Social Events

During the working season which runs from March through November, we have two social events in the garden.
Our Open Day in July allows the gardeners to entertain family, friends and visitors, the gardeners enjoy showing the work they have acheived and are happy to answer questions about their work and visits here. There are fun and games on the terrace, with tombola, tea and cakes and an excellent BBQ run by Phil.
Our end of season 'Get-Together' is a fun party for the gardeners, volunteers and invited guests. Held in the Potting shed in late November we have to be inventive due to space restrictions. Funny games , tea and cake, present giving and a good time to say goodbye until the next season.

​During the Corona virus 'lockdown' the garden has been kept going by the very hard work of our Project Manager - Jean Burgess. Single handed she has, sown seeds, weeded terraces and planted out when the seedlings were ready. There is an amazing variety of vegetables and soft fruits on the terraces and in the green house.  We have been very busy making jams from our fruit and the volunteers had a very interesting socially distanced go at apple picking for the apple juice we sell. As well as all this hard work Jean has managed to keep us all in touch with the 'goings-on' in the garden, using her very imaginative sense of humour. She writes a regular blog about the inhabitants of the garden and what they have been up to trying to support her in the work. The Scarecrow is named Scary Biker and his dog is Plackie as he is made up from old un-recyclable plastic. They are always trying to help but this effort is not always successful!!

​March 4th 2021

Like most places we have been closed down during the recent government lockdown , in discussions with our gardeners support teams we decided to open the groups on 4th March 2021. Gardeners from the same house came in small groups and Jean Burgess our Project Manager worked in a Covid-safe  environment with the groups. This gave the garden and the gardeners a much needed influx of care and activity. Tea breaks are taken outside the Potting Shed, sitting under the large umbrella on the terrace. The volunteers have been able to come and work on mornings where no 'gardeners' are present so many necessary jobs have been done, including refurbishing our scarecrow Scary!.

Oscar the small horse who was on loan to us to keep Rosie our pony company has returned to his riding school because he was missing the hustle and bustle of a busy riding school. We now have Hippo a small male pony who is settling in, our gardeners get great pleasure from grooming both of them as there is plenty of mud they like to roll in!

We have brought and planted 75 small Christmas Trees and we are fighting a battle with the weeds to help them settle in.  The peach tree succumbed to the cold and wet weather (we also suspect old age) so a new one has been purchased and planted, if the blossom is anything to go by we should have a heavy crop of plums, greengages and damsons this year. This makes excellent jam being organically grown.

Open Day is still under discussion as we have to wait for government guidelines before we make any plans.

with best wishes

​Jean and the Smiley Face Team