An army of volunteers has churned up an overgrown churchyard and opened it as a community space.

The 30 office workers got dug in at St Mark’s Church in Dalston, all from the Leaves Breathe social enterprise who work at Muji European Holdings head office in Clerkenwell.

They weeded 250 metres of the churchyard perimeter and replaced it with flowering herbaceous perennials.

Brambles and nettles were pulled out and one bench was given a sensory theme surrounded with bays, rosemary, mints, and lemon-balms.

“We’re now looking for new sites,” Leaves Green team leader Matt Wilcock said. “We especially want sites needing a lot of TLC which can take large groups of volunteers.”

The resident volunteer gardener at St Mark’s and parishioners around St Mark’s Rise and Ridley Road pitched in and joined the volunteers.

The gardening service is free to community groups who can send an email to Matt at Matt@LeavesBreathe.co.uk.