Garden Organic to Close Yalding site.

[seasprout]

Garden Organic Yalding

Chief Executive announced this earlier on the Garden Organic website.

[Flummery]

Can we club together and buy it?

[seasprout]

Makes me wonder what sort of financial health the Charity is in.
They appear to have been implementing a lot of new initiatives recently.

[TonyF]

And moving further away from the origins of the Society, I think their current mag format is awful, looks like my old Uni mag, all adverts and pleas for support for projects.

Getting far too glossy for me - it's only the HSL and seed guardianship that keeps me in it really.

[kentvegplot]

Oh no, that's terrible news. It's the garden closest to me (and I was hoping to volunteer for them this summer).

IMHO it hasn't been well managed or marketed - in the middle of Kent it ought to be drawing a huge crowd every weekend, but it doesn't.

If anyone hears of the future plans, I would (seriously) be interested in trying to re-open it on some basis. It's a good site, what will they do with all of the plants etc etc

It's a great shame.

[nick the grief]

Sad news indeed but I guess that the current climate (financial not weather) means they'll have to be more careful. The real danger is it will be taken over by the RHS and then it's lost to the G&T brigade who are a bit too removed from the soil for my liking (I know there are probably people on here who are RHS members and I don't mean them before you all jump up and down)

I agree with Tony reguarding the magazine and I thought long and hard about renewing myself and like wise it's the HSL that keeps me in (although I haven't sent for any seeds yet this year - don't think I'll have time to grow them this year due to other things going on). It all seemed to go down hill when they changed their name (heaven knows how much that cost) but I still call it HDRA.

As to buying it - I'll just nip down the postie and check my balance ...

[smallblueplanet]

NTG & Tony - what you say about their magazine, I bet you're not the only ones, why don't you drop them a line, let them know what you think? If enough folk do that.....(you two could be the straw that broke the camels back!!! )

[kentvegplot]

Had a nice chat to the garden manager. He's going to need some help, (once the staff have been 'let go'), to keep the garden looking tidy while the owners of the site look for a new partner - they do intend to keep the garden going.

So, if you're local to the garden, and could offer a bit of help, he would be very grateful. He can be contacted via the GO website.

[seasprout]

The plot thickens..?? Today I received a general letter from the CEO, Myles Bremner basically asking for money.

It says they urgently need to make improvement's to Ryton Gardens, Safeguard the Heritage Seed Library and pay for Mentors to work in deprived areas.

I was about to renew my HSL and basic membership to a tune of £43 quid.

Might wait and see if Garden Organic still exists by the end of the month..

Has anybody else with GA membership recieved this mailing..? What are your thoughts ..?

[TonyF]

For 20 years I worked at senior levels with charities in the Uk (local government, Charity Commission, Home Office) turning them into businesses to ensure their survival and to me the problem is always when they become over-professional and too glossy. Friends of the Earth almost did it, BTCV toyed with the idea and then (thankfully) rejected it but pulled back but HDRA seems to have totally lost the plot (sorry for the pun).

I remember Lawrence Hills and although he could be a stubborn old bugger he never lost sight of the HDRA ethos.

This current management team, with their schemes, glossy magazines and mail shots are doing what a lot of charities/practical projects do, they bring in people to consult, to brighten up the 'product' and to make the 'product' more attractive to the business/corporate sector.

I'm not totally against change and think that all charities have to have a level of expertise and professionalism about them. But, to me, HDRA and the new name (a marketing tool, why change it except to try to attract the newly converted, middle class 30/40 something lottie people - and watch this space folks, the fad will fade and we'll go back to how we were a couple of years ago) the increasing loss of ethos in the magazine and the need to raise money for the projects will eventually take away from what HDRA meant to a lot of us, the practical, hands on view of gardening.

To me, Garden Organic is becoming the parallel project to the RHS and will eventually end up like the RHS, run by a bunch of gardening snobs (if anybody saw the Titchmarsh series on the RHS) and 'our crowd' will become a sort of rump of Lawrence Hill's beliefs.

I pay my subs and send a donation every year. I'm in a position where I could send a lot more to them but because of the changes they're making, I choose not to and as I 'disapprove' of the way they're heading, I choose only to support the HSL because to me, that IS important work, not mentoring (tho it's good for outreach and for the areas that they're working in), not producing a glossy magazine, not having high flying people associated with the organisation as staff or as their public face and certainly not doing so much work outside the organisation that they seems to have forgotten the ethos of HDRA and why many of us joined it in the first place.

No, I'm not a Luddite, far from it but GO should remember why many of us older, long-term, GYO gardeners joined with our backgrounds in the 1960s and 70s and our belief in one well planet..

[seasprout]

Thankyou Tony, you have confirmed my feelings exactly.

I will re-new my membership, And will continue to visit and enjoy Ryton, and try not to think about how 'RHS like' GO might become.

[TPeers]

Ok - can I show my ignorance please? I am an RHS member, I pay my subs each year and visit Wisley and various other gardens when I can. I have been to Yalding several times and generally enjoyed the garden.

My question is this - if GO are in trouble why is it bad if the RHS pick up the garden - the garden would thrive and become the attraction that GO should have made it - and possibly the car park might not resemble a mad potholing convention, but that is another matter - What is inherently wrong with the RHS?

[Flummery]

Well my copy of the letter is in the (recycling) bin. I only recently joined the HSL because I firmly believe in its aims. I'm not a member of Garden Organic - don't like the trendy name. When it was HDRA I didn't have the spare cash. I hope to take advantage of the wonderful seeds on offer and to keep varieties going myself. Also no doubt to swap with the good folks here. We have had local wildlife trust issues just like this - begging letters and glossy mags don't go together in my opinion. I'd rather a photocopied sheet and the money spent on the charity's main purpose.

[kentvegplot]

I've shredded my letter. There's something about the tone of it which is ringing alarm bells. Thinking about it, I had a similar request for money to support Yalding last autumn and look what happened next.

I joined GO because I thought their ideals were good. I have found the magazine positively 'naff' and of very little use - but perhaps it isn't aimed at someone like me who has lots of gardening experience.

I believe HSL are doing a fantastic job and I will continue to support that.

RHS support might be a good thing, but the risk is that they might want a much more regimented garden, and we would lose the friendly cafe etc to something more 'corporate'....Yalding always had a feel that it was for gardeners, rather than to be admired by day trippers IMHO but perhaps that was its downfall.

[Digger-07]

I joined HSL but after them not getting my request for seeds last year because all the mail was delivered to Belfast and by the time I contacted them all the "give away seeds had gone. So apart from the bad mag, dubious ideals and pleading letters what else do you get from them?