Courses
Our extended courses have been busy this month. The 30 week ‘Design Your Own Garden’ course have been creating their axonometric concept plans, visiting Houghton Hall and Chelsea Flower Show. Here are some of the students and their tutor Lucy next to the portrait of Beth who was featured as part of the Horticultural Heroines exhibition at the show.
The 12 week Spring Practical Gardening course have been out and about visiting each other’s gardens carrying out practical tasks such as cuttings, compost making and pruning evergreens. This cohort have done all their seed sowing and potting on in peat free compost and been delighted with the results.
Our 2 year RHS Level 2 course are coming to the end of their first year studying the new syllabus and are preparing for their first exam next month. They will sit the exam here at the garden as we are a registered exam centre. Good luck!
Chatter & Natter
The ‘Chatter & Natter’ friendship and volunteer group meet twice a month and this month have worked hard pricking out our many seedlings carefully grown by the Spring Practical Gardeners and keeping the learning garden well cared for. Thank you!
School Visits
This month we welcomed two more school visits from the year 2 classes of Churchgate C of E Primary and Boxted St. Peters Primary. Both enjoyed getting some hands on sensory experience with herbs alongside thinking about uses, history and stories. The herb fusions made by some of the children smelt absolutely fantastic! The children also caught a range of pond creatures and enjoyed seeing the tadpoles in various stages of development. The children from Boxted St. Peters sent letters about their trip.
‘We went for a tour of the of the garden. It was my favourite because you can explore the beautiful garden. Some plants have nicknames like Elephant’s Ear’s and Lamb’s Ear’s. I learnt not to step on plants’
‘I was most looking forward to pond dipping because I like finding creatures’
Alzheimer’s Society Summer Sessions Pilot – No.2- ‘Planty Practical’
We welcomed the second group visit from our summer sessions for people and their families living with Dementia. The group had a lovely afternoon chatting, getting tactile with plants and enjoying the relaxing effect of working in the soil with their hands. Chocolate mint and geraniums were potted up to take home and several people visited the tearoom afterwards. We look forward to seeing you again in June for our Summer Garden tour and Cream Tea.
MIND
We are a Recovery Through Nature site for MIND and have been working with groups carrying out fortnightly therapeutic nature conservation tasks in our wild garden since 2020. We offer participants the opportunity to gain our ‘Beth Chatto Education Trust Certificate in Introductory Horticulture’. This is an entry level qualification designed to be accessible to all and with the ability to be delivered in a very flexible way. This month we celebrated as our first student from the group achieved his certificate with distinction. Well done Mark! We are so proud of you!
Garden activity day for children ‘Small Creatures & Great Masterpieces’
A brilliant summer day was had in the half term holiday catching an array of small creatures using all sorts of sampling equipment. We then spent the afternoon outdoors making large scale floor paintings, clay modelling and chalk art. We were lucky enough to come across a male stag beetle- the children learnt that this beetle is a protected species and a special find. Well done to all the children for handling the creatures so sensitively and returning them all safely to their habitats.
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