Thrive news september 2013

New programmes

Cakes and Corporates

Thrive Great Garden Party

September 2013

September 2013

Beech Hill, where our Trunkwell Garden Project is to be found, has existed since the 12th Century when it was known at Beche Hill after the de la Beche family

from Aldworth. Local ‘detectorists’ visited this summer and turned up two coins – a penny from King Edward 1 of England (1272 – 1307) and another from King John of England (1199–1216) – so a productive day for the Berkshire Detectorists, and since they donated £175 for their visit, a good day for Thrive too!

Treasure hunting at Beech Hill

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We have been busy getting our new projects in Birmingham (Kings Heath Park) and Gateshead (Saltwell Park) up and running (see page 8 for more details). Funded by The Royal British Legion, the projects are aimed at ex-forces personnel who are looking to develop the skills needed to gain paid work. Building on the successes of our London-based programmes, the gardeners will receive tailored support to overcome obstacles and achieve their own personal aims and aspirations. They will also be able to: improve their fitness, health and well-being; go on ‘hard graft’ work days at local National Trust sites; gain work experience placements with local employers; and have the opportunity to achieve a City and Guilds qualification through a structured gardening programme.

Our outreach programmes have been enabling us to take gardening out to those who can benefit most. Two examples of this are the Life After Stroke project and the Sow & Grow project, both providing gardening programmes run from local and community-based facilities. The number of people who have benefited from these short programmes across the South of England now runs in to the tens of hundreds.

Our work in leading the development of Social and Therapeutic Horticulture (STH) is being recognised amongst the clinical, academic

and research communities. In November we will be presenting the results of our research and evaluation studies demonstrating the positive impacts of gardening programmes to an audience of GPs, public health and NHS professionals. The British Journal of Occupational Therapy will also be publishing a paper based on the analysis of the results of our in-house impact measurements over the last

couple of years.

Those of you who have been supporters of Thrive for some years will be aware of our long standing plans to redevelop the Main Garden in Battersea Park. Work has now started which will see us building a fantastic facility for our gardeners and will enable us to increase the numbers of gardeners that we work with. It will also provide a great venue for our training courses. Developing

the gardens around the new building will provide a focus for our gardeners from next Spring, along with maintaining the Old English Garden and the Herb Garden – there will be plenty of work to be done and we’ll be calling on volunteers and donors to support this work during 2014.

Please enjoy this edition of Thrive News and thank you for your on-going support of our work.

Kathryn Rossiter, CEO, Thrive

WelcomeIn the last edition of Thrive News I made a

commitment to work hard to make sure that your donations are well used. It’s been a busy six months since then and I am sure that Thrive is now stronger and better placed to meet its objectives. I only have space to give you a few highlights but I hope that these will give you a flavour

of how we really are ‘using gardening to change lives’.

There’s a little village in Shropshire, which used to be in Wales! Llanfair Waterdine means “St Mary’s Church by the water” – the locals there have been very generous and given a donation of £500 to Thrive from their annual arts and gardens festival.

The festival combines music, art and open garden events all over the village. The Saturday evening this year featured a Young Person’s Concert with 46 performers of all ages and abilities and the whole weekend was brought to a wonderful musical conclusion with the Llanfair Singers and the Little Graig Orchestra in concert.

The dates for next year’s Festival, 28th and 29th June 2014, if you are planning to be in the area we suggest you look them up, it sounds like a great place to visit. Our thanks to David Tollman (Chairman) and everyone involved with the festival for their generous support.

Donation from Arts and Gardens Festival

Crafty support for ThriveSome local ladies have supported Thrive at their Knit and Natter group by making gardening related woolly accessories and donating them to Thrive for use in the garden and for sale. The mug cosies are absolutely essential when gardening – how often does your tea or coffee go cold because you are SO absorbed in your weeding or potting up? With a mug cosy your drink will stay warm longer...

For winter the Knit and Natter leader Jenny from Artisano Wools have kindly let us have a knitting pattern for fingerless gloves (pictured), if you would like to give it a try download the pattern from our website: www.thrive.org.uk

We also came up with some ideas for new items to sell with the help of Georgina who transformed our lovely Thrive tea towels into bags, tea cosies, and aprons for little people.

