Thank you to everyone who donated.

Its amazing, thanks to your kindness we reached our original goal of raising £10,000 in our Summer Match Fund! We were able to match donations made to the Perennial Summer Match Fund appeal up this amount thanks to the kindness of a private philanthropist. Any further donations above this amount wont now be matched, but any new gifts will still help us support more people this year.

Where will the money be spent?

Perennial will use it to provide practical support, information and advice to people who currently work in the horticulture sector, or have retired. For example:

- £62.50 could fund an emergency grant to replace stolen tools such as protective tree surgeons gloves

- £175 could provide a set of hand tools for a Perennial garden apprentice

- £492 could contribute towards a chainsaw safety course for a trainee

Who do we support?

At Perennial, our gardens showcase the talents of the people in the sector. We know from experience how much expert team work brings. For example, we are about to embark on a major project to replace a group of aging willows at Fullers Mill. Its success will be the culmination of decades of dedicated work by a wide range of skilled horticulturalists.

We aim to create a legacy in the garden for future generations thanks to:

- A Tree Surveyor who assessed the health of the elderly trees and advised us to close a section of the garden for visitor safety.

- Tree Surgeons who will safely fell the dangerous willows and grind out the stumps if needed.

- An Arborist will assess which trees would grow well and contribute to the garden biodiversity.

- Nursery teams/ growers who have already spent 10 20 years nurturing and protecting our selection of new trees. They will have propagated, selected, grafted, pruned, watered and fed them in fields before moving them into 100 litre pots for transportation to Fullers Mill.

- Nurseries will carefully plan the trees transportation with specialist companies. They will liaise with the head gardener about how to best get them safely onto site, by crane or otherwise.

- Before the trees arrive, the head gardener, gardeners, and trainees will dig tree pits and prepare the ground in readiness. They will collaborate with nursery teams and an arborist.

- Trainees and apprentices who will have learned how to prepare for, nurture and maintain these trees thanks to the head gardeners guidance.

This is just an example and is being replicated in some shape or form in our gardens, sports facilities and public spaces of all sizes across the country.

The Situation

The people we trust to look after our communities green spaces, our gardens, sports grounds and more can be highly skilled and very capable. But even in less extraordinary times, working in horticulture can be challenging; its physically demanding, can be seasonal and throw up challenges such as financial precarity or injury. It is a vocation and a passion. Perennial provides practical training, specialist information, advice and financial help through everyones horticultural careers and into retirement.

Our Solution

This last year has been challenging. Many horticulturalists are self-employed or small business owners who have felt the full impact of Lockdowns restrictions. Perennial has seen a jump in requests for our practical, specialist information and advice across our services. This is because alongside maintaining our three beautiful gardens, we also provide:

- Information and advice services such as our helpline

- Mental and physical wellbeing, such as Occupational health physiotherapy services and mental health support

- Money matters including debt advice and Legal Services

- And were always listening to people who work or have worked in horticulture to develop new initiatives which support them during their career and beyond.

With your help, we can step up to the challenge and develop new ways to offer practical assistance to more people in the challenging times ahead.