Dobbies’ Swindon store is inviting people to choose and vote for a local establishment and help crown the Helping Your Community Grow winner for the store.
Seventy-five groups across the country have the chance to create or refresh a community space with Dobbies’ support, and the garden centre is now asking locals to help narrow its shortlist down.
The public are being asked to help Dobbies choose one winner for its Swindon store.
This year’s initiative has welcomed nominations from schools looking to enhance their gardens, charities supporting the most vulnerable members of the community proposing sensory gardens, and community groups and clubs looking to create a garden space where they can grow their own fruit and vegetables.
Nominees for Swindon include:
- St Philips Pre-school in Swindon encourages gardening for children from a young age, with upcycled car tyre planters as a large part of what the group currently do. Dobbies' contribution of gardening tools and plants would enable the school to continue inspiring the next generation of gardeners.
- Highworth Forget Me Not Cafe is a Swindon-based charity that helps people with dementia and other similar conditions. Dobbies' assistance with garden tools and equipment would be beneficial to the charity's new allotment project, which aims to grow vegetables and herbs for its members.
- Little Dots Daycare is seeking Dobbies' support in expanding the school's planting area to include fruits and vegetables crops for using in the kitchen. Little Dots Daycare are requesting equipment, seeds, and suitable gardening tools for children to help the expansion.
The garden centre team say there was a notable increase in the number of entries from groups looking to grow their own this year.
This follows research from Dobbies and Censuswide (commissioned in March) that found 73% of Brits plan to grow their own fruit, vegetables and herbs this spring. Tomatoes are set to be the most popular crop for this year, closely followed by potatoes, strawberries, carrots, fresh mint, lettuce, and apples.
The winning group for Swindon will receive advice, gardening products and plants from Dobbies’ horticultural team. Dobbies’ own-brand peat-free multipurpose compost, recycled and recyclable containers, UK-sourced plants and safer pest control products are among the many products the garden centre will donate.
The project that receives the most votes from all Dobbies stores will be the national winner, receiving extra funding and support.
Graeme Jenkins, CEO of Dobbies said: "We were overwhelmed with the response to our Helping Your Community Grow initiative and have seen a significant increase in nominations, with over 800 applications for 2023.
“A huge thank you to everyone who nominated their project for our Dobbies’ Swindon store to support. It’s now up to the public to select the winner – our Swindon team are very much looking forward to seeing who this will be.”
To find out more about the Helping Your Community Grow shortlist and to cast a vote, members of the public can visit Helping Your Community Grow | Dobbies Garden Centres
Votes are open until Tuesday 25 April. There is only one vote per person, and the project with the most votes will be the winner.
The project with the most votes across the UK will be the national winner.
Your Comments
Be the first to comment on this article
Login or Register to post a comment on this article