CGN and the Chorlton Open Gardens Event held on Sunday June 23rd 2013
Despite the poor weather 184 people visited the CGN garden and 482 people visited the Ivygreen Garden which was using the event to fund raise for CGN. Comments about the gardens were overwhelmingly positive and appreciative.
At the CGN garden behind Wilbraham St Ninians (and the newly opened greenhouse) the event went very well and there was a lot of support from Wilbraham St Ninian’s church people. £80 were raised through plant sellng and donations
At the Ivygreen garden lots of visitors commented on and were suprised by the range of the activities and services offered by CGN (as outlined on the pop up banner and on the posters about the Garden project). The event was great publicity for the group.
All the CGN leaflets went (nobody refused one) and a lot of the CGN Garden project leaflets went too. According to Mary, “Quite a few people I spoke to said they would think of volunteering at CGN when they retired and one or 2 said they would offer their services now”.
Over £100 worth of raffle tickets were sold . Prizes for the raffle sourced by Kim include a meal voucher from the Lead Station, a drinks voucher from the Beagle, a bottle of Shiraz from Epicerie Ludo and a box of chocolates from Simon Dunn Chocolatiers. Mary & then Jane were selling the raffle tickets throughout the day
Joan ran the tea, coffee & cakes stall all day in the wonderful tent that, thanks to Pam, we loaned from the Manchester Rd Methodist church. It weathered the gales remarkably well & Joan & John Constable were there till the end helping us to take it down whilst the winds got even stronger in the evening.
Anita kept the big urn topped up with hot water and answered all the visitors questions about the plants and sold plants and cuttings
Paul, Mary’s partner, shared the ‘front of house’ greeting role with me for much of the day. We welcomed people in, counted them, answered their questions, gave them CGN leaflets and told them that the fund raising was in aid of CGN and where they could get teas, coffee & cakes; plants to buy; raffle tickets; and where the toilet was (important draw for visitors!)
Many terrific cakes were supplied by CGN volunteers Zoe, Charlene, Kim (+friends) and Yvonne; plus our friends, Doreen & Sarah. All cakes were were sold by the end of the day
Having counted up we made about £459 at Ivygreen. In addition, I think that about £80 was made at the CGN garden during the Open Garden Day too. So a grand total of about £540 was raised on the day
In addition, Over £6000 has been made for the Freedom from Torture Charity by the Chorlton Open Garden event as whole, which was extremely efficiently organised by Merryn Cook
Photos of the event are on the ‘friends of Chorlton Good Neighbours” Facebook page at: http://goo.gl/k1qqt and I include some below
The next Chorlton Open Garden event will be in 2015
Bernard Leach
The Open Day begins at the CGN Garden
One of our hanging baskets at CGN garden
The poster explaining how the gardening project has developed
Some of the plants for sale
Artwork on display
Th herb area at the CGN garden, next to the greenhouse
Our finished greenhouse (with tomatos & lots of other plants)
Sasha our resident cat
people at the CGN Chorlton Gardens Open day
Carolyn the garden project organiser
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The following photos are of the fund raising event at Ivygreen Road, also part of the Chorlton Open Garden’s event
The wonderful tent (it didn’t blow down despite the strong gusts of wind!)
Warming up inside the tent
Some of the visitors to the garden
An aerial view of the garden
Kim, a CGN volunteer, standing in front of the Good Neighbours poster
Kim, showing one of the cakes she brought to stall at the Open Garden’s event
Chorlton Good Neighbours 