ONLY the final piece of the puzzle is left before the Peace Gardens in Brecon are finally restored.
The gardens, established on June 23 1999, were in a bad state of neglect until Andrew Powell and his fiancee Guada Salamanca decided to tidy the gardens in time for the Brecon Jazz Festival.
Only one small part of the gardens is untouched as Drew and Jules Hore, organisers of the Falklands 35th Ride of Respect, have plans to turn it into a memorial to all those who served in the Falklands War.
The guerrilla gardeners produced 15 bags of rubbish and ripped out the weeds across five Thursday evening sessions, all lasting three hours.
John Usher and Trish Evans, both from Brecon, helped to transform the gardens. The Three Cocks Hotel, near the Old Railway Line Garden Centre in Three Cocks where Andrew works as head chef, will be donating more flowers to be added to the gardens in time for the memorial, which should be added at the end of August.
Andrew said: “It just needs looking after now. I could do with a blower to clear some of the leaves. John brought his brushes down so we took a good couple of hours to brush it. It nearly killed me after a full day of working in the kitchen, but we got it done.”
Andrew also has future plans for the water trough near Brecknock Museum which he and Guada tidied and used to plant begonias five weeks ago. Once the begonias die, they plan to plant heather so that it continues to look nice over the winter.
The gardeners have said they will be trying to visit the gardens once a month to maintain them. If you want to help maintain the Peace Gardens and the water trough, call Andrew on 07779012019.