A Week on the Estate: Summer Greenery, Handsome Bull & Growing Success

Plenty of hard work went into preparing the Community Vegetable Garden for last weekend’s ‘Have a Grow Day’. Toby Ridsdale sub-divided plots into a pleasing, rectangular order, with plenty of space for wellies and wheelbarrows. The Saturday Club did some serious hands-and-knees weeding, proving that our potato plots can produce more than grass and thistles.

The ‘Have a Grow Day’ was a resounding success for the Community Vegetable Garden. To finish, we’re sure you’ll enjoy this nicely penned summary from Nicky Coxon’s daughter, Sophie-Lea, as much as we did:

‘The second event day of South Ormsby’s ‘Have a Grow Day’ was a huge success. People from all around the area flocked to this small garden for the main event.

‘To start the day off, myself and 14 other people took an exclusive walk around the estate grounds led by Clarice Weston. It took little over an hour and was filled with information about South Ormsby Hall and its land. We even got a visit from one of the two cats owned by the estate. Very cute!

‘Upon finishing the walk, which took us behind the scenes of this wonderful estate, we were encouraged to collect our pre-ordered drinks and hot beef baps (made with Lincoln Red beef) from The Old School Tea & Coffee Shop before returning to the community garden. Lunchtime brought more visitors, who gladly sat down with us to listen to Jon Thornes speak about what this garden means to him, as well as giving some extra history lessons on the estate.

‘Once lunch was over, the sound of laughter and, erm, chainsaws (!) flooded the air once again as children coloured pots for their sunflower seeds and adults built bike racks and benches out of wooden pallets kindly donated by Tristan the Distiller.

‘Jon Thornes returned a mere hour later with his own bike to test out the bike racks and marvelled at how full of life the garden was. It was a welcome change from the tranquil space which this garden usually is.

‘With sunflowers in their hands, food in their stomachs and a happy glow from a day of socialising with their community,  our guests left the garden empty once more, with a promise of this weekend being repeated in the not-so-distant future.’