PHOTOS - Summer Open Day 20 May 2018

Summer Open Day – in association with Chelsea Fringe

After some hectic weeks with the long-awaited start of the wall build and an overcast start in the morning, the sun came out smiling on our Sumer Open Day and brought a steady stream of 163 visitors to the garden. People were treated to a record breaking selection of cakes and savouries donated by our amazing members – a massive thank you for this!

We also had a fantastic choice of plants and produce for sale, and a popular raffle. All this plus donations generated £561.50 (less expenses) which will go a long way to help maintain the garden.

The day revolved around gardening in harmony with nature and wildlife. Children and adults enjoyed drawing and making a paper garden buzzing with insects, learning how to make biodegradable seed pots from newspaper and planting their own pollinator friendly and edible flowers to take home.

At 1pm, gardener and trained plantsman Joseph Ford delighted listeners with an eye opening talk on pollinator friendly gardening, illustrated with his own beautiful plant drawings – people went away buzzing with information and ideas. (Click here for a transcript of the talk.)

We were also happy to welcome the new Mayor, Councillor Nigel Sinden. And of course, more than a dozen tireless and cheerful volunteers made it all possible behind the scenes.

A big thank you to everyone involved for creating a lovely day – and hope to see you all next time!

We were grateful to the Hastings Branches of Tesco and Sainsbury's for the donation of raffle prizes.

Photos by Justine Munro