A IMPORTANT centre for people with mental health needs held an open day for itsgreen-fingered members earlier this month.

People at Jewish Care's Mitkadem Centre in Redbridge celebrated the opening of their new allotment by planting a host of fruit and vegetables, which will give them the chance to cultivate the plants and the use their produce to cook up some delicious dishes.

The 'Garden of Eden', as the residents now refer to it, boasts and apple tree and blackcurrant and raspberry bushes, as well as a host of vegetables including butternut squash, beetroot, cabbages, broccoli, onions, French beans, carrots, swede, fennel, spinach, salad leaves and cucumber, and herbs including coriander, tarragon and marjoram.

The garden even includes a seating area so that the gardeners can take a welcome break from their labours in the shade of the apple tree.

Members took over the derelict plot of land twelve months ago and have been working two days every week to transform it to a functioning allotment.

At the celebratory summer picnic to mark its opening, the centre's co-ordinator Catherine McNicholas said: “It is very important to live well and eat healthily and we are all so excited to see this wonderful transformation of what was previously a barren piece of land.”