5 years have flown past at Orchard Park, established on the edge of Gillingham’s Royal Forest on the Shaftesbury side of town. The original idea came out of a casual conversation between Ron & Sheila Clarke of Park Farm whose Farm Shop specialised in traditional beef breeds born and bred in Gillingham, and Richard & Sue Cumming with their country garden and plant centre at Milton Garden Plants which had become a real horticultural gem for gardeners in the area.
The new garden centre was officially opened by David Howard who was then Prince Charles’ Head Gardener at Highgrove. David called in again on Friday to see how things had progressed and witnessed first hand the activities at Orchard Park as the garden centre and farm shop celebrated their 5th anniversary with two days of events.
On Friday with a backg
round of summer jazz from local band, Lizzie Sparkle, several of the Farm Shop suppliers including Mere Fish Farm, Lavender Blue Cakes, Longmans Cheese and the ever popular Keystone Brewery brought along samples of their produce for members of the Orchard Park club to try and buy. Orchard Park’s own resident barbeque experts had a range of Weber BBQ’s running with gas and charcoal grills and the unique Weber Smoker which cooks or rather smokes food over moist scented wood chips to give that extra flavour to food cooked outdoors.
Eleanor, the representative from Alexander Rose, the leading garden furniture manufacturer who supply Orchard Park’s range of beautiful crafted wooden benches, tables and chairs gave helpful advice on how to look after your furniture as well as how to find the right bits in the first place.
Plant lovers were n
ot left out either as the plant team staged special informative displays on plants to attract insects to the garden, looking especially at bees and gave detailed advice on grow-your-own herbs. On Saturday face painting for the children, Felix the Orchard Park clown, a Hog Roast from local pork producers Pure Pigs, honey from Gillingham bee-keeper Mark White and additional activities from Spotty Pots the resident ceramic painting studio at Orchard Park.
