GARDEN designer Diarmuid Gavin has visited an alley in south Belfast which has flourished during the Covid-19 pandemic, bringing residents together.
The well-known TV personality and his crew visited the alley which runs between Rossmore Avenue and Ardmore Avenue on Wednesday as part of his new television show, `Gardening Together with Diarmuid Gavin'.
The new six part series, which will be broadcast on RTÉ and BBC NI, sees Gavin tap into the explosion of interest in all things green.
As part of the series he talks to communities who are working together when it comes to gardening.
The residents whose homes back on to the alley, which was gated off earlier this year, cleaned up the dull space and began planting flowers and seeds and decorating it as the coronavirus lockdown was implemented.
It meant the neighbours, some of whom had never met each other, had some outdoor space to visit.
As a result, neighbours have bonded and the alley has continued to flourish.
Footage previously taken of the alley by his team was uploaded online in recent times and has already been viewed a staggering three million times.
The presenter then visited the alley on Wednesday to see at first hand the work that had been done and meet some of those involved.
During his visit, he and his team presented the residents with five large plants for the alley, which have now taken pride of place.
Further footage was also taken and will be broadcast on the show in the coming week.
Paddy McAree, who has lived on Ardmore Avenue for four years and is one was the residents behind the project, said meeting the famous gardener was "delightful".
"He was very interested in the alley," he said.
"He was talking about simple plants because we are all amateurs. He liked the way the plants had been done and secondly, he has a ideology that gardening brings people together and he had proof in his hands.
"He was very chatty".
Mr McAree said the newly flourished alley, which is now home to everything from lettuce plants to gnomes, had brought the residents together.
"We keep it very clean," he said.
"The children play up and down. It's become extremely pleasant.
"It has meant people are talking to each other in a way I don't remember in this century or the last."
