A woman was surprised to see two Home Bargains workers on the street outside a community garden.
Rachael Emblem, 43, and another woman were in a community garden she's run for 20 months when two staff from the discount store appeared.
The pair were picking litter in their Home Bargains uniforms as they had done the previous day, filling in for a man who, unbeknown to Rachael, usually tidies the street early in the morning.
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Teaching assistant Rachael told the ECHO : "It's so lovely to see because we do get litter in the garden.
"It's between two major bus stops, people are walking through to go to the shops quite a lot, so we do get litter, even though there's a bin next to the bus stop.
"So for people to come and just keep it a little bit tidier and just make a little bit of an effort, it really felt like it was the community coming together."
Rachael got permission from Liverpool City Council to transform a patch of grass at the corner of Willow Way and Petherick Road into Croxteth Community Garden only three weeks before the first lockdown in March 2020.
Since then, Rachael, her partner and their eight-year-old son have been building beds and planting crops, on a mission to create a community space where people can find food.
She told the ECHO : "I wouldn't say it was an eyesore. It was just grass with a few trees around the outside.
"But it was frustrating me to know what it could be used for, and it just seemed like such a waste of space, especially at the moment when people are struggling to feed their families."
As they head into winter, they're growing garlic and onions, while the rest of the year, you can find soft fruits, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbages, beans, peas and squash growing in the community garden.
They currently have an afternoon horticulture course running in Croxteth Community Garden.
Rachael told the ECHO : "I really want the garden to be something for the whole community, rather than my garden where I grow things and people can eat food. I really want it to be a community space.
"I love the fact that children come and spend time there and love just running around and looking at what's going growing, and taking little raspberries and strawberries in the summer."
She lit up when she saw the Home Bargains staff litter picking of their own accord, and leapt up to get a photo of them.
Rachael told the ECHO : "For somebody to come and just do it themselves without me asking them, or without it being a big deal, just to come because it's nice to keep it tidy, it was really special."
