Phil: Welcome to the underground, the podcast for garden sector professionals where we discover the trailblazers and innovators who are shaping the future of garden care in the UK. So without further ado, let's get down and dirty. This week, I'm delighted to say that we're joined by Linda Petrons, the Director of Fundraising at Greenfingers, to gain an insight into the work they do and their relationship with the garden sector.

Linda, welcome to the underground.

Linda: Oh, thank you so much. I'm really, really pleased to have been asked to join you today. I feel a real privilege to be able to talk to you both, thank you

Kate: Oh, we’re privileged to have you so thank you.

Phil: Absolutely. So for anyone who doesn't know about the fabulous work Greenfingers does. Can you sort of just give us a quick overview?

Linda: Oh, so the Greenfingers charity is a national charity that is dedicated to creating magical and inspiring therapeutic gardens and children’s hospices right across the UK. The charity's been around for about 25 years, and during that time we've built nearly 70 gardens from as far north as, Glasgow to right down south in Cambridge.

That amazing project at Little Harbour Children's Hospital. We’ve worked on the Isle of Wight. We've worked as far east as, Norwich. We’ve worked in Wales and we've created the most amazing gardens. And the gardens can be anything from play gardens. So very accessible gardens with play equipment, to woodland walks, to memory gardens. And our latest project is going to be a kitchen garden, which we're really excited about.

So a really wide variety of, of hospice gardens in children's hospices right across the UK.

Kate: Well, that leads nicely onto my question, which is, are there any garden projects in particular that stand out for you? And what is it about these projects that make them so special?

Linda: I’ve worked at Greenfingers for nine years, and I've seen a lot of the gardens, sort of very old gardens and very new gardens. And there are a few that stand out, and one in particular is at Helen & Douglas House, which is a beautiful hospice in Oxfordshire. And there we built an all weather structure. So the hospice were really keen to get their children outside, enjoying the garden, enjoying being outside whatever the weather. So for a lot of those children, they were never able to be outside in sort of windy conditions or quite damp conditions. But we built this most amazing structure that's got a colourful ceiling that reflects beautiful colours on the ground and on beds and whatever's underneath it.

Phil: Oh, fantastic.

Linda: And it is, it's stunning. And it’s so well used by the hospice, not only by children and their families, but also by the parents who want to get outside and away from what's going on inside the hospice building. So that's a really brilliant way that, you know, it's not all about the garden. It's about, you know, making sure that children can be outside, families can be outside, whatever the weather. And that's now being, the ceiling structures are now being replicated in other hospices who have seen the benefits of that the children have experienced, that children and families have experienced. And then another one, and this is really sort of kind of on the other spectrum of what we do.

And it was, it's a memory garden we built in Chestnut Tree Hospice in Arundel, West Sussex, that’s a hospice we’re working with again at the moment. I did some filming with a beautiful family, a very young family who sadly lost a daughter. She'd been poorly since birth and then sadly passed away when she was eight, and we walked around the entire grounds and we talked about the various, different areas, and we talked about a woodland walk. And we eventually got to the memory garden where there was a beautiful water feature. And surrounding the water feature were pebbles with children's names on. And her daughter's pebble was at the very top of the area. And that garden was her reason for maintaining contact with the hospice. So when her daughter passed away. She still had a reason to go back to a place which meant so much to her.

So that's also, you know, a very sad part of a hospice journey. But it's an incredible part of the work we do I think, a very important part of what we do.

Kate: So rather than kind of just painful memories associated with the hospice, what you're giving as well is some rather beautiful, special memories that people can cherish, rather than just not wanting to even think about it. So I think that's lovely.

Linda: Yeah. It was a very profound interview, and it's one that stayed with me. And I will never forget how grateful the family were to Greenfingers for providing that space. That’s so well looked after by the hospice and its volunteers still today. And it's lovely to see that, that continue to sort of bring some joy, really, and a reason to kind of going back.

Kate: Oh, that's a really beautiful story, Linda. Thank you. You mentioned briefly about the kitchen garden. Would you say that is a project that you are particularly excited about? Is that a new venture for Greenfingers?

Linda: Oh my gosh, this is so this is at the same hospice I've just talked about Chestnut Tree Hospice and it's going to be amazing. So the hospice want a garden where they can grow their own vegetables, grow their own fruit, to be used in their hospice, to feed their children, to feed their families, to feed their staff and volunteers. So it's going to be very much an area that's providing food, that's providing an area for education, for learning, for bringing volunteers into the hospice to look after it, for getting children really involved in seeing how food is grown, you don’t just go to buy it in the supermarket. So yeah, we're very, very early stages. We haven't yet appointed a designer, but yeah, very, very excited about it. And the hospice team are amazing to be working with, they have a great grounds team so to have a dedicated team that looks after their outside spaces, we know that that garden is going to be really well looked after once it's built. Yeah. It’s very exciting.