All these items will be for sale at our Thrive events between now and Christmas.

Reaping the benefits at Thrive

September 2013Page 4

Thrive was back at RHS Chelsea and RHS Hampton Court with Alitex again this year...

S ince 2006 Thrive has been offering placements to students who are planning to work in health care professions.

Students typically spend 10 weeks at Thrive, learning about horticultural therapy by working alongside horticultural therapists and volunteers with the disabled people who come to garden at Thrive. In the past year Thrive has welcomed trainee Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Social Workers.

Rose

We were delighted to help top UK greenhouse company Alitex at the RHS shows at Chelsea and Hampton Court this summer.

Gardeners from Thrive were asked to grow plants and dress one of the three Alitex glasshouses at Chelsea. So, two Thrive gardeners helped plant up the glasshouse before Chelsea opened and

four were on site afterwards to help dismantle the display. Thrive has re-planted the herbs and vegetables

at its Herb Garden and has sold the rest to raise funds.

All Thrive gardeners working in Battersea Park were involved sowing the seeds and nurturing plants for Alitex. This kind of project gives our gardeners a terrific boost, and for those keen to enter the workforce it offers something fantastic for their CV. It’s not often

you can say that you’ve helped grow plants and work on a stand at RHS Chelsea or Hampton Court.

It also reinforces the professional approach that we take at Thrive with the quality and care of our plants, alongside the therapeutic aspects of gardening.

Nelly Hall from Alitex said: “It is a real pleasure when running a project like Chelsea to have an aspect of the planting in such capable hands as the team of aspiring growers at Thrive.”

It’s wonderful to be associated with a company like Alitex, they are great friends of Thrive and we are so pleased that the trade stand won Best in Show at Chelsea.

Rose has been at Thrive this summer and has loved the experience. Rose is Dutch and lives in County Sligo in

the north west of Ireland. A mature student; she is studying for an Honours Degree in Social Care. “Social care”, is the practical side of social work; the role of a social care professional is to provide help and a positive influence in the lives of people who need extra support, putting into practice the care plans recommended by social workers.

Rose has been living for 25 years in Ireland and has always had a passion for gardening. Moving from Holland gave her the luxury of space to create a garden, her first was in a five acre plot. As Rose says, “people in Ireland don’t seem to have a culture of gardening like they do in England, there are some beautiful historic gardens attached

to big houses, but domestic gardens are more likely to be a vegetable plot. My garden was different – full of flowers too.”

Rose’s philosophy for life is wrapped up in notion that you need your environment and nature to help you flourish, hence her interest in horticultural therapy and our work at Thrive.

Rose hopes that she will be able to use what she has learned to develop social care projects, based on gardening back home in Sligo when she graduates next year.

For more information about student placements at Thrive please contact Alex Wakefield – [email protected] or Susan Tabor [email protected] at Thrive.

I’ve learned so much at Thrive, the staff and volunteers are really committed to the whole philosophy of Horticultural Therapy... and believe me, it works!

“

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and AlitexWinning ways for Thrive

Above: Gnomes take advantage of first visit to RHS Chelsea

Right: Thrive’s Chelsea team with Nelly from Alitex

Below: Danny preparing Chelsea plants at the Herb Gaden


Thrive’s

Thrive Patron Anna Piper Nye kindly opened her beautiful gardens at Sheepbridge Court in Swallowfield, Berkshire in June and welcomed 80 guests who enjoyed champagne cream teas served on beautiful vintage china. There were garden tours in the three acre garden which is bounded by the River Loddon and features a 12th Century moat. The local paper came to take photos.

In the Old English Garden in Battersea Park we invited Thrive supporters who were wowed by Simon Lycett’s demonstration of his skills as a top flower arranger. Simon used herbs, scented roses, and other English garden favourites to create a spectacular arrangement. The scents of an Old English Garden were also celebrated with the ladies from Jo Malone Limited, who brought their fragrances for guests to try.

