Dear friend,
Thank you to everyone who contributed their photos last month for the Spring features; we received so many beautiful shots. See a selection of some of them below.
We had our first school groups join us from Claremont Primary and Sycamore Primary who enjoyed the open space of the Orchard and didn’t mind getting a bit wet and muddy! We look forward to many more groups joining us, come rain or shine, as the year goes on.
Our volunteers have been a huge help in getting our spaces ready for another successful year of growing. Plenty of fruit tree pruning and cutting, soil prepping, planting out, and we also started on our bug hotels on our Urban Nature plots.
April is set to bring us our first term of our City & Guilds qualification, and we can’t wait to get to know all those who have enrolled this term and guide you through your learner journey.
Best wishes,
Kayleigh
Learning Opportunities
We are very excited to be starting our City & Guilds course this month! Enrolment for our April start is open until Friday 12th April, so please do get in touch if you are thinking of gaining a qualification this year.
If this month is too soon, we will be enrolling more learners in September so please do get in touch for further information.
We will be holding more open days later in the year – Saturday 22nd June & Thursday 1st August. If you register your interest below, we will be in touch as soon as the event is launched.
A reminder of the two course routes available:
Pro Gardener: which focusses on fundamental practical skills in horticulture such as pruning and plant identification.
Grow Your Own: which will develop your skills in growing and maintaining growing spaces and improving soil fertility.
Upcoming Workshops
Why not purchase a gift card for our workshops, so you can share our horticultural, floristry and seasonal crafts experiences with friends and family.
Saturday 13th April
Learn How to Compost and Improve Soil Fertility 10:00 – 12:30 £25
Bring a jar of your own soil along to test, investigate and learn about a variety of techniques to improve your soil.
Planting Your Cut Flower Garden 13:30 – 16:00 £25
We will be planting and sowing our annual flower seeds, discussing cutting and conditioning techniques for maximum flower power, and talking you through the steps to get your garden blooming all summer long.
Saturday 27th April
Introduction to Pruning 10:00 – 12:30 £30
Learn the correct techniques and timings to keep your plants healthy and show off their best attributes, whether that be beautiful flowers, fabulous foliage or brightly coloured stems.
Spring Foraging 13:30 – 16:00 £25
Join Jen for a relaxing and practical morning finding food in the hedgerow and gardens of St Ann’s Allotments. Depending on the arrival of Spring, we’ll be gathering plants such as wild garlic, nettles, jack by the hedge, hairy bittercress, fat hen and hawthorn leaves.
Saturday 11th May
Make Your Own Summer Hanging Baskets 10.00 – 12.30 £42
Come along and create your own lovely 14-inch, moss lined Summer basket to take home. You will learn how to select a good range of trailing and semi-trailing plants, construct your arrangement for maximum impact and care for it properly to create a long lasting display.
Gather Plants for Free: Learn Propagation Techniques 13.30 -16.00 £25 – only 5 spaces left!
Join Sam and spend the afternoon touring our gardens trying out different propagation techniques. Once you have mastered this skill you will be able to easily produce all manner of herb, fruit and ornamental plants throughout the year.
Saturday 25th May
Wildlife Gardening 10.00 – 12.30 £30
Join Andy of Sherwood Garden Consultancy who will share his practical tips and advice on ways to encourage wildlife into your garden. From bug hotels, hibernaculums and dead hedges to all year-round planting for colour, pollinators and habitat, Andy will help you develop your understanding and practical skills to bring wildlife into your green spaces.
Introduction to Honey Bees & Beekeeping 13.30 – 16.00 £30 – only 3 spaces left!
Join us for an indoor session, with our enthusiastic resident Beekeeper Pete (aka the Bald Beekeeper). In this engaging and informative session, Pete will bring his ‘virtual hive’ to give an insight into the fascinating world inside a hive, and what that means for a beekeeper.
On the Orchard
The Community Orchard runs free events for all ages.
New Shoots, every Tuesday in term time, 09:30-11:00
Community Open Day, Saturday 26th April 12:00-15:00. Click here, to book your free ticket!
Easter Half Term Play, Grow & Eat, Wednesday 10th April. These sessions are for local families
Youth Sessions, every 2nd and 4th Saturday.
These sessions are for local young people of St Ann’s to spend time on the Orchard, learning and crafting. For more information and to book: contact Sarah at sarah@staa-allotments.or.uk
Fundraising
We are incredibly grateful for all the help and support you provide throughout the year, whether by volunteering, donating, attending our events, or sharing what we do with friends and family.
Here are a few additional ways you can help us continue raising funds for our charity, and keep our community projects open year-round:
Movement for Good hosts prize draws throughout the year where charities can be nominated for donation draws. We would be very grateful if you could help us by nominating us to be in with a chance to win a £1000 prize to go towards our projects.
You can nominate us at: https://movementforgood.com/#nominateACharity
We have also signed up for Easyfundraising! You can raise FREE donations for us when you shop online with over 7,500 brands. It’s simple and only takes 2 minutes to sign up! This really would make a huge difference for us. Please visit: https://join.easyfundraising.org.uk/staa-st-anns-1/gi88gp/ca/BzoopvuG/A2306/facebook/
Donations can also be made via our website here or whilst on site at our events.
Volunteering & Social Gardening
A wide selection of volunteer sessions to help maintain our beautiful open spaces all year round!
Tuesdays at the Nursery, 10:00-14:00
Digging, sowing, pruning, clearing, building, watering, harvesting! All things food and flower focused for a productive garden.
Wednesdays at Oliver’s, 10:00-14:00
Help maintain a beautiful display garden for visitors to enjoy, and promote its heritage features.
Every 2nd & 4th Saturday at Urban Nature, 10.00 – 14.00
Expect a mix of woodland, wetland and grassland tasks – everything from pruning, sawing, digging, building, bramble bashing, tree felling, step building, weeding, planting, and building! There are always a mix of tasks to choose from each session.
Our Social Gardening sessions will run alongside our usual volunteer sessions, giving you the perfect opportunity to come and enjoy the the beautiful spaces, see our volunteer projects and have a go if you wish!
Volunteer inductions:
Saturday 13th April 12:00 – 14.00
This is an introductory session for anyone interested in volunteering at STAA. Receive a tour of our projects to find out what you might be interested in, and an opportunity to meet people and ask questions.
If you have any questions about volunteering or social gardening, please contact Lucy at volunteer@staa-allotments.org.uk or visit our volunteer page.
Volunteer opportunities:
We are also looking for tour volunteers to help us with our guided tours on the last Wednesday of the month.
If you think this might be for you, please do get in touch with me at kayleigh@staa-allotments.org.uk for further information.
Talks & Tours
We offer both regular guided tours, private tours and private talks to learn more about the rich history of St Ann’s Allotments.
On the last Wednesday of every month, we lead walks around St Ann’s Allotments, 1:30-3pm. The 1.3-mile guided tour takes you to our Heritage Display Garden and Nursery, telling the 700-year story of how this 32-acre site changed from pasture and orchards, to Victorian pleasure gardens, to working-class allotments. Including stories of people who lived here and the grassroots campaign to save the site from redevelopment.
Use the link here to book on to our public tours. If you are interested in a private tour or a talk at your venue, please enquire by emailing kayleigh@staa-allotments.org.uk
