In Wittersham for the last four or five years, a successful one open garden per week has been run from spring to autumn, and between £2,000 to £3,000 was effortlessly and enjoyably raised for the church.
The idea is to do the same in Rye, in aid of the Rye Memorial Hospital (and its essential acolyte, the community bus) as we or our friends and relations will all need its services sooner or later, and it would be so good to support them both.
The scheme works like this. At 11am every Monday, for an entry fee of £3, visitors will be handed a raffle ticket, home made cake and coffee or tea. The very modest raffle is the highlight, and drawn at about 11.45am, made up of spare plants / odd bottles / presents from the bottom drawer, and with each host organising their own. You can have three raffle prizes, or 13! It’s up to the host.
The visitors are there to meet up with neighbours and gossip over a coffee, not for the quality of the garden, which is very much secondary! And a basket of mugs / thermos / raffle tickets will be passed around from opener to opener.
This friendly scheme and its list of kind openers will only be advertised via the Hub on the Hill, St Mary’s Church Rye, and of course, via those who are opening their gardens. So only residents and locals. No tourists or strangers!
If you feel you could do this for one hour (11am to noon on Mondays) in 2022 for the Rye Memorial Hospital and the bus, with lots of help from us, do please email or ring one of us below. We have six already, and need just over 20! Thank you so much. I promise you, it’s fun!
Jane Conlin
thebaytree@conlin.me.uk
07799 713334
Col Everett
colkins@btinternet.com
07850 219956
Image Credits: Everett/Conlin .