaceful retreat for residents of all ages, with counselling and teachings available on a range of issues.

The manager at Pilgrims Hall, the Reverend Andy Neale, said the award money and the tools it had bought had acted as a real launch pad for gardening projects at the centre.

He said there were now two new, young volunteers regularly helping out and links had been made with schoolchildren in Harold Hill.

He said: "It is more than just about the plants. It has launched all sorts of things. It is wonderful."

For information about how to enter, see page 24 opposite.