News

December: Christmas lunch. What a lovely way to conclude our volunteering for 2023! Thank you to all who came along to the Christmas party, on what must have been the wettest, gloomiest day to have a party ever! Better than gardening though! Thanks for all the generous and tasty donations of food which was good practice for all the feasting of the week ahead. It was lovely to see so many of you there, making for a very cosy gathering in the compact surroundings of the craft barn. If you weren’t friends before, you certainly will be by now.

December. Wreath making. Fantastic results from our two wreath making workshops. Each one was truly unique and beautiful. We could go into business! With willow, greenery and dried flowers all from the gardens, they are a completely sustainable and low cost decoration. Two very enjoyable mornings spent in a warmer and drier environment than usual and a jolly start to our Christmas celebrations.

8th October. Apple Day. Wow look at that queue, visitors eager to join us and queuing before the event opens at 11am. Visitors returning from 2022 arriving early to get the best choice of pumpkins too!

24th September. We visited Easton Lodge for their Apple and Bee Day, which was a good practice run for our apple juicing routine and an opportunity for us to advertise our event to anyone who enjoyed that day and was still up for more.

Thanks to all volunteers who came along to help us on the day. Everything went very smoothly, the weather was largely kind to us and there was lots of interest and participation from the visitors. We kept the juicing going all day and seemed to get through a huge number of apples, reminding us how many we would need for our day!

12th April. Sees the much awaited installation of our compost toilet. An impressive team completed the work in the day and the results look impressive and promising. The grand opening was on 20th April, an eager crowd gathered round and Dave had the honour of cutting the ribbon (aka loo roll!)

31st January. Bonfire and managed to burn the huge pile of hedge trimmings created the week before – it is always very satisfying to have a good clear up at the fire site and quite amazing how quickly a big bonfire will reduce a mountain of waste to ash – some of which will find its way back into the garden, as a high potash feed for fruit bushes.

2022:

16th October. Apple Day. What a tremendous day we had and what a supreme effort from all the team. Thank you so much to all of the staff and volunteers for all they have done, before, during and after the event. It was a huge success and greatly enjoyed by stallholders, visitors and staff and volunteers. Even the weather, originally forecast as wet, changed its mind and gave us a good day after all.

As well as being a fun day for us all it was also a great success from a financial point of view, with around £5,900 in takings to boost our coffers.

August – Just short of 40 people got together to enjoy a lovely lunch in the sunshine. It was a chance for the volunteers to put faces to the new groups we have at Cressing on a Monday and Friday and to meet up with other volunteers who do a different sessions. Both Trustlinks and ART were very appreciative of the event and said how helpful it had been for their members.

There was plenty of good food to go round, much of it produced from the crops that have been grown on the community garden this year. Thanks to those who for helped to prepare this, and for help with setting up, washing up and clearing up afterwards. It was a lovely afternoon and a great team event.

June – the volunteers were treated to a lovely Afternoon Tea courtesy of the amazing on site ECC team. So much baking by Rebecca and Alison!

April – wonderful images of spring with Mum and her ducklings being rescued from the pond in the walled garden to the beautiful blossom across the whole site.

March – the opening of the new exhibition barn was well attended. With a welcome from Will Jenkins followed by ribbon cutting by Councillors Kevin Bowers and Lynette Bowers-Flint.

February – plenty of maintenance jobs to keep the volunteers busy as we see the first signs of spring.

Great job by the team starting to re-point the paths in the Walled Garden, a long job that will continue over a number of years!

Sadly our box hedging has been struck with box blight. Claire has been busy reducing the height as part of the treatment.

December and January, Tree Planting – over the last few weeks everyone has been busy planting trees and then making sure they are all mulched. Looking forward to watching them grow.

Does being prescribed nature help our health? Head over to the RSPB site to read more.

22nd December – A lovely day and a very enjoyable Christmas get together on a beautiful, crisp morning. A special thank you to Alison for expertly showing us how to make a willow Christmas tree, or festive space rocket, depending on how they turned out! Wonderful mince pies and mulled apple juice to follow.
Despite the gloomy news of the past year, we have many reasons to celebrate, not least the fact that we have arrived at the winter solstice, meaning we can all enjoy longer days and shorter nights from now on – 2 seconds longer today to be precise.

November – great start to the month with a get together round the bonfire. Lovely to see so many volunteers and that the ‘Shedders’ joined us. Jacket potatoes, butter, cheese and coleslaw, delicious! Plus lots of scrumptious cakes baked by the volunteers, we all want the recipe for Mike’s spiced apple cake.

October has been a busy month for construction:

Fabulous new benches for the community garden, hopefully we will have some sunny days in the winter so the volunteers can make use of them for tea breaks!

Excellent work constructing a cold frame for the area near the new polytunnel.

And finally useful shelving in the new container!

Beautiful new bird bath in Cullen Garden

Ways of helping support us!

Please go to the Support Us to find out how you can help raise money without costing you a penny!