The new display in Kibblesworth
A group of adults with learning difficulties have been doing their bit to improve the look of the borough as part of the It's Your Gateshead campaign.
The Harvest and Help group from Wrekenton has teamed-up with Gateshead Council to liven up the flower beds outside a local school with a floral smiley face.
The group has also been awarded a £5,000 grant from Gateshead Council's Cleaner Stronger Safer Communities Fund, which is intended to help groups who have a real desire to get stuck in and make a difference to their local community.
The group will use the grant to create a sensory garden on an allotment site in Kibblesworth so that local people with visual or other sensory impairments can come along and enjoy the scents, sounds and sensations of an English cottage garden.
The funds will be used to create a series of pathways to give people in wheelchairs full access to the garden, and to pay for improved fencing and materials and plants for a series of raised beds.
The site will also be used to grow plants for the maintenance service which the group already provides for older people's gardens throughout Gateshead.
Councillor Michael McNestry, Gateshead's Cabinet member responsible for the Environment, says this is another example of how this grant scheme can help local people to do something really positive for their own community.
"Most of us can think of an unloved corner of our own area which could really benefit from being tidied up. Local people are great at spotting the potential of such sites, but what's often missing is the means to get things done.
"These grants provide groups such as Harvest and Help with the means to get their own environmental projects off the ground, by providing them with the cash they need to help turn a waste ground into a playground."
He added: "This is a brilliant project which I'm sure will bring local people a great deal of pleasure."
Gateshead Council's Cleaner Safer Greener Grants can be used for a wide range of environmental improvements - anything from tidying up a unsightly piece of land to creating a woodland garden, from carrying out hedge planting to creating a local pond.
However, the grants can only be used to fund capital projects such as equipment hire, the purchase of trees or plants, or for path materials. Grants are not available to cover costs that have already been accrued, nor for political or religious activities.
Applicants will also be expected to carry out the majority of the work themselves.
Voluntary sector organisations, community groups or social enterprises who operate in Gateshead, and whose activities and services benefit the people of Gateshead, can apply for a 'Cleaner, Safer, Greener' Grant.