Here at Sydenham Garden we know that it’s a real privilege to welcome people. Our wonderful staff and volunteers are doing this many times every day – being able to offer an acknowledgement of someone’s unique identity because of the strength of the community life we have built here. It’s probably the most important thing…
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News in Brief
Our new knitting group on alternate Monday mornings has been a great success so far, with lots of creative people sharing ideas and supporting each other. Growing Lives are selling cut flowers to local florists each week, raising funds for the project and creating great publicity for our work. We welcomed a new member of…
Read moreGive us Shelter
Every Friday, Harvey arrives at the entrance to Sydenham Garden. He’s always on time. Harvey looks forward to coming here and tells his carer he doesn’t want to go anywhere else. With a helping hand from one of our volunteers, Harvey is able to walk slowly up our tree-lined path to the oasis and…
Read moreCut flower workshop
Last month we ran a workshop covering everything you need to know to start growing and selling local, sustainable and ethical cut flowers. We covered growing site requirements, which flowers to grow and why, how to turn your crop into a product including flower arranging techniques and finally, routes to market. This was all lead…
Read moreBuilding new raised beds for our cut flower enterprise
A huge thank you to the amazing group of volunteers from Lloyds Bank who joined us to help build three huge raised beds in our poly tunnel. We are expanding our cut flower growing enterprise and these new beds will give us nearly 40m2 of additional protected growing space! Over the years, we have…
Read moreWinter Fair Coming Soon!
Roll up, roll up for the one and only Sydenham Garden Winter Fair (with extra sparkles). You are all warmly welcome for what promises to be a brilliant day out, with treats galore, and ethical gifts for sale – with all proceeds going to support our work.
Read moreA new Director for Sydenham Garden
We are delighted to announce that we have appointed Coralie Hopwood as our new Director from November 18th 2019. Julia Brandreth, Chair, said; “After a comprehensive recruitment process involving co-workers, volunteers, staff and trustees, Coralie was considered by all to be the outstanding candidate. We believe she will be instrumental in continuing to deliver our…
Read moreDefrenefest 2019 – A joyous day out in the sunshine
Sydenham Garden’s summer festival at our market garden site on De Frene Road gets bigger and better every year, and 2019 was no exception. Thanks to months of planning by our dedicated team, and an overwhelming amount of goodwill and support on the day from our co-workers and volunteer groups, the day was a brilliant…
Read moreTomatoes, Bindweed and Comfrey Tea
Tomatoes, Bindweed and Comfrey Tea I am no gardener. I keep weeds at bay, hedges trimmed and the lawn mowed in my modest back garden. I even stretched to some dead-heading of the roses out front recently but that was because a local community event meant we were on show. Otherwise I have kept…
Read moreCarer Focus, Sow & Grow
Susan, Sow & Grow co-worker carer: We heard from social services about the Sow & Grow, and wanted to get mum socialising with her age group. It’s helped her confidence to build relationships with other people, participating in group activities being more mobile, happier mood and feeling useful. She has definitely become more creative. She…
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