About the project
The main volunteering session at Philips Park for Spring / Summer 2021 is on a Saturday Morning from 10am until 1pm. We have have regular volunteer group but new people are always welcome. We are working over 3 sections, main garden, forest garden and herb garden. Tasks include preparing and maintaining raised beds, clearing and weeding areas and raising plants from seed in the polytunnel.
There is also a session on most Wednesday mornings 10am to 12pm, contact Mark on 07748 873200 or at marklo@ntlworld for details and frequency of the Wednesday sessions, and any other questions, or through the website.
Philips Park is also the location of Incredible Edible’s Apple Day held in October every year.
Fruit Garden
Over the past six years we have transformed the abandoned former fruit garden set up by the Philips family more than a century ago. We have large areas of raspberries, currant and gooseberry bushes and some thriving rhubarb plants. We also have plum, fig, apricot and nectarine trees against a wall, a healthy medlar tree and a couple of stepover apple trees.
Nursery
A couple of years ago, the Trust for Conservation Volunteers left the park and we inherited a substantial part of the nursery that they had been maintaining. This area has the potential to provide us with different crops each year in sufficient quantities to help out community cafes or develop a relationship with a local veg outlet. It is also a good site to run courses, like the apple grafting courses we’ve run over the last 5 years.