Kate: Oh that's great. Yeah, I suppose that is one of the issues, isn't it, that you build something beautiful and then you've just got to then, kind of hand it over and just really hope that it is looked after. But it sounds like that is pretty much something that's in place for a lot of your gardens.

Linda: Yeah. So what we're trying to develop is a garden maintenance and makeover program where we go back to old Greenfingers Gardens to make sure they’re usable, that they've got seating, that they've got sensory plants, that the garden can be well maintained by the hospice volunteers. So the hospice volunteers know what they need to be doing. And that is a very, very important part of what we're they're trying to achieve. So we're not just building the gardens, we’re helping the hospices trying to maintain them. So that's an area of work that I'm very excited about.

Kate: So you're not just going there to do a makeover like on TV. You're going there, building the gardens and making sure that relationships are sustained and you yourself can also make sure that it's being looked after.

Linda: Exactly. And we know that the hospice teams are so busy, you know, raising money, working hard inside the hospice building that there's usually very little money left to be spent outside. And although, you know, it's really great to see that as a result of Covid, we're all enjoying our gardens much more than we ever used to. And hospices are no different. They see the benefits. The real benefits of their children being outside in the fresh air, close to nature. So yeah, it's a great piece of work that's already started. But it'll be really good to see more of those makeovers happening in the coming months and years really.

Kate: You charity works with children and families that are going through very, very tough times. But you yourself, Linda, I mean, I've met you quite a few times now and you're always so positive, so cheery and just, you know, you are an amazing woman. How do you remain so positive all the time?

Linda: Oh, my gosh, I can't believe you said that Kate, that's really so kind of you to say that. When I've worked in the hospice world for nearly 20 years and I've seen some real challenges and difficulties and, you know, experience, I personally have experienced hospice care, my husband die when he was very young and our children were very young. And I know that gardens are so important to healing for so many different reasons, you know, being in a hospice bed and being able to look outside into a beautiful garden or being able to move from your hospice room into a garden, whether you're a patient or whether you're a family member visiting or a friends. I stay so positive because I know the gardens make a massive difference. They make a massive difference not just for today, but for tomorrow and in the years to come. And the memories that that families who spend time in hospices can be really improved, or can be better memories by having that outside space and that's one of the things that I really value about the job I do and and why I feel positive about the work really, but also I work with the most amazing people, I get to meet the most amazing supporters. The garden retail sector, I feel, have really taken Greenfingers into their hearts. And you know, there's always lots of asks from lots of different charities but it's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Astonishing really, how the industry has really embraced the work we do and see the value of not only partnering with the charity, but, getting involved in other ways as well.

So yeah, it's making a difference to the hospice, but also building those amazing relationships for Greenfingers that enable the gardens to happen make me smile.

Phil: Yeah. I mean, that's something that I've noticed within the industry, how they have taken the Greenfingers charity to hearts, as you say. In your time working with the charity, have you seen a noticeable shift in that?

Linda: I have. I've been on this amazing journey working with Greenfingers. When I first started all those years ago, the charity was very much run on the shoestring and to see the charity grow in terms of supporters, the number of supporters we now have and the amazing things that they're all doing to the poor, whether it's walking up or doing the Three Peaks challenge or whether it’s taking part in Garden Relief Day or any other crazy kind of activity to raise funds. There's a lot more happening, there’s most definitely a lot more happening. And I also think that people for individuals and businesses really see the benefits of partnering with the charity hat staff can really connect with. And I think that's been an interesting thing to watch over the years, actually.

Phil: You’ve mentioned there about some of the activities that go on for fundraising. I'm sure that, you've seen some quite novel, ways of fundraising in your time with the charity. What are some of the more bizarre, ways and activities that you've seen for people to raise money for Greenfingers?

