We were delighted to welcome around 35 attendees to our AGM on February 7th, despite the very wet weather! Broadly speaking, the agenda was split neatly into a look back at 2025, including the various small garden projects, events and workshops, construction projects, volunteers and finances, and a look ahead to 2026, based around the trustees’ key objectives for the year and how they would be realised.
The past year has been a very busy one; both volunteer and visitor numbers were up on 2024, and it was gratifying to see that a high percentage of volunteers return after their first visit. The finances are in a healthy state, despite having made a small loss on the year; one highlight was that we raised a remarkable £5,088 from produce sales!
Looking ahead, the trustees’ objectives include the creation of two new gardens – a wildlife garden and a flood garden – better water management, a focus on growing heritage varieties of edible plants, and improvements to the volunteer journey. Keep an eye on the Small Gardens area of the website for developments in the new gardens. We also have a busy programme of events planned, including paid workshops, community events on and off-site and training events for volunteers. The construction team will have its hands full with a broad range of projects in the pipeline.
The Garden is all about community involvement, and we always welcome ideas and feedback from volunteers and visitors. AGM attendees had an opportunity at the meeting to put forward their ideas for future projects and improvements, and as always, this generated some really interesting input, which the trustees will take away and ponder. We also announced a number of new volunteer roles for people to consider – find out more on the Volunteer with Us page.
All in all, a very successful meeting with excellent cake too! Thank you to everyone who helped on the day or in preparing for the meeting.