Thrive supporters, Alitex, raised money for us at their 60th birthday party celebrations by holding a raffle and asking for donations when guests played summer fete games like hoopla and the coconut shy.

Great Garden PartySummer finally arrived! We are delighted that so many people are taking part in our Thrive Great Garden Party campaign – garden parties have been taking place all over the country. You’ve told us you have all enjoyed your garden party and found it easy to raise some money to support our work. So far Thrive Great Garden Parties combined have raised over £8,000. We hope this will become an annual tradition for gardeners and Thrive supporters throughout the UK. Here are just some of them...

Garden Editor of Country Living Magazine; Stephanie Donaldson, opened her beautiful gardens at her lovely seaside home in Old Hastings for Thrive. Stephanie’s garden is organic and features a huge tulip tree, a mulberry tree, a vegetable plot, a tiny lawn, flowers of course and a very neat compost area! Stephanie’s friend and neighbour Jo Fairley also opened her delightful gardens and served organic cream teas on pretty vintage china and held a raffle in aid of Thrive.

Supporters in Gloucestershire; Sheila Thorpe and family; Mrs Patterson of Hertfordshire and the members of Groombridge Horticultural Society near Tunbridge Wells have all been opening their gardens and raising money for Thrive too. Karen and her colleagues held a garden party in the new sensory garden at their community hospital in Kent and in Hampshire, one of our volunteers, Wynne, opened her lovely garden and had a “brilliant” afternoon selling plants and socialising with friends.

To everyone who has already taken part thank

you from the bottom of our hearts. To those of you who

are planning your garden party for the final flourish

of summer – good luck and thank you too.

So, as you can see, anyone with access to a garden can hold a party – our fundraising pack is full of tips and ideas. There’s still time to join in the fun, download a pack from our website at www.thrive.org.uk/thrive-garden-parties.aspx or email us at [email protected] or call us on 0118 988 5688 and we’ll pop one in the post.

Below: Simon Lycett at the Old English Garden, Battersea Park


Down to Earth is a new project for ex-forces personnel, generously supported by The Royal British Legion, based in Gateshead and Birmingham. The project aims to facilitate recovery and rehabilitation, especially for those affected by their involvement in conflict.

Clients will have access to horticultural qualifications which offer the potential for employment in interesting outdoor and physical work. Saltwell Park in Gateshead and Kings Heath Park in Birmingham are wonderful recreation facilities, where our gardeners can cover a range of activities from garden clearance, design and planting to propagation, and growing produce for sale.

Offices and training rooms are located in old and very lovely buildings and we will be working out of settings as unique in their own ways as Trunkwell and Battersea. The converted stable block at Saltwell is our main base and training room. Our gardeners will be creating a Garden of Reflection at Saltwell Park which sits at the top of the slope overlooking the Boer War Memorial.

The jewel in the crown at Birmingham is the TV garden (pictured above). It has several themed areas and houses a collection of rare and exotic plants and trees. It offers a peaceful and diverse work

arena, ideal for our gardeners. Our training room is in an impressive Victorian building which also houses the park’s Horticultural Training Centre.

Thrive Events 2013P ROJECT UPDATE

Throughout the summer we are running taster sessions for ex-military personnel and volunteers. If you know of anyone who would benefit from being involved in our programmes please contact:

Andrew Hodson Horticultural Training Centre, Kings Heath Park, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7TQ

T: 07585 954031 E: [email protected]

Amanda Hannen The Stable Block, East Park Road, Saltwell Park, Gateshead NE9 5AX

T: 07585 957478 E: [email protected]

Down to Earth

The Boer War Memorial at Saltwell Park, Gateshead

Down to Earth is a Thrive programme supported by The Royal British Legion.

Christmas 2013Back by popular demand... ‘Christmas Thyme’

NEW...‘Christmas Berries’

NEW... ‘Leave space for pudding’

10 cards in a pack with the greeting:

‘With Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year’

NEWfor 2013

Thrive Christmas Tree Decoration

Fair trade, hand-made in Vietnam with fragrant

Cinnamon wood.

