Our volunteers
Volunteering at Prenplants is a great way to meet new people and enjoy the outdoors. This is about why it is so important to us.
When Chris and I took over the nursery in December 2014, we knew we needed to complete a stock take of the plants. The first weekend in February 2015 we had a group or family and friends here to help do the big count. We decided to offer cakes and a homemade lunch as an incentive. I made homemade soup with bread and a couple of homemade cakes for tea time. Although it was absolutely freezing and it did snow for a couple of hours, we managed to count the entire nursery and everyone seem to still have a good time. As they left some of them said when can we come back and thus potting days were started.
In the early years, we had potting days on a Saturday a couple of times a month in the season but now we have a steady group of people that come weekly. The potters get homemade cakes, lunch, and sometimes a free plant for their garden. The record in the early days was 7000 pots in a day. Some do hand potting and some work on our potting machine. We have a Christmas party and a summer BBQ. If there are events within the year we may celebrate these, we had a coronation party with a competition for best crown!
The volunteer potters have come from all different places so its a great opportunity to meet new people. We have some that have been on horticultural evenings, some friends of the family, some customers! Overall they enjoy the potting but love the chatting, camaraderie and being outdoors. They often say they only come for the cake! Some have even said it’s their happy place. We couldn’t run the nursery without them!
If you fancy a go at becoming a volunteer potter contact Ellen on https://www.prenplants.co.uk/contact-us/