Linda: There’s been so many over the years. Some crazy ideas and crazy things that have raised significant funds and some haven't raised much, but it's just been brilliant awareness opportunities for the charity. Yeah. We had a brilliant partnership with a hotel group and a group of chaps was sponsored to have the Greenfingers hand, the green hand tattooed on their legs. So they wanted to raise money and that was their idea, you know, if you can get me to £500, I'll have a tattoo on my leg. And it'll be a lasting legacy of our partnership with Greenfingers, which was, I've never heard of that in any of the other charities I’ve worked with. But it was really, really good. It raised a significant amount of money and there was lots of chatter about it on social media ao that was that was one of them. And then another one, we had a partnership that, this is incredible actually. We had a partnership with River Island. And they imported 850 garden gnomes that were about a metre high, just before Christmas in 2016. And they wanted to sell them in their shops to benefit a children's charity that had a garden relevance. And they did a Google search and they found Greenfingers. So they sold these amazing items that you would never expect to see in River Island and raised over £20,000 for us. But what it also meant was that all those people going into river island shops across the nation we're finding out about us. And that had a real snowball effect as to what people were doing in the months ahead. And, you know, these crazy gnomes, we had lots of fun doing all sorts of, you know, imaginative things with them. And yeah, so that was that was another stand out.

Kate: Thats such an off the wall thing for a retail, you know, a clothing retail to do isn't it. You know, I can imagine a garden centre doing that. But for River Island, that's just. Yeah, that's thinking out the box isn't it? I love that.

Linda: And then Sue Allen came on board, Sue Allen of the Millbrook Garden centres came on board with us as our chairman, and her and her daughter had their head shaved for Green Gingers. And that's, you know, I actually quite like my hair and I can't imagine not having, you know, because I've chosen to have my head shaved.

So what they did was, was just brilliant. Absolutely brilliant to see. So, yeah, that was that was quite a bizarre and yeah, but great, great thing to do.

Kate: That's quite a simple thing to do. I mean horrible thing to do but a quite simple thing where as I know you've had people doing wing walking, which I think I'd rather had my, have my head shaved, to be honest.

Linda: Yeah. I have to say that's one of the events that we go to, and I'm terrified from the moment the first wing Walker goes off till the last one comes back. It's a perfectly safe but yeah, there's always yeah, I couldn't do it because I'm scared of heights.

So I have a huge admiration for anybody that does anything like that.

Phil: Definitely an element of jeopardy there.

Kate: Absolutely, absolutely. So, Linda, if a business or individual is thinking about supporting your charity, what do they need to do next?

Linda: I think the best thing to do is to get in touch, you know, get in touch through our contact details are on the website. We love we love to see things happening, but we also really want to support anybody that wants to do anything. So whether it's supporting people with a T-shirts or helping to raise the profile of what they're doing.

Yeah. So get in touch kind of what you're doing, let us know what you need from us. And let a shout out about it on your behalf. And for me, thanking our supporters is, whether it's supporting them through the fundraising journey or once they’ve given, you know, at the end of the journey, it's a whole process, and it's a whole activity that we want to be involved with and support. But we also appreciate there are a lot of lots of things happening, particularly in garden centres that just happen. And, you know, they generate their own publicity. But, you know, it's always really good to know what's happening out there so we can offer as much support as we can.

Kate: So other than financial contributions that are giving money or raising money, are there any other ways that, businesses and individuals can get involved.

Linda: Yeah, well, one thing we saw during lockdown—I don't really want to harp on about lockdown—was the number of people who got involved on social media. So they they heard about Greenfingers. A lot of people heard about Greenfingers through Ann-Marie Powell who’s one of our patrons.

Kate: The garden designer.

Linda: Yes, yeah. She struggled at the beginning of lockdown and set up this amazing community, a community where she talked every single day about what she was doing in her garden. So she talked about her own garden, and she talked about her challenges, but she also talked about the work of charity. And from there, we've had lots of people doing stuff for us, raising the profile of charity or fundraising, opening their garden.

And that sort of thing. And so for me, it’s not all about raising money. And whether you raise pounds or a £1 or £100,000, you're a fantastic supporter. But it's also helping to raise awareness of our work. So become an ambassador. Talk about us. We can keep you up to date with what we're doing, what our plans are. Yeah, there's lots of different ways to get involved and it's not always about the money, but yeah, helping to raise awareness is really important to us. We're a tiny charity with a very small marketing budget.

Kate: So anything. Anything helps, anything positive helps.

Linda: And sign up to receive our newsletter, and you can sign up very easily by going on to the website. Sign up there and then you'll receive the newsletter.

Phil: On behalf of the, the podcast. I'm sure you know, if we can help at all. You know, we'd be very happy to do that, to spread the word,

Kate: Can I ask a quick question? When you say you build the gardens, do you actually pay companies to build them? Or do you get some landscapers that will build for free as part of the charity? Or do you prefer to actually have professionals that you are paying to build these gardens?

