Friends of Helmsley Walled Garden, adoptions and volunteering

If you are a regular visitor to the garden, then you are welcome to become a 'Friend of Helmsley Walled Garden'. As a friend you will receive:

• unlimited free entry into the garden
• invitations to special events
• twice yearly newsletters

Friends membership is just £20.00 per year or for Joint / Family membership just £30.00 per year, and for individual life membership £200.00. Please contact us for more details.

Adoptions
There are now over 300 plaques in the garden and we are enormously grateful for all the support people have provided through the adoption scheme. However, the Board of Trustees has taken the decision to end the scheme as it is becoming unmanageable. Sadly, although we take the utmost care of adopted plants, some do not survive, and when this happens, or a plaque is damaged, we are aware of the deep upset it causes.

Buy a 'Golden Vine'
Help us maintain our historic vinery by adopting a Copper Leaf £100, Silver Leaf £200, Gold leaf £300 or a bunch of grapes for £500. These would make a nice gift, and there is nothing to prevent you from buying several. For more information please contact us.

Volunteering
Volunteers' help is always needed in the garden to enable us to keep the restoration process going, and improve the garden as a whole. Everybody has a particular skill they can bring to the garden; weeding, planting, flower picking, plant production, stewarding, administration, publicity, etc.

Friendly staff and volunteers are always available to give help and advice to all our visitors

If you can talk to visitors about the garden as you gently dead head the roses, it is very much appreciated by all! Volunteers are represented on the Board of Trustees by Margery Turner, and if you have any suggestions or issues please feel free to contact her. If you would like to volunteer then just speak to Lindsay, Margery or any member of staff.

Bothy
Our Bothy (gardeners bedroom) was originally where the Bead & Silk Workshop is now. The room is split into "cells". The living room was the Woodturner's workshop (private) A garden boy would also sleep by the boiler (Stickman's workshop). A bell would ring to wake hime up when the fuel got low.

Bothy Today
We will mix the use of our bothy between volunteers, students and people on work placement. The bothy has stuning views, a compact kitchen and a shower room. It is accessed from outside the garden and is within five minutes walking distance from the town centre. Accommodation is available contact us at HWG for details of prices - we expect you to work in the garden for a minimum of 4 hours for each night that you stay in the bothy.

Other ways you can help
We are always appreciative of any support you can give this project whether it is through:

• spreading the word and bringing friends and visitors to the garden
• buying the plants and produce from the garden and friday market stall
• organising fund raising events (car boot sales, coffee mornings,etc)
• donating any old or redundant gardening equipment, materials, rare or unused plants
• helping with grants, funding, gift aid*, convenants or legacies; or
• just simply enjoying the garden - we are always grateful !