Supporting Horatio's Garden


I've decided I'm going to make some of the charitable organisations I support a bit more prominent on the blog. First up is Horatio's Garden, the first hospital garden built specially to suit the needs of spinal injury patients in the UK, which also just happens to be here in Wiltshire :)

You may remember I followed the amazing story of the building of this garden last year (you can read about it here and here) and I was delighted Wiltshire magazine commissioned a feature about it too.

Although the garden is now open and the patients are enjoying a taste of the outdoor world, the hard work and fundraising continues. Last year, one of my favourite gardens, the Organic Garden at Holt Farm hosted a series of talks from the great and the good in support of Horatio's Garden. I'm pleased to see they and Yeo Valley next door are doing so again this year.

1st attempt at soda bread, thanks to my Grow Cook Eat diary
I'm going to the Grow, Cook and Eat day which Sarah Raven's giving on March 19th. She's also doing a flower oriented day and there are talks from Bunny Guinness, Mark Diacono, Kim Wilkie and the garden's lovely designer Cleve West. James, the head gardener at Holt Farm is doing a day on organic gardening, so there's your chance to hear his famous compost talk. It's a fab line-up and I hope you'll be inspired to sign-up too. NB some of the talks currently (until March 13th) have a 30% discount on offer, so they'll make a perfect Mothers' Day gift for the right kind of mum!

I'm also going to sign-up as a volunteer - it's about time they had a little bit of me as well as my mouth. I was a bit daunted at the prospect of an 80 mile round trip every week, but I'm told I only need to commit to a half day a month. Salisbury is a lovely city, so I also have a perfect excuse to explore it further on the days I'm there.

If you're wondering if my interest in WaterAid has waned*, don't worry. Sing for Water West is happening again in early July, so I'll be adding my voice to that cause as well.

* = see my separate Open Garden blog, plus Meeting Ringo post.

Comments

  1. Angie4 March 2013 at 18:24

    Well done on supporting such a great cause and signing up as a volunteer too - it's good to commit to something worthwhile.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Janet/Plantaliscious4 March 2013 at 18:44

    A great cause to support and they will be happy to have your physical effort as well as your words and photos I am sure. The talks sound amazing - but a long way away nowadays! I shall have to read about other people's experinces of them instead...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lu5 March 2013 at 20:09

    let me know when you are going - maybe I'll come too! and then the 80 miles won't seem quite so bad!

    ReplyDelete
  4. VP6 March 2013 at 08:18

    Angie - I'm passionate about gardening, public planting and therapeutic horticulture, so it's a perfect fit :)

    Janet - that's a shame, but you've moved to a wonderful place. You're going to have such fun making your own garden over the coming months!

    Lu - that would be great :)

    ReplyDelete

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