Linda: Yeah, we work with, professional designers and professional landscapers, and we pay them. We pay them what we should be paying them. And the reason we do that is because we recognise that the gardens and children's hospices have to be professionally built. They have to be safe. They have to be, they have to conform to rules and regulations. And we would never want to put a child at risk on any project that we build. But also we value their expertise and their experience, and we don't want to be the bottom of the pile if we're, you know, we're working with a volunteer, just for instance, a volunteer landscaper, it may potentially be that some of the work comes in so that so our work would drop a little bit. You know what I mean.

Kate: No absolutely. No no no, cause people need to earn money. So that's really good to hear because there's been a lot of chatter about horticulture being kind of not seen as an important sector or valued. I know a lot of people I've worked with, we really feel devalued, especially with the latest report from DEFRA about horticulture at the Commons. Yeah, let's not go into that too much today, but I think we're all feeling a bit deflated. So to hear that you're not just expecting freebies, that people will work as professionals, and that just proves that your work is a high standard and that people want to work for you. So I think that's a really, I'm really pleased to hear that Linda.

Linda: Yeah, no, we do work with the most amazing, amazing people. The landscapers and the designers. Yeah, they help to bring the hospice’s vision and our vision to life. Really. And it's important that through the whole process the hospice’s that we work with feel confident with what we're doing. Yeah. So, yeah. So it's massively important that we use the right people with experience. Yeah. For all the reasons you say Kate.

Kate: But, so it's good to know that people who are raising money for you know that money's being put to the best possible use is in the best possible people to build the best gardens. I think that is, you know, it's important to know that.

Phil: So what's what's next for the charity, Linda?

Linda: Well, this year is a very special year. It's our 25th anniversary. So a couple, a couple of years ago, we launched an appeal to raise just over £2 million. So it’s £2,000,025. So the 25 being the 25 years. So we're working hard to try and achieve that. So we're trying to raise up that huge sum. We’ve got a number of events. We've got Garden Releaf Day coming up, which is our big national fundraising campaign.

Phil: And what’s the date for that, Linda?

Linda: March the 15th. So there are sponsored walks. There's a sponsored walk in the south of the country. There's one in the north of the country. A sponsored bike ride. And there are so many activities happening in in garden centres and businesses around the country. Old railway line. Traditionally you have a currying and quiz night around about the date. I think that a couple of weeks later this year, but it's all part of garden releaf day. So yeah, really get involved in garden releaf day. That's an amazing thing.

Kate: I like that. That you've got walks, you've got sponsored walks, then you've got a curry and a quiz, I know which one I'd quite like to do and it's not the walk. Can I just say it's releaf day with a pun on the word leaf. As in L-E-A-F, isn't it, Linda? Is that right?

Linda: Yes it is yeah. And you can find lots of information about that on the website, so yeah, do take a look and see what's happening. And then in terms of gardens, we've got some very exciting projects. We've got the garden that I talked about at Chestnut Tree that we're working on at the moment. We've got a new gardener, Acorn Children's Hospice, which is a lovely hospice in Walsall. We are currently in the planning stages and at Hope House, that's also in the planning stages. And also Bluebell Wooden in Sheffield. We're building one garden there and making over a very old Greenfingers garden. So that's a lovely project. So yeah, getting ready for our 25th anniversary, we've got a dragon boat race. That's exciting. So that's happening at Grendon Lakes in Northamptonshire. And we did a Dragon boat race several years ago. And so this is the return of the Dragon boat race. We really want to see old supporters and new supporters get involved in that. And you know, it's a great team building event. So yeah, if you fancy a Sunday out, bring your team with you, we’d love to hear from you. We've got the wing walk again. That's happening on the 2nd of May. So if anybody fancies doing that. Kate surely you must be up for that.

Kate: I think I'm really busy during May Linda.

Linda: Yeah. So, yeah, we've got some new events and obviously the older events that everybody's very familiar with taking part so… Yeah, there's lots going on.

Phil: So Linda, I know that, Greenfingers has a presence at Glee. Can you tell us why you attend? And, how it helps?

Linda: Glee is a brilliant platform for us, so its three days where we are in a reasonably confined space where we get the opportunity to speak to our older supporters, our current supporters, older supporters that might not no longer support us for whatever reason, but also to meet new people as well. And it’s, Yeah. No, it's a it's a brilliant event to be out for so many different reasons. It's great to be, you know, working and talking to the exhibitors. It's great to be doing the same with the visitors to the show as well. And they don’t always have time to stop and chat because they've they've got a, you know, they know what they need to do, where they need to go. But it's always great that they do mostly find time to come and say hello. And if they if they look at their brochure and see where we are and they'll come and say hello to us and tell us what they're doing, which is always lovely to hear. And they're interested in what our plans are for the future and how they can get involved. So, yeah, it has massive, huge benefits to Greenfingers for being at Glee.

