The Royal Free Hospital garden volunteers are extending the garden in front of the hospital in Pond Street.

A lorry-load of topsoil donated by Willmott Dixon was delivered by their sub-contractor Toureen early on Saturday morning, enabling the volunteers to fill the raised beds being built around the staircase entrance by NW3 handyman Mukesh Gohil.

Volunteer organisers Linda Grove and myself were there to receive the topsoil, and then the team got to work with spades, shovels and wheelbarrows, moving the small mountain to the required areas.

The volunteers have been working with the Royal Free Charity for three years to improve the environment for patients and visitors, and have gradually worked their way down Pond Street, replacing the litter-strewn wasteland with colourful borders and shrubs.

We are extremely grateful to Phil Cracknell and Matt Siddell from Willmott Dixon and to David Crawford, Kevin and Guppy from Toureen, for helping us out with this delivery.

The soil around the main entrance is really poor, very dry and compacted after years of neglect.

So, although we’ve dug it over, we really needed to add good quality topsoil to enable our plants to flourish and hopefully put a smile on the faces of patients and visitors as they enter the hospital.