For more information and to order please visit www.thrive.org.uk

Thrive, The Geoffrey Udall Centre, Beech Hill, Reading RG7 2ATThrive is a registered charity 277570

Looks familiar? Former television gardens at Kings Heath Park, Birmingham

TruNkWEll, BEECH HIll (for details call 0118 988 5688 or email [email protected])

14 September – Open Day, 11 am – 4 pm Garden tours, plant sales, home-made goodies, refreshments, activities for children and stalls.

6 December – Christmas Coffee Morning and Craft Sale11 am – 2 pm

BaTTErSEa, lONDON (for details call 020 7720 2212 or email [email protected])

7 September – Stockwell Festival11.30 am – 5.30 pmThrive will be there, for more information please contact [email protected] or www.thestockwellfestival.co.uk

14 September – Dig It! 11 am – 3 pmCome and meet Thrive at our Dig It! project at Larkhall Park in Lambeth.

21 September – Capital Growth 11 am – 3 pmMeet Thrive at Capital Growth events at Larkhall Park and Ruskin Park.

‘Capital Growth’ is a partnership initiative between London Food Link, the Mayor of London and the Big Lottery’s Local Food Fund. It is championed by the Chair of the London Food Board, Rosie Boycott, who is also a friend of Thrive. It supports people to grow food in London, whether at home, on allotments or as part of a community group. For more information see www.capitalgrowth.org or the Thrive website.

£4per pack of 10


C ORPORATE VOLUNTEERING

Hewlett Packard came in July for their Make it Matter day to prepare the garden for our Open Day. Tasks included sweeping, weeding, mowing, re-laying shingle on steps, putting down new bark mulch. This done, enthusiasm was high as they identified extra jobs; cutting back overgrown hedging, washing benches and picnic tables and edging the area where the bark mulch was going down. They even moved potted up planters from the plant sales area to put down next to the new bark mulched area to make it stand out more.

Knowing that Thrive also needs cash they decided to raise some money on the day for Thrive with a baking challenge – everybody made sweet or savoury goodies and Fiona, our Thrive corporate volunteer co-ordinator, was drafted in to judge the best looking and best tasting cake – a difficult job which involved tasting all of them!

First Prize for design was a garden themed cake with yogurt covered peanuts as pebbles! And the winner for taste was the fresh blueberry cake.

The team raised £54 by selling cake to each other and donated the surplus for the tea stall at our Open Day.

Our Open Day visitors were impressed with the gardens, all thanks to HP’s hard work.

AT TRUNKWELL.. .

Hewlett Packard Make it Matter day, fuelled by cake!

AT BATTERSEA.. .

Marriot Vacation Club creates a buzz at Battersea Garden

In May we welcomed a large party from Marriott Vacation Club International. Their day at Thrive was a part of a Staff Fun Week and an opportunity for them to “give something back”. We divided the day in two. The morning was spent in our Main Garden readying it for the rebuild; weeding and clearing ground; sorting, pruning and watering plants in the plant sales area. They went through the tasks like a great swarm of busy bees, tackling everything with great enthusiasm.

After lunch – and the largest delivery of pizzas we have ever seen (!) – they started work in the herb garden where they moved bags of compost, watered plants, weeded, planted up pots, labelled and separated out herbs. What a great day! The team did an amazing job and had so much fun that they have booked to come back again in October.

If you think your company would like to volunteer at Thrive please call our

Corporate Volunteer Co-ordinator on 0118 988 5688, or email [email protected]


F O C U S O N : Volunteers

Volunteers

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T hey are at the core of what we do. Having volunteers working closely with our professional therapists, we can get more gardeners working together and make sure that each one has the attention and companionship they need. More than that, they bring that magic ingredient of widening the circle of people our gardeners mix and interact with.

Challenge

Fundraising

Are you looking for a reason to trek across the Sahara Desert, cycle the length of the UK or walk the Freedom Trail?

Our fundraising partners Discover Adventure and Charity Challenge specialise in travel challenges all over the world. These two companies are highly reputable challenge and travel specialists. We can’t afford to run a Thrive trek or challenge of our own but you can join an Open challenge with either of these companies and raise money for Thrive.

