Our annual Open Day with all its associated events such as our Bake Off and Fun Dog Show (see separate articles), was an unqualified success this year, with a lovely sunny afternoon and cheery music from Zumba Robert to add to the atmosphere!
There are three main aims behind Open Day – the first is to invite people to see what we do at the Triangle Garden and its projects for adults with learning disabilties, Growing Ability and Growing Health. The second is to fundraise for our projects and activities and this year the event raised an amazing £1600 – about £500 more than last year. Thirdly we want to bring our park community together to celebrate what’s good about it, with something for dog walkers, something for kids and families, something for everyone in fact, and underneath a sustainable message about the importance of caring for our environment.
While we never stop promoting what we do, whether it’s through social media, via our e-bulletin or at local events, people still say when they come to our Open Day or visit us for some other reason – ‘I had no idea the Triangle Garden was here!’ – so we have plenty of work to do in spreading the word about where we are and what we do.
As well as the Bake Off and Fun Dog Show, we had entertainment from Garden City Samba, Zumba Robert, Hitchin Allstar Choir and Lesnick’s School of Ballet, plus some great food concessions this year including the very popular Smok’n Greek Barbecue and local producer Mayfly Cider and of course Bal’s Vegetarian Asian food. We had a record number of stalls this year all of whom want to return next year which is great! There were some lovely craft stalls plus vintage games, junior archery, glitter tattoos, facepainting, K9 dog tombola, Usborne books, Herb Garden gifts, with local charities well represented including North Herts Sanctuary, NH Friends of the Earth and Hitchin Quaker Peace Garden. Our own plant stall was extensive and very popular, thanks to many plant donations and the hard work of our Garden Club.
Last but not least, we were very excited to have the garden ‘yarnbombed’ this year by local crochet and knitting wizards Hitchin Stitchin as an early promotion for the autumn Festiwool event. This video by HitchinTV gives a lovely snapshot of the garden in all its knitted glory and a flavour of the whole day. You’ll also hear our Chair of Trustees Vicky Wyer explaining a bit about what we do at the start (although she forgot to mention Friday Garden Club – doh!) Enjoy!