Friends of Preston Park

When and where: Sunday 20 May, from 10am-1pm by the Harvest vegetable garden in Preston Park (behind the Rotunda Cafe).

Come and swap or buy seedlings for your garden! Have you got some spare seedlings you’d like to swap for some new and different varieties? Or perhaps you had the best intentions to sow some seeds but just didn’t get around to it? Join us for the swap, plus family-friendly activities by our vegetable garden in Preston Park.

Many of the vegetable seedlings provided by the Brighton & Hove Organic Gardening Group will be organic, and we will also have a limited number of English variety grape vines donated by Plumpton College’s wine department.

This event is organised jointly by the Food Partnership’s Harvest project and BHOGG (Brighton & Hove Organic Gardening Group). Part of the Brighton Festival Fringe.

For more information look online here or call 01273 431700.

Join us in celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee! We’re holding a Picnic-in-the-Park on Saturday 2 June from 12 to 3pm in Preston Park. We’d love to see you there.

There will be:

• A brass band with music from a combination of Patcham Silver Band and the Mid Sussex Brass Band
• Free fun and games for children provided by Spots and Stripes
• A bouncy slide
• Free face-painting

You are also challenged to make and wear a crown for the event. A prize will be given for the best adult and the best children’s crown.

Bring your own picnic and enjoy each other’s company. Don’t forget to bring something to rest your BBQ on if you’re having one and take your litter away with you, or use the bins.

If you’re not within walking distance, busses 5, 5a and 5b stop by the park.

We really hope you can come!

This short video, from British Pathe News for 1931, has Captain MacLaren talking about the planting of tulips in Preston park and along the sea front.

On Friday 27 April the Friends of Preston Park attended an event to mark the completion of work on the cascades in the rock garden. In blazing sunshine the Deputy Mayor, Geoff Wells, local councillors, volunteer gardeners and even schoolchildren who helped on the project were there. Also present were, of course, the park staff, including rock garden manager Andy Jeavons and Park Ranger Manager Garry Meyer, whose hard work and determination made the repairs possible. The cascades looked really beautiful but sadly it was thought politic to switch off the cascades until the end of the current water restrictions. We’ll look forward to seeing the cascades in action again.

Garry Meyer, Park Ranger for Preston Park has had a well-deserved promotion and will no longer be our Park Ranger. Without Garry’s help the Friends of Preston Park couldn’t have started or continued to today’s status. He has enabled, supported and attended every event and been diplomatic and encouraging at our meetings. Our thanks to you Garry.

As you will have seen from all the pictures below, the Easter Egg Hunt was a fantastic success in spite of the cold weather. We estimate some 300 children took part and all received an Easter egg.

Thanks must go to our sponsors for making the event possible:

• Maslen’s Estate Agents, Fiveways
• Co-op, Fiveways
• Sussex Electrics

We’ll be holding a similar event next year. Perhaps this time it will be something between a heatwave and a polar expedition.