Discover Adventure’s new 2014 brochure includes some really exciting new challenges and some old favourites:

• Lands End to John O Groats Cycle Ride – almost 1000 miles in 13 days

• Pyrenees Coast to Coast Cycle Ride – the Atlantic to the Mediterranean in nine days

• Sahara Desert Trek – 10 days in Morocco• Stonehenge to Avebury, a one-day 26 mile challenge

over Salisbury Plain

Charity Challenge also offers dog sledding, kayaking, jungle treks and ski-ing adventures and also provides a range of challenges exclusively for the over 50’s age group.

We can’t come along (oh how we wish we could!) but we promise to support your fundraising and keep you motivated as you train. All we ask is a postcard or two...

Our

So, volunteers work in our gardens but the magic spreads further. You know we have regular days when staff from companies come and carry out tasks that our gardeners cannot do and we cannot afford to pay for. And we have people working in our offices providing admin support and specialist skills... and then there is our team of great communicators who give talks and attend events spreading the knowledge about the therapeutic benefits of gardening, raising funds and attracting further support. All this makes it possible for us to achieve more, develop and continue to extend our reach.

It isn’t just that they provide extra hands and skills. They bring experience, ideas, enthusiasm, kindness and laughter – qualities that add so much to the character of Thrive.

What do we give back to these wonderful people? It’s hard to say exactly but one volunteer said recently: “You don’t need to

thank me all the time, just give me things to do that you really need doing and will make a difference.” Like all of us, paid or unpaid, it is rewarding to be doing some thing useful and worthwhile. We try hard to provide that job satisfaction to our volunteers, as well as our friendship and gratitude. Each year we hold a get together; we meet, eat and celebrate the great gifts of time and energy we have received over the past year. It’s magic!

Thrive is always recruiting volunteers and with our new projects in the Birmingham and Gateshead, we will need more. If you live near a Thrive garden and have some time to spare why not give Thrive a call (on 0118 988 5688) or send an enquiry through our website www.thrive.org.uk.

are magic

Help us raise funds and take on your own exciting journey.

For more information contact [email protected] or call us on 0118 988 5688.

Discover Adventure: www.discoveradventure.com

Charity Challenge: www.charitychallenge.com/overthehill

September 2013Page 14 ✁

I would like to support Thrive with a gift.Here is my Cheque/CAF charity voucher/Postal Order for

£. . . . . . . . . . . . . (please insert amount) made payable to Thrive.

Financial SecurityIf you prefer to make a donation by credit or debit card; please do not send card details through the post – please call us on 0118 988 5688 and ask to speak to a member our finance team. Or donate via our website: www.thrive.org.uk/donate-to-thrive.aspxOr by text: for example to donate £10 text THRI0210 to 70070

Gift Aid – make your gift larger at no personal cost: Using Gift Aid means that for every pound you give Thrive will receive an extra 25p from the Inland Revenue. Just sign the statement below.

Gift Aid Statement I want Thrive to treat all donations I make from the date of this declaration until I notify you

otherwise, as Gift Aid donations. I understand the requirement is that I must pay an amount of income tax or capital gains tax at least equal to the tax deemed to have been deducted from this donation.

Signature ......................................................................................... Date ............................

Your details(We need your full address to process your donation through Gift Aid and also to acknowledge your donation)

Name: Mr / Mrs / Ms (please delete) .......................................................................................................

Address: ...............................................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................... Postcode :................................

Telephone Number:...................................................................................................................

Email:.....................................................................................................................................

Please send a thank you by email (please provide your email address above).

I do not require a thank you letter this time.

The law around charities communicating with their supporters has changed and we need to have your permission to contact you again. Your support is very important to us, and we would like to keep you updated about Thrive.

If you are happy to hear from us until further notice please tick here: (Any personal information we collect from you will be handled under the terms of the Data Protection Act (1998). We will not pass on your personal details to any third party.)

Please return this form to: Thrive, FREEPOST (SCE 6522) The Geoffrey Udall Centre, Beech Hill, Reading RG7 2AT Or Thrive, The Geoffrey Udall Centre, Beech Hill, Reading RG7 2AT.

