We are absolutely thrilled to have received £40,000 from the Syder Foundation to enable us to complete the Mulberry Garden Therapeutic Gardening Project at Enborne Gate together with £10,000 from The Bernard Sunley Trust. This gives us the £50,000 that we needed to finish the project. Work has already begun to finish the buildings on the site so that they will be ready to be used throughout the coming winter.
I would like to thank the Syder Foundation for their generosity in providing us with such a large grant to finish the project. We are planning a Grand Opening in the autumn to celebrate this amazing achievement. I can’t believe that we have managed to complete such a large project from start to finish over the last three years throughout lockdowns, the financial crisis and difficulties in finding raw materials. It is an incredible achievement and a testament to the hard work of the staff team.
Clients began working on the Mencap Centre site in January of this year using the back of the main cat centre. This obviously is not ideal because it has made it difficult to run some of our Children’s Services, but the old site out at Cottesmore was no longer safe for clients to use. Our new polytunnels have been full of plants all year and we have produced some great hanging baskets which have sold very well, and we are now growing vegetables through the autumn.
On top of which we entered Newbury in Bloom because the site looks so amazing, and we have been invited to the presentation ceremony at the start of September I am very hopeful that that means we might have won something! Fingers crossed!
