Garden Re-Leaf Day 2024 is within touching distance (Friday, 15th March 2024) and teams, businesses and individuals from across the country are getting ready to put the FUN into fundraising, aiming to raise as much money as possible for the children’s hospice garden charity, Greenfingers.

Garden Re-Leaf Sponsored Walk & Cycle Challenge

Returning to the Garden Re-Leaf Day calendar are the Sponsored Walks and Cycle Challenge.

This year two walking groups will bookend the country with a 10 or 20 mile ‘south’ walk, whilst in the north walkers will tackle a 13-mile route. Zooming by the south walkers will also be a host of cycling enthusiasts, taking anywhere from 25 to 100 miles. All routes will take in stunning countryside, with south walkers enjoying the vistas of Hertfordshire, whilst north walkers can bask in ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ scenery of West Yorkshire.

This year, almost 70 people will join the south walk start line, including British Garden Centes,  Vitavia Greenhouses, Glee, Woodmansterne, GIMA, Extreme Lounging, Hornby George PR, Tring Garden Centre (who are kindly providing the backdrop to the South Walk!), Blue Diamond, Evergreen Garden Care, Husqvarana/Gardena, Woodlodge, KSB Consultancy, Cadix UK Ltd, Johnsons Lawn Seed, Leon Boots, Durstons, Garden Trade News, plus friends Matthew, Jodie, Kirsty and James Rowlandson and Greenfingers Trustee Richard Claxton.  

In the north, walkers will include Sipcam, The HTA, AMES Companies, Deco-Pak, STV International, Meadow View Stone, Supremo, @Husqvarna/Gardena, The Groovy Gardener, and Centurion Europe/Mulch, all thanks to event organiser, Jane Lawler and her support team, William Armitage and Jenny Douthwaite.

This year pedal power will come from teams at Tamar Nurseries and Hartwell Nurseries, as well as Casey Warwick from Decco, Taylor Bulb’s Ian Clark, Steve Desombre of British Garden Centres, Simon Mulholland and Antony Fitter from Westland.

Garden centres get busy for Garden Re-Leaf

Throughout Garden Re-Leaf Day and the following weekend, garden centres from across the UK will be busy holding special events to help bolster the fundraising total and to bring the Greenfingers brand to even more people and at the same time encourage gardener lovers to kick start the gardening season.

The team at The Old Railway Line will be marking the return of its popular curry and quiz night, with a special raffle also in place to bolster the fundraising efforts on the night. 

Raffles are also set to be order of the day at Haskins stores in Ferndown, West Ends, Forest Lodge and West Sussex, plus Longacres store in Bagshot, Bybrook Barn, Chobham, Shepperton and Chelmsford. Aylett Nurseries will also be holding a seed raffle alongside a Garden Re-Leaf coffee morning.

Visitors to Haskins’ Snowhill centre can enjoy a special Garden Re-Leaf tombola on 15th March, whilst Pulborough Garden Centre customers can not only enjoy a cupcake but a guessing game will also get the grey matter working.

At Millbrook Garden Centres in Kent, children are invited to plant a sunflower. For just £1, with all proceeds going to the Greenfingers Charity, children can plant a sunflower seed in a biodegradable pot to take home, learn how to care for their plant and experience the delight when their creation comes to life in spring. Not only this but Evergreen’s Phil Park will be instore to load compost for customers at Brimsmore Garden Centre throughout the day.

Across Klondyke’s 22 stores, a ‘Tea-Leaf Re-Leaf’ event will be taking place, with 50p from every cuppa and £1 from every Garden Re-Leaf planter sold on the day going into the fundraising pot.

Friends of Greenfingers FUNdraising

It’s not just garden centres getting in on the Garden Re-Leaf action. Friday 15thMarch will see offices across the country go ‘green’ to celebrate this special fundraising day.

Those with a sweet tooth will wish they worked at Woodmansterne as the greetings card publisher holds a cake sale full of homemade goodies, whilst the team at Maze will be having a special garden Re-Leaf Bake-off.  The Gardena team has also confirmed the day will be full of fun activities with their entire teams involved.

Elsewhere, Alan and Felicity Down and the Tintinhull Open Gardens Group has confirmed that they will be holding a Gardener’s Questions Time. Greenfingers Trustee, Rob Jones, of The Garden Design Co Ltd is holding a grow your own workshop where attendees will learn more about growing fruit, veg and cut flowers. Garden designer, Andrew Fisher-Tomlin, who has previously designed Greenfingers gardens, will take Garden Re-Leaf down under as he joins in the fun from Melbourne, Australia. And The Solar Centre are keen to support their customers in raising money for Greenfingers this Garden Re-Leaf Day, if you are looking for a prize for your store raffle please contact Suzie@thesolarcentre.co.uk to request a product donation.

Finally, the QVC team will be showing their support with a special Garden Re-Leaf show on 15th and 16th March, putting the Greenfingers Charity in front of thousands of viewers.

There’s still time to get involved

Whether you want to join the Garden Re-Leaf Sponsored Walk and Cycle Challenge or hold a special event in-store or at your office, there is still time to get involved!

Simply visit https://www.greenfingerscharity.org.uk/activities/29/garden-re-leaf-day-2024 where all the information and registration links are clearly marked.

Don’t forget to also create your JustGiving page so that you can ask friends, family and colleagues for sponsorship.