Community Garden Open Day Saturday 22nd March 10-12.00

January may have seemed long, wet, and cold, but the days have gradually been getting longer, despite it all; and that can only mean one thing – that there is more time to spend in a garden! Friday 21st March is the spring equinox, that day in spring when day length and night length converge, and so it is very fitting that we will be holding our Open Day at Farncombe Community Garden on Saturday 22nd March – the first day when the day is longer than the night!

March is such an exciting time in the gardening year, as there is so much growing time to come and the garden seems to change every day with bulbs popping into life, trees awakening with bright new leaves after their long winter sleep and seedlings competing to be the first to take advantage of the warmer weather. And at the garden there will be a flurry of activity as we sow seeds for the new season, prepare old beds for planting and plan new areas to develop. And so much has changed since we had our first open day last March!

We would love you to join us on the 22nd, from 10am to 12 noon as we celebrate the garden together. If you have not been to the garden in a while then the biggest change you will see is our wonderful new building, erected by Nordic Room, which we will be formally opening at the Open Day. This fabulous facility – complete with electricity, heating, hot water and the ability to boil that all-important kettle! – has been made possible by the award of a fantastic grant from the One You Surrey fund, in combination with a wonderful legacy donation from our neighbours at Broadwater Lodge Care Home. We are so excited that the residents of the care home will soon be able to come across into the garden to use our facilities and enjoy this wonderful space, and we have asked Angie Bookham, the care manager at Broadwater, to do us the honour of opening our new building.

Angie has been so supportive of the project from the start, and it has been fantastic to work with her so we are delighted that she is happy to take on this role at the Open Day. We have also decided to name the building ‘Lambert Lodge’ after Caroline Lambert a wonderful friend and district nurse who worked in our community for many years before she died quite suddenly a couple of years ago. It was the suggestion of the staff at Broadwater that we dedicate the Lodge to Caroline’s memory, as they knew her so well from the dedicated care she gave to the residents at the care home over so many years.

As with any good open day there will be plenty of tea, coffee and cake to keep us all going, and our team of volunteers will spend much of the morning helping people explore the garden so that everyone can enjoy this beautiful and inspiring space, as well as answering questions about what we have done so far, and our plans for the coming year. We would love you to be there, so do come and join us if you can!

Saturday March 22nd 10am -12noon