Garden Skills: Autumn Crafts and Fire Pit Storytelling

Autum Crafts & Storytelling around the Fire Pit, with Melinda McCheyne and Anna Shiels

Sunday 23rd November, 4pm-6pm

Join us as we put The Orchard Garden to bed for the Winter, with autumnal activities and storytelling around the fire pit. Make a natural candle holder to use on your walk around the garden. Discover some new recipes for hot mulled punch (non alcoholic), and enjoy a drink around the fire pit whilst listening to an autumnal story, told by Anna Shiels of Banana in the Moon.

Tickets: £7.50 per person

This donation help us to maintain the garden and to continue to offer these sessions.

Free Community Tickets are available to support those who need it most (e.g those with low income, asylum seekers, refugees, vulnerable migrants). Please note that these are limited.

If you do sign up for a Community Ticket and can no longer attend, please cancel or let us know, enabling someone else to join.

Under 5s do not need tickets!

About The Orchard Garden

Orchard Garden is a wildflower green space, built by our community, for our community.

The Orchard Garden was created and developed by our community of garden volunteers. Now serving as a community space, The Orchard Garden project provides nature craft workshops, volunteering opportunities, and our garden skills programme.

Built during the 2015 refurbishment of TOSH, The Orchard Garden initially contained just four fruit trees, with spring bulbs and wildflowers growing up each Summer.

Having received two years of funding in January 2023, we consulted with our community to commission a new garden design. Our theme was 'Food for Us, Food for Nature', designed to be a sanctuary for our community to rest, learn, grow and harvest in.

The Orchard Garden, developed over 2023 and 2024, was largely built by our community of volunteers, made up of local residents, refugees, and asylum seekers.

Building The Orchard Garden

The garden was built with nature and community at heart. Recycled materials were used to build our pathways and seating, and our garden bench was made from recycled plastic. Members of our community groups at TOSH created terracotta tiles to be embedded into the seating circle, and the international women of Seeking Refuge Project’s ‘Threads’ group sewed cushion covers and bunting. Local charity Faithworks and their workshop team created our arbour seat.

Since undergoing the garden build, 14 new fruit trees have been planted, as well as climbers, wild flowers and bulbs.

The Orchard Garden officially opened in July 2024. To commemorate this milestone, we were joined by over 100 people at our Open Day event, sharing global foods and enjoying nature themed crafts. Now an annual celebration, the garden offers an opportunity for our diverse communities to come together, celebrating this inclusive space and all that it represents.

This project has been made possible with funding from the People’s Health Trust using money raised by Health Lottery South West. We have also received donations from JPMorgan, Wessex Water and more.

Every Monday afternoon, 1.30pm-3pm, TOSH provides free Nature Crafts & Gardening workshops for our diverse community in Boscombe.

If you or anyone you know would benefit from this welcoming and inclusive space, please contact our Garden Coordinator , or pop in on a Monday afternoon to see what we are up to.

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