Community Garden Opening Celebration

Join us on Sunday 21st July, 2pm-4pm, to celebrate the opening of our beautiful Orchard Garden - formed by our community. Sit back and admire the vast range of fruit trees, flowers, herbs, and shrubs flourishing around you, connect with our wonderful garden community, and get involved with some exciting garden crafts. We'll also have a range of drinks & snacks on offer, alongside some celebratory tea & cake!

Summer Series - Garden Skills Workshops

This event forms just one part of our full summer series of Garden Skills Workshops! Taking place within our Community Garden at TOSH, these afternoons are made up of both garden growing skills, and creative workshops, to feed us and nature. Drop in for any or all of this Summer Series 2pm-4pm on the third Sunday of each month, continuing up until August.

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Summer Schedule:

21st April - Flowers for pollinators & decoupage pots

19th May - Salad Sowing & Make Your Own Plant Labels

23rd June - Foraging & Watercolour Painting

21st July - Community Garden Opening Celebration & Garden Crafts

18th August - Mix Your Own Garden Drinks & Hapa-Zome Printing

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About The Orchard Garden‍

The Orchard Garden was built during the 2015 refurbishment of TOSH. For years the garden contained just four fruit trees, with spring bulbs and wildflowers growing up each Summer. The garden was plain and underused, but had lots of potential.

With thanks to two years funding from the People’s Health Trust, with money raised through Health Lottery South Wes we have consulted with our community and commissioned a new garden design by our Landscape Architect. Our theme is 'Food for Us, Food for Nature' and it will be a sanctuary to learn, grow, work, rest and harvest in.

So far we have used our garden to run monthly workshops, learning growing and creative skills to save money and grow fresh food at home. In Summer 2023, we invited our community to help us start building the garden. Using reclaimed bricks donated by our community, we built pathways with minimal concrete to have a low impact on nature. We then begun to add new fruit trees, fruit bushes and climbers - plus flower bulbs for feeding the insects in Spring. In Spring 2024, we held bi-weekly Garden Skills Growing Talks, with guest host Alan, the Urban Farmer, offering in depth sessions covering all aspects of DIY garden growing.

Having dug out our sunken seating area, we invited members of the community to create their own handmade garden tiles to be embedded in the seating area, to come back and visit whenever they pass by! The garden also now features a new garden bench, adorned with cushions made by the women in the Seeking Refuge Threads group.

Still to come! Herb beds and a play corner, as well as beautiful community artwork.

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Get Involved!

In 2024 we are hosting further Garden Skills workshops every third Sunday of each month, April-August, made up of both garden growing and creative workshops.

We always have plenty to do, and learn together - join us for one session - or all!

This project has been made possible with funding from the People’s Health Trust using money raised by Health Lottery South West. We have also received donations from JPMorgan, Wessex Water and more.

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