You will find full details under ‘Recruitment’ on the ‘About Us’ page on the website

Some of the more practical elements of setting up the site have already been achieved with very generous donations of a variety of equipment from Erskine Hospital and we have also received some office furniture from Barclays Bank.  We extend our gratitude to both.  I would also like to say a big thank you to our new volunteers, couldn’t do it without you.

One of the most exciting developments so far is the symbiotic relationship we have developed with Erskine Garden Centre. We are currently undertaking the role of ‘Plant Hospital’ whereby we will administered some TLC to out of season plants and over winter others within a stable environment and make sure they receive a good feed to give them a new lease of life in the spring before returning them to hopefully find new homes in the customers’ gardens.

Referrals to Gardening leave Erskine can be made by contacting Evelyn on 01292 521 444

Regards

Brenda

Tara Jeewoonarain, the new Horticultural Therapist & Anna Baker Cresswell, Chief Executive, have spent the first few days buying equipment and generally trying to get things organised in preparation for arrival of the first veterans.   Gardening Leave now even have their own pigeon hole in the mail room!

They would both like to say a big thank you to everyone from The Royal Hospital for such a warm welcome.   Tara is pictured below with Ken, Chelsea Pensioner, Friend of Gardening Leave and best Tour Guide in the Town!

We have had plenty of visitors this month - Tara and Gina who will be Horticultural Therapist and Volunteers Co-ordinator at Gardening Leave Chelsea at the Royal hospital Chelsea came up to Auchincruive to see how we do things before they start work next month and Brenda has now completed her first month at Gardening Leave Erskine (see her Newsletter on the Homepage).

We also had a visit from Colonel Winstanley and some of his staff from the Army Personnel Centre in Glasgow.  They very kindly donated lots of biscuits to Gardening Leave and gave Stevie a hand in the Stovehouse so Big thank-you to all of them!

Pamela has had a busy time in the garden tidying up after the Flower Show and beans; peas (what the mice didn’t get…); tomatoes; onions and potatoes have all made their way to John’s kitchen at Hollybush this month.

The 3^rd sowing of the Victoria Cross poppy is now flowering on the terrace and Pamela’s willow cuttings are growing really well in readiness for our willow weaving exploits in the Stovehouse next year.

Stevie, Eddie and the Team have been busy in the Stovehouse and Eddie’s wonderful steps will save a lot of legwork and make life much, much safer.

I’m off to London for a couple of weeks to get Gardening Leave Chelsea up and running so that more ex-Service personnel can share the companionship and friendship that is Gardening Leave.

Happy Days,

Anna.

We were very well organised thanks to Hugh McAulay with everything planned military fashion.     All the hard landscaping was planned and stored in advance and the majority of the plants used in the garden were grown here by the veterans under Pamela’s toe tapping supervision (Jimmy’s words, not mine!)    There had been a few hiccups with some plants not in full bloom due to the weather however we managed to overcome this with kind donations of plants from Tor, one of our volunteers, and also from Ewan Peat, a local nurseryman.

The logistics were easier this year due to the kind offer of transport organised by John Thomson of W G Walker & Co and provided by Robert Glendinning of  TU-Max Haulage.  SAC Estates Department also assisted with the movement of hard landscaping and not forgetting our own volunteer, Ian Haynes for the removal of growing media and collection of lawn turf.  We couldn’t have managed without them.

As always, the veterans worked tirelessly and pulled together as a team finishing with two hours to spare before the judging!   Special thanks also to Alan McLaughlin for providing teas and coffees on demand, and all the veterans and volunteers involved who worked so hard to make this a success. 

We have had great media coverage with Gardening Leave featuring in The Ayrshire Post, Ayr Advertiser, Glasgow Herald and Scotland on Sunday.

If you would like to see pictures from start to finish, please go to the Gallery Section.

Our new Horticultural Therapist Brenda Mackay who will be running the Gardening Leave Erskine project joined the Team this month and in August, Gardening Leave will welcome the first veterans to the site at the ‘old’ garden centre at Erskine.  From then on there will be a special page for Gardening Leave Erskine on the website but for now, Welcome Brenda and I’m really looking forward to working with you.

We had a very busy month at Auchincruive with visits from Funders and Friends.  We welcomed some new veterans to Gardening Leave alongside many other veterans who returned for more Gardening Leave and as usual, there was a lot to do!

There has been plenty of harvesting of veg from the garden for John in the kitchen at Hollybush house and the flowers and plants for the show garden at this year’s Ayr Flower Show have had lots of TLC to make sure they are in good shape for the judging next Thursday - can it really be a whole year since the last show garden….?

At the end of the month we had a visit from Jim McColl and his camera crew from the Beechgrove Garden.  Jim was a student at Auchincruive so it was a trip down memory lane for him and we heard some great stories about Auchincruive in its heyday.  If we get enough notice, we’ll put the date when the programme is being shown in Latest News.

In  the meantime, keep your  fingers crossed for our show garden at Ayr Flower Show.

As always,

ABC.

Provost Young, the Provost of East Ayrshire had chosen Combat Stress as her charity of the year and to mark the end of her year she gave a Charity Ball in Kilmarnock to raise money for Combat Stress.

Gardening Leave provided the table decorations and big thanks go to the veterans who worked so hard to make such professional displays - as always Gardening Leave stepped up to the plate!

The day after the Ball was the annual Hollybush House Fete and Pamela and her troops had a stand selling plants we had grown and the table decorations from the Ball - the sun shone and the Bacon Roll Fund got a healthy boost, so many thanks to All.

In the garden, the harvesting of garlic, carrots, spuds and herbs is ongoing and the willow bed has been weeded and bark spread over the weed excluder to hold it down so the weeds don’t find any light and take precious water from the willows.

The Poppy Collection has been in full bloom and we have been able to identify more poppies so Wendy and Sandy can add more labels to beds confirming the identity of the poppy in the bed - great news!

Eddie has now finished the Smoke Shelter and once the family of swallows who have built a nest in the eaves have taken their children way, we can christen it - a very big thanks to all who helped in its creation.

Hollybush House hosted the annual Volunteers Training Day for Gardening Leave Volunteers which was well attended and enjoyed by all.  We have 4 Training Days a year so our Volunteers can keep up with Gardening Leave best practice and our progress and development.  They are such a precious resource and we couldn’t support the veterans without them.

Gardening Leave’s expansion plans are taking shape and we had Stakeholder Days at both the new Gardening Leave sites in June.

Gardening Leave Erskine at Erskine Hospital near Glasgow will open in August and we welcomed referral agencies, potential volunteers and some of our generous funders to Erskine Hospital early in the month so that everyone could meet up and after a lively Questions and Answers, we had a tour of the site where Gardening Leave Erskine will operate from.

At the end of June we did the same thing for Gardening Leave Chelsea, which will be at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home of the Chelsea Pensioners who have already been giving us the benefit of their advice…!!

It is a great privilege for Gardening Leave to be invited to be associated with two such august and well-respected institutions as Erskine and the Royal Hospital and it means that we can now develop and expand our work with ex-Service personnel of all ages - very, very exciting…….

ABC.