On a sunny Saturday in late spring, it was a pleasure to throw open the doors of the home and invite members of the community to join us for our first ever Hayward Horticultural Bonanza. We’re very proud of our beautiful gardens here at Hayward, and are lucky enough to have some very green fingered team members and residents, so an event like this felt like the perfect fit for us. 

The afternoon kicked off with Jackie sharing her passion for working the land and growing your own veg. She owns a local small holding, and chatted to us all about the many ways we can adapt our style of gardening to keep enjoying time outdoors as we grow older. From raised beds to no dig veg patches, she shared all her top tips and tricks to keep us all gardening throughout our lives. 

Did you know you can eat fuchsias? Nor did we! Not, that is, until we heard from Simon, a man whose passion for getting outdoors is second to none. Simon runs forest bathing workshops at local estate Ewhurst Park, and spoke to us about the value of connecting with nature and the many ways we can go about this. From placing a stethoscope on a tree to hear the water rushing through it to simply sitting in the garden with our eyes closed and listening to the birds, Simon shared lots of valuable insights around how we can all become more connected to the outdoors. 

After a quick break for some delicious tea and cake, it was over to Richard, who delighted us all with his talk on butterflies and moths and how we can attract more of these essential pollinators into our own gardens. He even brought some stunning live specimens from his farm in the Cotswolds for the residents to admire, which proved a particularly exciting part of the afternoon, as one of them, the privet hawk moth, is Britain’s largest moth. 

Thank you so much to all of our speakers for making the event so interesting for residents, visitors and members of the team. We look forward to hosting many more gardening-themed events in the future!