Gardening author, businesswoman and National Gardens Scheme (NGS) member Sarah Wint will be visiting Rhubarb Farm in Langwith as part of her two-year tour of gardens that feature in the NGS Yellow Book of gardens to visit in England and Wales.
Sarah will be pulling up in her distinctive bright yellow VW campervan “Daisy Bus” on July 3rd at noon and staying for the afternoon.
The visit comes in the week before Rhubarb Farm opens its doors in support of the NGS. The Farm is open to the public on Wednesday, July 8th, with guided tours taking place at 10.30am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm. NGS gardens usually open at the weekend with tea and cakes on offer but the uniqueness of Rhubarb Farm has required a change to that format.
All of the gardens on Sarah’s tour open to the public and raise funds for charities, with Rhubarb Farm being one of 68 NGS gardens in Nottinghamshire, with some of the smaller ones opening in groups.
Sarah’s tour is calling at over 50 different gardens that have a particular story to tell of how undertaking gardening can have a positive impact on people’s lives.
Rhubarb Farm is a community-run enterprise that works with a wide range of young people and adults facing serious personal challenges. Rhubarb Farm offers training and volunteering opportunities to ex-offenders, drug and alcohol misusers, people with mental ill health, learning disabilities and teenagers struggling with behaviour problems, to increase their self-esteem, improve their lives and make a positive contribution to their community.
Sarah’s own story is a bittersweet one. Her passion for gardening grew as she came to terms with the grief of not being able to have children.
Her experience has left Sarah fascinated with the restorative and therapeutic effects of gardening. She cites many cases of gardening as therapy such as in the Second World War trenches where soldiers established gardens on the front line. It is this interest in the positive impact that gardening can have on mental health which has drawn Sarah to Rhubarb Farm.
“I’m very keen to see first-hand how the work at Rhubarb Farm is helping people to rebuild their lives. I’m particularly interested to see the work with prisoners and ex-offenders and to have the chance to speak with volunteers and people on the courses. My tour is essentially a research project that will inform the content of a new book I’m planning and being able to record these experiences will be vital to my writing,” says Sarah.
Sarah’s tour can be followed by reading her blog at www.daisybusadventures.wordpress.com or by following her on Twitter @daisy_bus
Rhubarb Farm is the only visit Sarah will be making during the first week of July (she normally averages three gardens in seven days) as she will be busy hosting two garden openings of her home at Brook Farm, near Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire. Lots of NGS supporters open their gardens up to the public with the aim of raising funds for charities.
Jennie Street is Managing Director of Rhubarb Farm and says everyone there is looking forward to welcoming Sarah.
“We share a lot of the same beliefs that Sarah holds on the curative nature of gardening. We cannot wait to talk to her about our projects and the positive outcomes experienced by the volunteers. We have something else in common with Sarah – we also have a bright yellow bus, but ours is nicknamed the Yellow Submarine!” says Jennie.
Rhubarb Farm was opened in 2011 with the aim of providing work placements, training and volunteering opportunities for people with long-term needs, through the medium of growing fruit and vegetables for market, which in turn generates income to support Rhubarb Farm’s work. From its humble beginnings in clearing a huge bramble patch, Rhubarb Farm now cultivates eight acres of land on which it grows over 35 different varieties of fruit and vegetables as well as rearing 100 hens, which produce eggs for sale.
Over 300 volunteers have come to the farm, of which 70 have gone on to gain employment or further education through the support they received from the skilled staff team.
Sarah is also the founder of the Honeysuckle Trust charity which was named after one of Sarah’s favourite flowers. It will sponsor people who have been bereaved to take short gardening breaks so they can restore their well-being through active participation in gardening.
“We don’t just want to send people home exhausted after digging someone’s vegetable patch,” says Sarah. “There are lots of gentle jobs that can be done which I have always found comforting – it’s almost like undertaking meditation.”
Pictured are Rhubarb Farm Horticulturalist, Sharon Storey; Terry Wilson and John Bennett, volunteers at Rhubarb Farm.