The Orchard Nursery
Sunnyside’s latest site to open is a purpose built nursery located at Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith’s Serge Hill Project. The nursery is adjacent to The Plant Library, which includes more than 1500 different varieties of herbaceous plants, low shrubs and bulbs. This extensive collection, of both familiar and rare varieties, is already becoming a well known resource for horticulture students, gardeners, garden designers or school children.
As a key charity partner for the Serge Hill Project, Sunnyside will have exclusive access to this plant collection, using it as stock beds to propagate plants for sale. This new facility at Serge Hill Project will enhance Sunnyside Rural Trust’s ability to grow a range of sought-after perennials on site for commercial sale whilst supporting and training vulnerable young people and adults with learning disabilities in horticulture.
The site will includes a bespoke glasshouse from White Cottage, compost heaps, a mess room for Sunnyside staff, trainees and those undertaking horticultural therapy.
The project will be heavily influenced by social and therapeutic horticulture practice. This is the process of using plants and gardens to improve physical and mental health, as well as communication and thinking skills. Gardening is a wonderfully flexible medium that can transform lives and we see first-hand how gardening can help everyone, regardless of age or disability.
Social and therapeutic horticulture uses the garden as a safe and secure place to develop someone’s ability to mix socially, make friends and learn practical skills that help them to be more independent. Using the gardening tasks and the garden itself, Sunnyside Rural Trust’s horticultural therapists build a set of activities for each gardener to improve their health needs and to work on certain goals they want to achieve.
To discuss plant sales and orders from site, please email plants@sunnysideruraltrust.org.uk
To contact our Orchard Site Manager, Jane Mills, please email jane@sunnysideruraltrust.org.uk
And to find out how you can support our Orchard Nursery site, please click here.