The final month of Autumn is here and what a beautiful season we are having. The leaves are still clinging onto the trees resulting in a colourful and uplifting display here in the Garden.

We recently enjoyed a very happy End of Season party where we were able to thank all the Friends of Arlington Bluebell Walk & Bates Green Garden for their member support in 2024. The Garden Team treated everyone to a rare musical interlude in Beatons Wood, we are so fortunate to have a singer, Lucy, among the Gardens Team who coached the gardeners most effectively and conducted our performance despite having lost her voice a couple of days beforehand. All our guests got the opportunity to join when we sang a round in the Bluebell Barn after our Beatons Wood fungal foray, and we raised the roof.

This event also marked the end of Emma Lindsay’s WRAGS training programme. Emma has been a creative and devoted student and we are very pleased to say that she will be holding another of her artistic Sketch Booking workshops in 2025. We all wish her the best in her horticultural career. Emma was presented with her leaving certificate by Sarah Farr who is our regional WFGA coordinator.

Our new WRAGS student for 2025 will be Alison Bettles whom many of you have already met. Alison has been carrying out her work experience here, which is a requirement for her City & Guilds level 3 qualification at Plumpton College and we are delighted that she will be with us for another year. Alison’s project will be setting up and marketing our new Plant Sales area, which will be filled with plants propagated from stock within the Garden. Alison is also a skilled photographer and will be holding an intriguing Cyanotype workshop for us next year, this is a photography technique that doesn’t require a camera!

We thanked Anu Cocksedge very much for running our Café for us this year. Anu gave a warm welcome to every single visitor this past year as well as providing them with delicious homemade food. Anu has now started her own cake-making venture specialising in gluten and dairy free baking. Do email her on glutengfree-bakery@mail.com if you would like more information.

In 2025 we will be open on Saturdays as well as our usual Wednesdays and we are delighted to announce that our 2025 Café will be run by Sarah Blay as a side shoot of her existing and extremely popular café in Hailsham called ‘The Laurel.’ Sarah is an experienced caterer who already runs the successful Bay Tree Foods and so we are assured of a smooth and tasty operation.

I will leave you with some beautiful words written by Sarah Farr, which really sum up the season for me. Sarah wrote this after walking around Bates Green Garden and Beatons Wood.

The last of the summer flowers dot the meadows, bright among the seed heads,

The smell of leaves in the forest, a soft decay, a shaft of still-warm sunlight

If my feet could handle it, I’d walk and walk and walk

Through tangled briar across the fields, mud underfoot, a sudden downpour

And into the wild golden woods

I’d gather leaves and sticks, make a crown of berries

And sleep under the cold silver moon.