A community garden in West Belfast is thriving again after being taken over by a collective of volunteers.
Gairdín an Phobail (the People's Garden) near Whiterock Leisure Centre had fallen into disrepair before being revived in March of last year.
Now it is providing education for young people on where their food comes from, a community meeting space and a mental health boost for people in the area.
Read more: Volunteers transform unused land into new community garden in East Belfast
Claire Peacocke from the charity Grow NI , is one of those involved in the collective efforts to maintain and nurture the garden.
She said it has been invaluable in helping young people from local areas to understand more about how the food chain works.
"I think there's maybe three generations certainly in West and North Belfast of people growing up not near gardens," she said.
"So they grow up in estates or they grow up near a tiny plot of grass and they're not really connected to where food grows or how it grows.
"So what we do is we get them to pick some of the rosemary, mint and lavender - they'll pick the mint and they're like 'oh, it's really strong, it smells like toothpaste' and that's that connection made.
"They'll pick the lavender and they're saying it smells like perfume, and it is used in perfumes, so they get really excited when they start to put it together about where things come from."
The gates of the garden open every Friday morning for people to come along if they want to work at it or simply want to have a cup of tea and a chat.
The garden has apple trees, lettuces, carrots, potatoes, strawberries and raspberries, onions, borridge, herbs and many more items planted.
It also involves people from the local community volunteering while the charity Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) has been a driving force behind its regeneration too.
Claire said they had reached out to special needs schools and the classes which cater for adults with learning difficulties at the local leisure centre.
"This is our second season here, there's still a lot of work to be done, but we have a great number of local people who are regulars here," she said.
"We had a four week programme for schools and some special needs pupils from Coláiste Feirste are responsible for most of the planting here.
"The mixed plot we have along the fence, we gave ownership over to the adults with learning needs groups in the leisure centre and they plant whatever they like and I think it's just got a gorgeous chaos to it."
There are also allotments further up from the main space which cater to specific needs, with one established for the Anaka Women's Collective, which looks out for women who have sought asylum in NI.
Neil Dowson has helped to maintain those allotments and said his involvement had really developed by chance.
"Last year, I got a message from the council that I could take an allotment on and whenever I came over, it just happened to be the time when they were starting to get involved in revitalising the garden," he said.
He has since helped maintain the Anaka allotment as well as creating a shelter to house a pizza oven for the garden and said he had been surprised by how much the garden had done for him.
"I've said on a couple of occasions, it's helped me far more than I would have expected it to.
"I would suffer from depression and anxiety quite a bit but I find that's getting better.
"It gives me something to aim towards every week and it's helped with my confidence and I'm doing things I wouldn't have done before.
"It's extremely helpful, being in contact with the gardening and being with like-minded people, it's a mix of both probably.
"Everybody here has their own problems to deal with and this is just a space where people can come and get on with it.
"It's like a little haven from the rubbish outside."
Another beautiful feature in the garden is a striking piece of iron artwork, with garden volunteer Pauline O'Flynn explaining it reflects the values behind the garden.
"It's called the Iron Spirit and we got it through an art auction that PPR ran at the start of Covid to raise funds for Whiterock Children's Centre," she said.
"It represents the will to survive and our Iron Spirit.
"Sometimes the Iron Spirit has a can of Red Bull in their hands on a Monday morning but we all do what we have to do!"
Pauline said the garden has provided spaces for people to write about their traumas and experiences, as well as giving schoolkids access to things like opera performances and food education.
"In this area, food poverty is such an issue, so many people are at the mercy of foodbanks and food parcels," she added.
"People don't have that connection with where their food comes from either.
"To come here and have access to spaces like this, is just so important."
Some elements of the garden are starting to show the natural limitations of relying on volunteer efforts, with some of the raised beds for growing starting to rot from the inside.
Those involved in its collective upkeep are hopeful they can persuade the council to help them sort that out.
But what's clear is that the "iron spirit" of those involved in looking after the garden will see it go from strength to strength.
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