growing in the garden by bettina harden mbe

GROWING IN THE GARDENBoughton October 2010

“The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never

dies.”Gertrude Jekyll

Growing in the Garden has been set up to encourage you, garden owners and managers, toreach out to every kind of disadvantaged group in the community and engage them with their heritage. To do this we have to overcome what they perceive as barriers, discover hooks to capture their imagination and so include them in the peace, beauty, history and inspiration that gardens have to offer.

WHAT BARRIERS?Some people still believe that there are no

barriers to participation in the heritage and that non-participants are making an informed choice.

“If people want to access the heritage, what is stopping them? Why don’t they just come? It’s their choice.”

But our participants perceive many barriers and these are very real to them.

“What was Paradise but a garden, an orchard of trees and herbs, full of pleasure, and nothing there but delights?”William Lawson

• Once people are tempted to give environmental heritage a try, a powerful connection with their historic environment is triggered. You can open the gates in a very direct way for hundreds of people.

• Not knowing:What to do at a

heritage site …How to interact in

a ‘new’ environment…

That such places exist in the first place…

“I will come again any day. I had the best day of my life”

“My daughter has never played in the snow before”

“I would never have thought of coming to a garden

like this”

• Lack of :Confidence MoneyAccess to

transportEducationOpportunityFacilities

• FeelingExcludedIsolatedHopelessDifferentFrightened

“We really enjoyed our visit today. You have given me the opportunity to visit somewhere, which I would never have thought of”

“I cannot describe how greatly this trip has helped me overcome my panic and fears. Thanks to all concerned.”

Herefordshire Mind, Spetchley Park Gardens

• A visit must be tailor-made for the group and the garden.

• Relationship building needs to begin early. • Garden owners/head gardeners need to

decide on groups they want to reach out to and advise groups about their gardens and the difficulties they may encounter there.

• Every garden can work to their strengths, ensuring that garden staff know beforehand what to expect from a visiting group.

• These are ideas to share with you

• Historic parks and gardens are a great national and local resource

• They embrace unspoilt rural landscape and the sprawling, busy urban one

They reveal social They reveal social history –history –

people, plants and designpeople, plants and design

• They reflect fashion, fantasy, war and peace.

• Everyone can find something to relate to in a garden.

“I feel ecstatic, contented, fulfilled, in other words, out of this world.”

Ladywood Pensioners Association

HOW CAN YOU DO IT?

• Decide on your audience• Devise a programme that fits

with:1. A funder2. The target audience3. Staff available4. Your garden

Taking the first step:1. Choose your favourite charity or school2. Have a simple theme, e.g. an Apple Day3. Work the afternoon around the theme – apple & apple juice tastings; apple products – everything from apple crisps to apple cake.4. Plan for the weather!5. Make provision for loos and tea.6. Enjoy yourselves!

NATIONAL TREE WEEK

• Target audience – Schools and Lifelong Learners

• Funder – from existing funding programme• One week/one site for all groups - NBGW

HOSPICE VISIT

• Target audience – respite patients from hospices

• Funder – individual corporate sponsorship• One visit/one garden close to the hospice

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

• The history of food and kitchen gardens - how food got from land to lunch.

• Funder – HLF • Target audience – all sorts of young groups• Target sites – specially chosen working historic kitchen gardens

MANY HAPPY RETURNS

“A day fit for a Queen.”

• 8 visits for people in their 80s• Funder – Awards For All• Individual gardens chosen for their accessibility for the elderly

Look for ideas to grow:• Example: Bittersweet: Sugar Tea &

Slavery in Wales – 2007 – 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery

• 2012: The Queen’sDiamond Jubilee – think 60!

Bicentenary of Dickens’ birth

Age is no barrier:

You can open You can open every gate.every gate.

Where shall we ‘grow’ Where shall we ‘grow’ from here….?from here….?

ThankThankYouYou