Author: Isa Martin

We are sorry to announce that Sunday 4th February gardening session has been cancelled.

Please come and join our regular gardening sessions. They run from Tuesday to Thursday 10am-1pm. Meet our Head Gardener at the Rockery chalet at 10 am on these days.

A date for your diary

For many the annual Friends of Preston Park’s wreath making event is the start of the festive season. Held over two days at The Rockery it proved to be extremely popular, and in spite of the adverse weather conditions the mood was festive and joyful.

There was an abundance of material gathered locally to choose from and a wide range of seasonal, vibrant and colourful wreaths were made in traditional or contemporary styles, according to one’s creativity.

We are pleased to see this event is growing in demand year after year due to its modest cost and the freshness of the foliage. We advise early booking next year!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and many compliments on your home made wreaths.

December 2023

In January 2023 we launched our Rose Garden appeal to purchase roses to replenish the empty beds and replace old and diseased shrubs. The generous funds given by the public were kindly matched by the rose grower David Austin, thus enabling us to acquire 350 shrub roses, in a variety of colours and forms, all chosen for their fragrance and resistance to drought. Two new species were introduced, Dannahue, a compact and shapely apricot flower, and Penelope Lively, a classic and elegant mid pink rose.

A plaque with a new design is being made and will be positioned at both entrances of the garden to help identify the different varieties.

We would like to thank CityParks groundsmen for giving us a helping hand in planting the roses and Preston Park ranger Marie Ingledew in bringing her team of volunteers to plant and prune.

Our dedicated Tuesday volunteers have been very busy all year long weeding, pruning, planting  and keeping a vigilant eye on the health of the roses. They ask members of the public to keep their dogs on a lead as the roses have young stems that bruise or snap easily when dogs go through the beds and considerable damage has been noticed over the years.

In spring 2024 we will be mulching the Rose Garden once the pruning is done and we aim at purchasing enough fertiliser to hoe in. We welcome any donations to go towards the purchase of the fertiliser so if you would like to donate please use the donate button on this page.

Thank you to all our generous donors who are contributing to making the Rose Garden the most cherished garden in Brighton for today’s and tomorrow’s generations.

New gardening session. Come and join our team of volunteers in the Rose Garden. See details on the poster.

Friends of Preston Park volunteers prepared the Lavender Walk for the winter, weeding and giving a light prune to the bushes, cutting the overgrown ivy, honeysuckle and jasmin. There is much more gardening work to be done, so please join us next Tuesday at 10 am at the Rockery Chalet.

One of the great pleasures in working as a volunteer gardener is learning tips such as planting and pruning as well as helping shrubs and flowers grow happily by weeding, deadheading and mulching. On Sunday 1st October we had our first monthly Sunday morning session and enjoyed clearing some of the overgrown thistle and bindweed from the Rose Garden beds.

Why not join us for our next session on Sunday 5th November and meet our wonderful team of volunteers.

Autumn is an exciting time to come and learn how to prepare flowerbeds for the winter, and you can apply to your own garden the knowledge acquired.

Before and after.

 ‘An Illustrated History of Preston Park’ on Saturday 26 August at 2.30pm in St Peters, Preston Park

‘Wildflower Conservation’ with George Harris and Lindy Brooke Tweed on Saturday 9 September at 2.30pm also in St Peter’s.

Entrance free, donations to St Peter’s LightUp campaign.