The Fernery Gardening Group
The Gardening Group focuses on planting and weeding the herbaceous borders and the wild flower bank; lifting and moving plants as required, and all general gardening work.
The Fernery Gardening Group meets regularly throughout the year every Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m. (except in the week that a Thursday Working Party is due to meet – see below).
Fernery Work Parties.
The Fernery Work Party meets at 10 a.m. on the Third Thursday each month throughout the year. Working Parties typically concentrate on maintenance work that could include clearing leaves from paths, lawn cutting, lifting and moving larger shrubs, tree pruning etc. as necessary.
Nature Reserve Work Party
We also have a parallel Working Party working on the Nature Reserve, which by its very nature concentrates more on clearing paths and scrub across the entire Nature Reserve.
You would be welcome to join whichever Work Party you prefer.
How to Join as a Volunteer?
You are welcome to come along and see what we do. Make yourself known to the Group Leader.
Once you have decided to join us, for Insurance purposes you will need to register as a volunteer with the Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (the site owner) who retain the detail confidentially.
We have the Registration Form required and can help. You can speed up this process if you wish by writing to our Secretary and completing the Form in advance, but this is not a requirement.
Keeping aware of activities.
Once you have Registered we will invite you to join a WhatsApp Group which will keep you up-to-date with all our activities, including details of the likely tasks to be undertaken at each meeting, the name of the Leader, and last-minute notices of cancellations due to bad weather etc..
Dates of Meetings can be found on the Calendar.
Keeping safe as a volunteer
It makes sense that you always wear clothes to suit the work and the weather, including strong boots and gloves. All tools are provided and the Leader will be responsible for ensuring that these are always used safely, and with consideration given to keeping a safe distance from other volunteers in the group.
All Work Parties will have a Volunteer trained in 1st Aid in attendance.
On arrival you will always be asked to complete an Attendance Record to include an Emergency Contact.
We look forward to welcoming new volunteers.