Thank youThrive is a small national charity whose vision is to enable those touched by a disability to transform their lives using gardening.Registered in the UK as The Society for Horticultural Therapy Charity No 277570 Company No 1415700Source: FRNEWS092013

From time to time Thrive receives legacy donations. The most recent came from the estate of a keen gardener who died suddenly, his sister donated his tools and gardening books and having visited our gardens at Beech Hill, decided it would be appropriate to celebrate his life and love of gardening with a small bequest. The sister has returned home abroad but keeps in touch with us through our website and e-bulletins. On this occasion the bequest will help build our Just for Fun Garden in our Garden Gallery at Trunkwell.

One in five people in the UK do not have a will when they die, often because they don’t think they possess anything of any value. Making a will is the only way to be sure that what you leave behind goes to people, or causes, that you care about. And including a charitable gift in your will can help your beneficiaries by reducing

the amount of inheritance tax due on your estate.

Making a will is not necessarily expensive, we have factsheets about making a will and leaving a gift to Thrive – you can download them from our website or we can send you printed copies. Please call Sue Tiplady on 0118 988 0683 or email [email protected].

T hrive owes its very existence today to a legacy – our founding Chairman the Reverend Dr Geoffrey Udall, donated his family’s estate and walled garden at Beech Hill to Thrive and left us another gift in his will. So Trunkwell Park became the Trunkwell Garden Project and the future home of Thrive’s National Office.

Plan a gift for Thrive and let your love of gardening live on with us.

Reverend Dr Geoffrey Udall


Thrive

When you have finished with this newsletter, please pass it on to a friend or recycle it. Thrive News is printed on recycled paper. Thrive is registered in the UK as the Society for Horticultural Therapy. Thrive is a registered charity (number 277570) and a limited company (number 1415700).© Thrive 2013

Contact ThriveThrive, The Geoffrey Udall CentreBeech Hill, Reading RG7 2ATT: 0118 988 5688E: [email protected]: www.thrive.org.uk

Ways to donate:

Telephone: 0118 988 5688

Text: THrI02 and the amount of your gift to 70070

Online: www.thrive.org.uk

By post: Fill in the form overleaf and return it to Thrive

A few years ago Jim’s mental health was so poor that he was living in a secure psychiatric ward for his own safety. Gardening at Thrive has helped him create a brighter life and a positive future for himself.

When he first came to Thrive Jim didn’t like being with other people; but he enjoyed gardening and hard work. Ruth, a Thrive Horticultural Therapist, has known Jim since he arrived; she helped Jim build his confidence and self-esteem simply by talking about what they were going to do in the garden.

“I wouldn’t have really spoken to people before, or looked at them. When you learn things and have experience it gives you more confidence and that’s exactly how I feel now.“

Jim is known now for the generous support he gives the other Thrive gardeners, he takes the time to share his knowledge with them, particularly those with learning difficulties.

Today Jim is a very different person to the

withdrawn young man who first visited our garden in Battersea Park in 2008. He has just completed his City & Guilds Level 2 qualification in Work Based Horticulture, has taken literacy, numeracy and book keeping courses, signed up for a small business course in 2013, and is planning set up his own gardening business. In his spare time he volunteers with a conservation group.

There’s still time to book for our Thrive Golf Day

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Thrive relies on charitable gifts to continue our work and we are very

grateful for your support.

£25 could fund 5 pairs of gardening gloves, or a fruit tree, or a pair of long handled

loppers. It costs around £50 every time a gardener comes to Thrive for the day.

Please help us and give today; use the form overleaf or one of the methods shown below.

• Thursday 26 September at Pine Ridge Golf Club in Camberley

• A fantastic day out for all levels of golfers. Start with a tasty breakfast in the club house, play 18 holes of golf on a picturesque parkland course, and be treated to a delicious

two course lunch followed by a prize presentation.

• The entry fee is £240 for a team of four or £60 per head. Sign up call the fundraising team at Thrive on 0118 988 5688 or email [email protected] for a booking form.

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Thrive news september 2013

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