Growing Places Berkshire

Our Christmas wreaths and table decorations are now on sale at the Acorn Community Centre. It’s strictly first come first served, with wreaths costing £15 and table decorations £10. So if you want to brighten up your front door for the Christmas season, or add that finishing touch to your dinner table, get yourself along to the Acorn Community Centre in Fernlea Drive, Woosehill RG41 3DR and grab yourself a bargain. The Centre is open every weekday from 9.30am to 3.30pm and the on-site café is open from Tuesday to Friday 9.30am to 2.00pm.

A big thank you to everybody at the farm who is helping to make our Christmas wreaths and table decorations. Production is in full swing and we expect them to be ready for sale early next month. Keep an eye out here for the date or at www.growingplacesberkshire.org.uk

We still have a few hardy plants for sale at the Acorn Community Centre, including honeysuckle, scabiosa, eryngium, achillea and miniature roses. All can be planted out now or kept in their pots until the spring. £5 each or 3 for £12. The Acorn Centre is in Fernlea Drive, Woosehill, RG41 3DR and is open every weekday from 9.30am to 3.00pm.

CAN YOU HELP?
These are just a few of the Christmas wreaths and table decorations made by our people last year. They always prove to be very popular with our customers so we’ll be making them again this year, with every penny raised going back to the charity to support our clients in their activities at the farm and Acorn Community Centre. We use a lot of greenery in our Christmas creations and this year we are asking for your help. If you have any holly in your garden which you can spare (the more berries the better), variegated ivy, yew, leylandii or ornamental conifer cuttings, we would be very grateful for them. Please bring what you can along to the Acorn Centre, Fernlea Drive, Woosehill, RG41 3DR next weekend on Saturday 11th or Sunday 12th between 10.00am and 3.00pm. Thank you.

Our people have been busy at the farm this month potting up daffodil and tulip bulbs for the spring. We’re storing them safely in one of our polytunnels for the winter and then, from January onwards, we’ll be bringing them over to the Acorn Centre in Wokingham to sell. We’ll keep you posted about how they’re doing on our website and page.

We are getting ready for Halloween with our home grown pumpkins, decorating the site and All Saints Church that the guys keep tidy.

We have just taken delivery of 1000 Tête-à-Tête daffodil bulbs and 500 dwarf mixed tulip bulbs, which our people will soon be planting in pots to sell to the public in the spring. It will be the first time that we have grown spring bulbs, but we’re confident that they will prove to be a popular addition to our normal range of plants. We’ll keep you posted on how they’re doing and when they’re going to be on sale via our website and page.

We were delighted to be invited to participate in Wokingham’s Earth Fayre on Saturday, which was organised and hosted by All Saints Church in Wiltshire Way. The event was open to the public with the aim of encouraging and inspiring people to become “greener” in their everyday lives, with information, advice and presentations by local organisations and charities, including Growing Places-Berkshire. Our presentation focused on the importance of nature for our clients’ wellbeing and gave us the chance to showcase the plants and vegetables we grow as well as the recent addition of a woodland conservation area at the farm. Conservation and the protection of the environment are serious subjects, but as you can see there was still plenty of time for our team of David, John and Brian to have a bit of fun!

Our team of local volunteers made one of their regular visits to the farm on Thursday. The weather wasn’t great, but it didn’t stop them completing a number of important repair and maintenance jobs. Amongst other things they added some additional supports to the raised beds, remedied a couple of trip hazards in the main polytunnel and cut back the vegetation along the banks of the stream, giving our clients a safer and more enjoyable working environment.