Dear friend,
Another year has passed and we are on to our final newsletter of 2024!
A heartfelt thank you to you all for joining TeamStaa’s projects on the beautiful site of St Ann’s Allotments. It has been an absolute pleaure to connect with each and every one of you this year. By joining us just once or regularly, you help build the community and help us continue to do what we do here at Staa.
The team has grown this year with three new fantastic additions to the team. We have welcomed Rachael, Holly, and Lauren to support our ever growing projects and events, plus, we had Sam being promoted to Horticulture project lead!
Here is a quick overview of the year so far highlighting just of some of what has been achieved:
Once again, to all our partners, trustees, friends, family and volunteers – thank you so much for your contributions to this small but impactful charity.
A very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all from everyone here at TeamStaa!
P.S. If you’d like to receive news like this in your inbox each month, join our mailing list here.
Christmas Closure
We will be closed from Wednesday 25th December ’24 – Wednesday 1st January ’25
Learning Opportunities
City & Guilds – January Enrolment
This time last year we announced that we had become an approved centre for City & Guilds Horticulture and now we are almost a year in! It has been a fantastic journey with all of our students so far and we can’t wait to have more students join us in the new year and beyond to develop their horticulture skills.
Our next student enrolment for our City & Guilds Practical Horticulture qualification will take place in January 2025. Get in touch with us now to secure your space with us in the new year as spaces are limited!
You can contact us on learning@staa-allotments.org.uk for further information and how to enrol, or head to our website.
Upcoming Open Days & Online Q&A’s:
Friday 3rd January 2025 at 12noon (online)
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 7th December
Festive Willow Decorations – 10:00 – 12:30 – £35
Get crafty with Lucy in our Strawbale building and create your very own Christmas decorations using natural materials!
Saturday 1st February
Planning your Cut Flower Garden – 10:00 – 12:30 – £30
We want to inspire you to successfully grow beautiful cut flowers for yourself and to gift to your friends and family. From early Spring bulbs to late Autumn blooms, Jo will share with you the simple secrets behind our cut-flower garden.
Fruit Tree Pruning – 13:30 – 16:00 – £35
Come along for a masterclass in all aspects of tree care including how to rejuvenate old trees and formatively prune new trees to achieve the perfect crop. At this time of year we will focus on apples, pears and quinces.
Saturday 15th February
Make your own Spring Hardy Hanging Basket – 10:00 – 12:30 – £42
Join Tracey from Wild Jasmine Florist and create a lovely, large, moss-lined basket, full of hardy colourful flowers and mini shrubs as well as gorgeous Spring bulbs to brighten up your garden.
On the Orchard
The Community Orchard runs free events for all ages.
New Shoots, term time, every Tuesday 09:30-11:00 and Thursday 13:00 – 14:30.
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.org.uk.
Our next Community Open Day is Saturday 21st December, 12:00-15:00
Join us for our final Open Day of the year with festive crafts and hot food and drinks in our beautiful Community Orchard.
Click here to book your free ticket!
Volunteering & Gardening Sessions
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.
Saturdays on Urban Nature 10:00 – 14:00
Our Saturday sessions are back! Join us on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays to help manage and explore our Urban Nature plot. Each session will have a specific focus, such as pond management, wildflower meadow management and coppicing.
Volunteer inductions:
Friday 17th January (online) 13:00 – 14:00
Tuesday 21st January 14:00 – 16:00
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 our gardening sessions, please contact Lucy at volunteer@staa-allotments.org.uk or visit our volunteer page.
Volunteering & Gardening Sessions
You can also find out more about all our volunteering sessions and book on, here.
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 75-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.
Please note our Heritage tours have now ended for the year, but we will be back delivering these again in February. In the meantime, if you are interested in a talk at your venue, or a tour in the new year, please do get in touch by emailing kayleigh@staa-allotments.org.uk
