Welcomes
Welcome everyone to the meeting and thanks all for attending
Actions from last meeting
The last meeting was back in January – all actions have since been completed.
End of lottery funding and what’s happening now
Thanks everyone for your help, especially with all the evaluation reports.
BLF very happy with project reports, but we’ve been unsuccessful in our application for more money.
We are rewriting the application and investigating other ways to secure our future.
We always wanted to make Grozone self sufficient in terms of how it is funded, and now just to need reach that point a bit quicker than we had originally anticipated. It will be a challenge, but we can do it!
We are already doing a variety of things to bring in money –
- Commissioned work – such as at The Steve Biko Housing Association in Liverpool and at a woodland in Crewe.
- Selling plants, honey and craft items on site.
- Running monthly workshops (reduced price of £5 for regular volunteers).
- Running private events at Grozone.
- Attending events off site – such as the coffee morning at St Helen’s Church on 6th August.
- Offering Forest School sessions to local schools/community groups.
- Thanks to everyone for keeping on top of general site maintenance/weeding etc now that we are open fewer days in the week.
- Made progress with the wheelchair ramp to the compost toilet.
- Have installed the posts (and built the first truss) for the kitchen roof
- Have built more wood stores.
- We’re creating a new wildlife pond to deal with the saturated ground near the story telling area.
- The fruit trees around the allotment area have now been trained to grow along the fence wires.
Other highlights
- We now have a hugelkultur – (a German term meaning ‘mound culture’) – thanks for the idea Caroline.
- We now have some (squirrel proof) bokashi bins – compost bins that you can put cooked food in. Please use these for any leftover food, and continue to put raw vegetables/fruit peel in the normal compost bins. Please avoid putting any food in the wheelie bins from now on.
- We’ve now got fish in the raised pond – thanks Becky.
- We’ve got a ‘new’ shed, reclaimed from Andy’s garden to store art materials in
- We’ve had some repairs done to the yurt.
Next jobs
- Rig up a net to catch the plums in the forest school area.
- Rig up some tarpaulin shelters in the forest school area.
- Continue work on the ramp and kitchen roof.
Crewe woodland – thanks to everyone who went on the trips to the woodland for all your hard work. We’ve now got lots of fire wood, and we got paid for doing the work.
Saturday 6th August 10.00am to 12.00pm - Coffee morning at St Helen’s Church – please come along and buy some cake!
Wednesday 21st September 10.00am to 3.00pm Grozone Open Day –– event to show off the garden to partner organisations and potential funders
We discussed the possibility of running a sponsored walk or bike ride in September/October, and agreed that a walk would be more suitable, and would give us the opportunity to stop and talk to people more easily. Andy and Pete to organise a route, taking in the Northwich Woodlands and probably starting at the Pocket Park in town and finishing at Grozone. More details to follow.
We also discussed whether we could do a bag packing day at a local supermarket and/or become their nominated charity. Andy will investigate.
Social media
Si is no longer doing our social media (thanks for all you’ve done Si), so you’ll now see things from all the staff on Facebook, when we remember to take pictures!
Other projects/partnerships
We’re having meetings with lots of potential partners, on site and elsewhere. As always, the impression that people get when they visit us is crucial, and everyone who comes says the place is amazing, and inspirational – thank you!
Salford University Occupational Therapists – Pete and Andy recently met with Christine about the possibility of getting some occupational therapy students to do their placements at Grozone – which would strengthen our links with the health sector.
Any other business
We discussed the idea of having a tape recorder at a quiet spot in the garden that everyone could use to record the thoughts and feelings. Andy to investigate.
Date of next meeting
Wednesday 14th September 1.30pm