Kate: Do people know about you pretty much throughout the industry and they come to you, or do you still have to kind of do that marketing push?

Linda: Kate, I think you're right. I think we are so well known in the industry that we do see people come to us. Yeah, people do come to us and we always, you know, like to go and walk floors to see what what's happening, what's new that we don't know about. And one thing I really love about going to Glee is that it gives me an opportunity to say thank you to those people that we perhaps haven't seen for some time, but I know in between sort of meetings and things, they've done some amazing things.

So it's always a great place to go to say thank you.

Phil: Yeah. No, I think that's great.

Linda: I tell you what I didn't mention about Glee is Floral Thursday.

Phil: Yes!

Linda: Oh my gosh, Trevor will have my guts for garters if I didn't mention that. So on the last day of Glee, the floors go floral, we call it Floral Thursday. So we ask everybody exhibiting or everybody visiting to come along dressed in their best or worst floral attire. It creates such an exciting buzz around the halls. Yeah. On the last day when everyone's really tired it adds a bit of fun to theoccasion, which is really good. So that's a brilliant day typically.

Kate: Yeah it is. And I'd like to say I've been on the winning team of the best floral dress team before.

Linda: I think you were on the winning team twice, Kate I think from memory.

Kate: I think I have been yes. I love a bit of floral anyway, so it's no hardship for me.So, we're going to move away from the lovely NEC and I'm just going to ask Linda, do you have a favourite flower or plant that will always put a smile on your face, no matter how kind of maybe a bit down you might be feeling?

Linda: Yeah, I suppose I’m a little bit old fashioned in the sense I like scented flowers. And my favourite all time flower is a rose. It's a cream rose. And you know, lots of significance personally for the rose. And quite often my children, when they buy me flowers will always put a rose in there which is really lovely. But I love sweet peas. I absolutely love sweet peas. And the fact that you can grow them, you know, they're not too difficult to grow, and they have such a long, you know, they flower for so long throughout the summer. I just love sweet peas and the smell.

Phil: I was going to say the scent.

Kate: Oh, that scent is amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, no, that's a great choice

Linda: And just seeing them in the garden and then just picking them and having them you know, even just on the kitchen windowsill or something. It's just. Yeah. Lovely.

Kate: Oh thank you.

Linda: And there are sweet peas out there that will raise money for Greenfingers.

Phil: Oh really.

Kate: Oh do you know, do you know what what they're called?

Linda: There is a sweet pea called Greenfingers. That's a Mr. Fothergill's sweet pea. And a newly launched one which I've seen on social media so I can probably talk about it now. It's called blue butterfly, sweet pea, blue butterfly, which is, which is being sold through British garden centres with 25p from every pack is coming to the charity and they are my favourite flowers, I’m not just saying that for to give them a plug, but yeah, they are beautiful.

Kate: Oh, that's brilliant. Well we’ll definitely be looking out for those Linda. And finally, obviously you're a very busy woman. In between all the trade shows and all the the hard work you do for Greenfingers, but do you have a garden? Do you enjoy gardening yourself?

Linda: I have, I've got, it’s a reasonably sized garden. It's not a huge garden by any stretch of the imagination. I enjoy, yeah, I bought a green house during the first lockdown, like lots of other people do

Kate: Ooooo, look at you.

Linda: I know. I was rather excited. I felt like my mum, and yeah, I'm excited about this year. I've got some plans to to grow the usual tomatoes and things. In fact I've got my, step grandson coming this weekend and we're going to be spending some time in the greenhouse because he also likes it. So that that's lovely. And I used to have an allotment. And I absolutely loved spending time there, but… You know, I just didn't have the time to do the allotment and spend the time in my garden, plus my busy jobs. So, yeah, I've just got the garden now, but yeah, I'm excited about the summer. Really excited to be out there doing some nice stuff in the garden.

Kate: Yeah, fingers crossed for a good weather spring and summer, not just for us, but for the whole sector as well.

Linda: Indeed. Yeah.

Kate: Well, Linda, thank you so much for chatting to us today.

Phil: Yeah, thank you.

Kate: It’s been lovely catching up and just finding out a little bit more about Greenfingers. But obviously if anybody else, is inspired and wants to find out a bit more about Greenfingers, do you want to just give us the website address? Linda.

Linda: Yeah. So it's www.greenfingerscharity.org.uk and there's a lot of information about our finished gardens, our gardens in progress and all the different ways that you can get involved as well. So again, do take a moment to visit and sign up for our newsletter. That would be great.

Kate: I will do that as soon as we finish this chat.

Linda: Fabulous. Thank you.