Okay everyone it’s all go in the garden – so hold on to your hats!
Firstly the Golden Fun Adventure Days are back and Even. Better. Than. Ever!! As if building dens, playing games, lighting fires, and generally whooping it up in the garden wasn’t enough! This time me and the uber-creative Clare are inviting 6-12 years olds to come and live the story of Robin Hood. Yup that’s right – live the story! At they enter the garden they will enter the story become outlaws – the Merry Mates- and the day of activities will be a fully immersive day, weaving storytelling with adventure, arts and activities. Where else could they have so much fun, get such a work out for the imagination and eat such tasty pizza?! 8th and 15th April 10am-4pm £25 including snacks and lunch. The days will be full of different activities so children can book onto one or both and places are limited to just 16! Tell your friends!
Secondly here’s the poster for the FAB workshop me and Pete will be delivering on the 6th April. Expect a entertaining day packed with clearing, growing and allotment tips and practical know how from our combined over 40 years of growing experience! I’ve attached it below and if you could print it out and put it up on any notice boards at work that’s be brilliant and spread the word to any allotmenteers you might know in need of inspiration!
And…. drumroll…. we are starting the eco-build!! We’ve found our builder, the lovely Nico Smith from Red Kite Sustainable Construction and Arts. It will be a gorgeous load bearing strawbale building with a single pitched green roof and suspended floor. We’ll be building throughout April and May on our usual Wednesdays and we’ll have some big community days when we’ll be invited everyone to come and help us raise the walls. And if you’d really like to get your teeth into the project see the attachment below about becoming an apprentice and committing 2 days a week throughout the project.
And we have just two weeks left of our initial lottery money. Then we have two months of Awards for All lottery money to spend on the eco build then we’re on our own. But not quite! Our fantastic fundraiser Clare has secured a £4500 grant from the John James Foundation. Which is AMAZING!! It gives us breathing space and it means the garden can deliver a wider range of services than I dared hope for. But we can’t expect such juicy windfalls every year, we can’t rest on our laurels and we’ll carry on full steam ahead with all our fundraising plans, money making scheme and investing in making ourselves financially sustainable.
And finally The Golden Buds continue to have a great time spotting newts, planting seeds, exploring the garden and getting really, really REALLY muddy.
So all in all it’s a wildly exciting time, I could never have predicted we’d be here when the garden opened two years ago. Thank you all for your support and there’s so much to do at the moment so come and plant some seeds!
See you in the garden!
Lucy
