News and Events

Our Ottery St Mary team were pleased to help out at the WESC Foundation at West Hill recently by laying tarmac paths on the site.

This means that there is vastly improved access for wheelchairs, and better access for students and community users to get to all parts of the site, including areas that were previously inaccessible.

Jane Bell, CEO of WESC Foundation said: “Taking on the West Hill site has transformed the way in which our young people (and now other community groups) can experience the natural world.

“None of that would have been possible without the support of Jacqui Taylor and the Otter Garden Centres team, who have provided invaluable advice and practical support on a number of projects including the recent improvements to the paths.”

The WESC Country Works is a horticulture/forest project just off the A30 at Daisymount, not far from our garden centre in Ottery. The project offers outdoor learning experiences to anyone regardless of their disability, including the children and young people from across the WESC Foundation community. The experience can include forest school, tree planting, herb cultivation and increasing biodiversity, as well as growing vegetables either to use in cookery classes or sell to shops or at food markets in the local area.

WESC Foundation took over the management of the site in January 2017 and since then the plot has been redeveloped to become a great spaced for young people and adults who are disadvantaged through various disabilities by providing fun activities, new experiences and training.

The project is run by WESC staff and numerous volunteers, with the help of local businesses like ours.

For the second year in a row, our Wincanton branch raised funds for local blood bike charity, Yeovil Freewheelers EVS.

During 2019, just over £1600 was raised through a combination of collecting tins at the tills and visits from the blood bikes. The animated reindeer Christmas display that proved so popular in the previous year once again attracted plenty of donations.

Branch Manager, Alex Provis said: “The Yeovil Freewheelers charity provides an important, lifesaving service which is fully funded by the public and local businesses.

“2019 was perhaps an unsettling year for many people, so we are very grateful that our customers were still eager to donate. A big thank you to everyone who donated, no matter how small or large.”

YFW Blood Bikes is run by Yeovil Freewheelers (EVS), an Emergency Volunteer Service which supports Yeovil District Hospital, Dorset County Hospital and the community hospitals across the region by providing emergency courier services for blood, platelets, blood and tissue samples, medication, breast milk, documents, X rays, CT scans and equipment. It is estimated that the charity saves the NHS over £200,000 a year.

Founded in 1978, Yeovil Freewheelers EVS is the oldest operational blood bike group in the UK. All riders are unpaid volunteers.

 

https://www.yfwbloodbikes.org/

Festive cheer was brought to Ottery with one of our own Christmas trees – grown less than two miles from the town centre.

The tree was put up outside the library in Silver Street by a team from the garden centre just in time for the town’s late night Christmas shopping event.

Ottery resident Richard Coley, who makes sure a tree goes up every year, teamed up with representatives from Otter to help decorate and add the all-important fairy lights.

Branch Manager John Giblin, who was on hand helping to hang the baubles, said: “We were delighted to supply a homegrown tree again this year and to support the late night shopping with a central point for festive carol singing.

“Last year we had a bit of a challenge due to extreme winds, but I’m glad to say that this time round, the tree went up without a hitch!”

The Nordmann Fir is known for having very little needle drop, so Ottery’s tree will look good until the day it is taken down. It was grown on the company’s site for 10 years prior to being cut, providing shelter and food for wildlife.

John added: “We also have beehives on our Christmas tree growing site and the bees make great use of the pollen produced by the fir trees, using it to feed their larvae.”

Otter’s policy is to plant a new tree for each one cut, meeting sustainable aims. When the Ottery tree is taken down in the new year, it will be recycled through the local council’s recycling scheme.

Our Torbay Garden Centre helped with a sunflower growing competition run by the Baby and Toddler group at St Andrews Methodist Church in Shiphay, Torquay. The competition was the brainchild of Fiona Kirollos.

Fiona explained that she studied plants and environmental issues at university and as she comes from a health background, she felt this project was just perfect to get the children involved in.

Seeds, compost and pots were donated by our Torbay branch, and the competition began in earnest back in July with an impressive 35 entries.

In early November, Mo and Oscar from Otter went along to the church to present certificates and prizes to the winners.

• First prize: Harry Stevens (2). His sunflower measured 237cm.
• Second prize: Lara Varol (18 months), Maddie Kidd (12) and Lois Kidd (9) whose combined efforts grew a sunflower 234cm high.
• Third prize went to Arlo Bearne (26 months) and Ollie Armstrong (6) and Izzy Armstrong (3) at 195.58cm and 195cm respectively.
• Fourth prize went to Jezabel Barden (21 months) and Tobias Barden (3½). Their sunflower grew 167.6cm high.

Fiona says next year they’d like to start arranging the competition earlier in the year and if there is enough interest, they will open the competition up to other groups in the Bay.

“Gardening has so many benefits; not only for our children’s physical health but their psychological wellbeing and development. Studies have shown that gardening has a significant effect on our overall happiness and for children, a hobby involving fresh air; being away from computer screens and mobile phones; interacting face to face with friends and family and nurturing a plant can have huge benefits. Gardening is a wonderful activity, promoting patience, resilience, manual dexterity, problem solving and nurturing skills.

Introducing gardening at an early age in a fun way could be the start of a lifelong hobby so we chose the sunflower competition as sunflowers are relatively easy to grow and have always been attractive to children due to their height and bright dish sized flowers.

It was only with the support of Otter Garden Centres that we were able to trial it this year so we are very grateful to them for all their support and for sparing the time to award the prizes and certificates; it made the event very special to the children and their families.”

St Andrew’s Methodist Church Baby and Toddler group has been running for many years and is a thriving group which runs sessions on a Tuesday and Wednesday morning for 0 to 5 years. The group’s focus is to promote friendships and to have fun and is run a committed and lovely bunch of volunteers, Jean, Judith and Nicola, who aim to care for all that walk through the door.

A huge well done from all at Otter to all the children who took part and we hope you and your families will be inspired to grow more sunflowers next summer!

We are delighted to have had Silver award success at the recent Food Drink Devon Awards. The awards event, which celebrated Devon’s finest food and drink producers, hospitality and catering businesses and specialist retailers, was held at the Imperial Hotel in Torquay. Keeping the excited crowd in check – presenter Kerry White from BBC Radio Devon.

The room was filled with such an array of talented food and drink specialists; on our table we were fortunate enough to have the team from Tambapanni – we were so pleased when they won the Best Street Food award. Other winners on the night included Eversfield Organic, with the Best Producer award. We were delighted to see Otter Vale on the winners’ podium too as we stock some of their wonderful chutneys.

For Otter Garden Centres success came in the form of a Silver award for our Victoria plum jam. The jam was added to the range last year and the fruit for the jam was collected locally to Ottery St Mary.

The silver award-winning jam joins our other winners; raspberry and strawberry which have been awarded gold in previous years, blackcurrant jam and marmalade, both silver winners.  You can find out more about the awards and the Food Drink Devon organisation by visiting their website: https://www.foodanddrinkdevon.co.uk/2019-awards