A South Belfast alley, which was transformed into a garden paradise during lockdown, has been featuring in a new gardening programme with Diarmuid Gavin.
Gardening Together with Diarmuid Gavin is a new six part series, created for RTÉ and BBC NI, which sees Diarmuid tap into the explosion of interest in all things green.
As part of the series, Diarmuid Gavin talks to communities who are working together when it cames to gardening.
One of those selected for the programme is a now locally famous 'garden alley' in south Belfast, which was created by the residents of Rossmore and Ardmore Avenue.
Belfast Live shared the story of the streets' 'garden paradise' last month, speaking to residents Paddy McAree and Brigid Loughran about how all the residents on the street brought a backalley to life.
Following this, there was wide interest in the transformation.
Now, in this new series, Diarmuid Gavin takes a deeper look at how the gardening idea has brought all residents together.
He says: "Gardens and outdoor spaces no matter how small are becoming so important. Paddy McAree got in touch with me, he wanted to show me what he and his neighbours had achieved."
Paddy adds: "The gardening got started in the alleyway. It was a sort of tip, it was dirty. We decided to put all the bins away, sweep it up, and put up a little notice to say that, in the interest of the children, we wanted it to be decent.
"We started to put out our plants, just a few. I put up a notice saying, 'I've moved the bins, if you don't like it, tell me' - and no one did, so I thought that was a nice vibe.
"We don't have a front gardens, we don't even have backgardens, so the plants is visually what you see, but the magical bit - the social element - you don't see that, but it's there."
Fellow resident Brigid Loughran said: "Out here was just a dirty old alley, then with Covid we were all locked in, it was very isolated, a number of people lived on their own, so once we just started to bring stuff out, other people joined, and the community developed organically."
Watch Gardening Together with Diarmuid Gavin, available on BBC iPlayer now .
