Hopefully, you will have noticed that, at last, the volunteer gardening groups were given the go-ahead by City Parks to return to work (within COVID 19 guidelines) at the beginning of August. It’s been a mammoth task trying to catch up on nearly six months of weeding, deadheading, pruning and hoeing. We have a long way to go before the Park is anywhere near back to its best, so while we have had several very welcome new recruits, we always need more!
The groups meet at the Rose Garden on Tuesdays, the Rockery on Wednesdays, and the front flower beds on Thursdays between 10 am and 1 pm. You need no previous experience of gardening, you will be shown what to do, and if you can’t make the full 3 hours, any time you can spare will be most useful. Please contact us if you would like to come along to join us. It’s very satisfying to see what a difference the volunteer gardening makes, and all the groups are friendly and welcoming.
Some of you have asked what is happening to the Walled Garden as it really is suffering from the absence of its committed volunteer group. Unfortunately, the heritage Walled Garden is managed by Preston Manor, not Preston Park, so is overseen by the Museums sector of the Council, not City Parks. We understand that they are not allowing any volunteer working just yet. In the meantime, we know that the volunteers are desperate to return as the garden is now in a terrible state.