Largs Railway Station Gardens have blossomed despite the pandemic — thanks to dedicated volunteers keeping it on track.

Keen gardeners continued to tend to the area’s flower beds and paths whenever restrictions allowed over the past two years.

With public health rules now eased, the volunteers have been getting their gloves back on to spruce up a second area of the gardens that was taken on just before the pandemic hit.

Volunteer Colin Golightly hopes that a path can now be created between the two gardens to give residents more nature to enjoy.

Colin said: “The latest changes are in the second garden, which is about two years old now.

“That has been our main focus for the last few years and we got some funding recently to put some more fruit trees in there.

“We are wanting to put a gate into the second garden so it is easy to move between them, and we are hopeful we can do that sometime in the future.”

Colin told the News that the volunteers have been given a helping hand thanks to workers doing their community service in the town.

He said: “We’ve had the community payback workers in and they have been here over the last few weeks filling in our beds.

“We usually get about 20 guys at a time who come to do their community service, and they make a big difference.

“We didn’t have them during the pandemic because there weren’t enough people going to court and getting community service.

“They have had a lot of impact on the garden, and they always do a good job, so we will give them some tea and something to eat if it’s cold.”

The gardens were recently visited by West of Scotland MSP Jamie Greene, who complimented the volunteers on their work over the years.

TV presenter Michael Portillo also stopped in during the filming of a recent railway journeys programme.

The gardens are currently tended to by around 40 volunteers, and Colin says that extra hands are always welcome.

He said: “We’ve got a really healthy number of volunteers, more than we expected when we started.

“There are about a dozen members who are active, and the rest tend to pay an annual membership to support us.

“One the last Saturday of each month we have a chat and do a bit of weeding and gardening, but if there is a specific job needs doing we ring round and get a working party.”