A June catch-up
Hello again,
We hope you are all kepping well and enjoying our beautiful weather.
A lot has been happening at the garden and we look forward to hopefully welcoming everyone back very soon. We have nearly completed our new Moon Garden and are just waiting the delivery of gravel for the paths next week. Watch this space! In our usual fashion our wide variety of vegetable produce takes you for a whirl around the world and then gets cooked in our community kitchen.
We had a wonderful day for the official opening by the Mayor of our Memory Tree. A beautiful installation by our Faversham Men`s Shed with each wooden leaf in rememberance of a lost one.
Other news is we are seeking a new Chairperson to join us.
Are you thinking of applying for the Chair role? Read what our outgoing chair, Sarah Harvey has to say about her time as chair and a trustee.
“It's been an incredible privilege to be a trustee of the Physic Garden for the last 7 years and its Chairman for 4.
The joys and rewards are many..
The obvious ones are those that every member gains...the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful tranquil healing garden with a rainbow of visual delights through the year and the special conversations with people with rich life experiences.
Perhaps less obvious however is the satisfaction of helping an organisation to evolve, whilst maintaining the ethos and atmosphere or the garden that our members value so highly.
Then there's the feeling of relief and elation when a grant application is successful.
But, for me, the most fulfilling thing is hearing about the difference that the Physic Garden and its incredible team of staff and volunteers have made to individuals at challenging stages of their lives.. such as the start of a smile from someone experiencing profound grief, new friendships that form and people growing in confidence enough to come to the garden alone.”
Please see the Reach Volunteering link: Experienced, enthusiastic Chair of trustees required for award winning community garden in Kent. (Ref: J73936),
Please get in touch if you would like more information or an informal chat, or pop down and see us.
Thats all for now and we hope to see you soon.
Keeping The Lights On - 2021 Week 7
28 February 2021
Hello again,
Welcome back to what might be the last lockdown blog for a while, or possibly the last ever if things keep moving in the right direction, but of course we will all keep taking things one day at a time and doing the safest thing whatever happens.
It's appropriate that it should be the same week that the blossom buds are beginning to burst at the garden that we're able to look forward to being able to begin to lift some of the current harsh restrictions on members attending. The formal announcement and full details of exactly how this will work will be forthcoming very soon, hopefully this week.
We will be sending out emails and posting the announcement to the website and all of our social media channels, so please keep an eye out for some good news.
Amazing response to the Faversham Community Lottery Appeal from the garden
A huge thank you to everyone who has supported the garden so far by ordering tickets for the forthcoming Faversham Community Lottery. We've pushed past 60% of our initial target within the first week alone - thank you!
Tickets are on sale now - please click here or on the logo image to visit our fundraising page where you can order yours. If you choose to support us then 50% of your ticket price will go directly to funding the ongoing work of the Abbey Physic Community Garden. With at least 10% going to other causes, and the rest to the running costs of the lottery.
The first draw is in April, with weekly cash prizes from £25 up to £25,000. Good luck to everyone who has bought tickets - here's hoping the first jackpot winner is reading this sentence right now!
While this might be the last instalment of the lockdown blog in its current format, we think it would be good to keep putting these out every so often to continue spreading the word about all of the many things that go on in and around the garden. So please keep an eye on our online channels (Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter), where any future blogs, updates, pictures, videos, and anything else from the garden will be posted.
We look forward to hearing from you once announmcents for bringing members back to the garden go out, but for now you can always contact us for any reason at tom.abbeyphysic@gmail.com or by calling 01795 539915.
The garden's Tuesday horticulture group have been meeting online throughout lockdown. The group is available to all members for free, and offers a Level One NVQ qualification and ongoing horticulture training. Please click on the image to get a guide to seed sowing from one of our horticulture students.
This week's song reminds us that sometimes you can get a bit of perspective on your troubles by telling them to the trees, who of course have had them all before, countless times. Please click on the image for the latest sing-a-long. And thank you Lissie from me, for your contributions to this blog.
'The Abbey Report' features the first of this year's almond blossom and the latest developments in the Moon Garden, which is really starting to take shape now - we can't wait to put the first plants in! Please click on the image to see what's been happening at the garden.
Hard pruning can seem traumatic, but it can be the best way to keep an older plant vigorous and healthy, encouraging new juvenile growth. Please click on the image to see the latest 'Get Gardening' guide, where the garden's black elder plant gets a serious haircut.
See you very soon! - The Abbey Physic Community Garden Team