St Mary's Secret Garden

How about getting your team to help out in our garden with a specific project? Costs are £30-£35 a person per day depending on raw material costs. Sessions can be tailored to meet your corporate requirements. Please contact us to discuss your needs further.

Current projects
1. Painting and Treating structures in the garden
Painting and varnishing benches, tables, raised flower beds, sheds, fences and trellises etc. 8-10 people for a half or full weekday. Costs include purchase of paint, varnishes and brushes.

2. Relaying shingle around Portacabin
We would like to relay the shingle paths around our portacabin while laying down some membrane mats to prevent weed growth. This activity would involve removing the existing shingle / mats, flattening/preparing the underlying soil, preparing and laying new membrane mats and laying new shingle. 6-8 people for a full weekday. Costs include purchase of membrane mats and shingle.

3. Greenhouse Maintenance
Our greenhouse structure needs a good clean and we would like to add a water access point. Water access in the greenhouse would help us deliver our therapeutic sessions more effectively. This job would suit a water / plumbing firm. Costs include hire of a pressure washer and plumber to attach water mains.

4. Construction of new plant pot frames
We urgently need to upgrade our plant frames to protect garden produce from pests. This activity would involve preparing the wood panels, constructing the frames and attaching the nets. 6-8 people for a half or full weekday. Costs include purchase of wood and nets.

5. Leaky pipe project
Leaky pipes are a more efficient way of watering large garden areas. The leaky pipe is a porous hose that seeps water all along its length by capillary action. Regular watering helps maintain moisture levels in the root zone without overspray and evaporation. This will enable us to reduce the amount of water required in our garden, reducing costs while benefiting the environment. This task will involve preparing the soils, laying the pipes around the garden and connecting to the water mains. 6-8 people for a full weekday. Costs include purchase of pipe, fittings and control unit.

6. Painting Portacabin
Our Portacabin is used for teaching, indoor therapeutic sessions and for social gatherings. We would like to re-paint the interior. This task would suit 4-6 people for a full or half weekday. Costs include purchase of paint, varnishes and brushes.

7. General gardening
Hedging, weeding, trimming etc. Projects can be tailored according to numbers of volunteers.

8. Helping to renovate our 'golf buggy' style trailer/vehicle which needs a new battery and front lights. A great project for teams of engineers. With the vehicle working we would be able to increase our community outreach service.

9. Relaying and replacing some paving leading to our soil storage area, which is now looking like the peaks of the Alps as it is so disturbed by the roots from nearby shrubs.

10. Building raised beds to increase our accessible gardening space for those with mobility issues and fitting low retaining walls to define the edges of our fruit growing beds.

11. It's not just in the garden where your time would be of value to us, would you be able to use your expertise to help us with marketing our community garden, designing leaflets and organising our computer filing?

Case studies
Thanks to Freshfields the international law firm brightened up our tool sheds turning them from murky mustard to a brilliant Moroccan blue! The team also got to make use of a jet wash and cleaned the greenhouse, fixed crop protection frames and organised our vegetable labelling system.

Thomson Reuters provides information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, scientific, health care and media markets. Thomson Reuters sent two teams to the garden, they ensured all our timber was treated to protect it for another year. The first group dismantled our crumbling brick BBQ and the second group replaced it with a beautiful BBQ. This has been used to celebrate this year's growing achievements with all the regular volunteers and is used by local people who use the garden at weekends.

Celebrating our new BBQ

Deloitte provides audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, and tax services. Their team of volunteers made a big difference to the garden when they fixed our cold frames, made a seating area in the herb garden, painted the benches and fixed supports for the tools.

Corporate Volunteers in action

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Designed by Quynh Hoang: quynhoang@gmail.com