A watering can is the Garden’s logo and the volunteers felt that rather than launch the project with a swinging bottle of champagne, a watering can was more in keeping! The Mayor carried out her duties with great aplomb before a toast was raised to the Garden’s future.
The afternoon proved a great success with over 200 folk coming to share in the excitement of this developing garden. They wandered round the labelled veg beds; viewed the fruits developing in the fruit cage; children enjoyed the gorgeous willow ‘book pod’, delightful playhouse and sowing seeds; admired the seeds growing in the polytunnel; explored in the wild area of the garden; studied with great interest the plans for the developing Sensory Garden beds and all the while were serenaded wonderfully by the Skittle Alley Strummers. Glorious cakes were munched and the tea flowed, ably assisted by the local Brownie pack who worked tirelessly throughout the afternoon.
In her welcoming speech, Jane Benson, voluntary Manager of the Garden said, “We were absolutely blown away by the communities amazing response to our Grand Opening! On reflection though” she continued, “perhaps we shouldn’t have been so surprised as from day one the whole community has been behind us: we’ve had wonderful support from so many individuals; from a number of generous local businesses; local charities have been so kind to us too as well as the Town Council. We relished the opportunity of thanking everyone at our Opening celebration and look forward to continuing to give our support to the Wimborne Food Bank and Beaucroft College.” With the warmer weather on its way (hopefully!), soon some produce will be harvested and shared once again with Wimborne Food Bank, the Community Kitchen and excitingly, Beaucroft’s café too.
If you want to know more about the garden, please email wimbornecommunitygarden@gmail.com or come along to the garden at the top of School Lane (BH21 2RP) on a Wednesday morning, Friday afternoon or Sunday afternoon and give it a go! All very welcome – there are many seeds yet to be sown, seedlings to pot on and mugs of tea to enjoy!