Happy 3rd Birthday Bloom

I cannot believe it - Bloom is three!!

Strap in for an Oscars-style speech of thanks and emotional ramblings.

Three years ago this week, Bloom opened its doors for the first time for our inaugural gardening day. The only thing we had managed to do before was strim the grass and weeds so there was lots to do. We had three crumbling buildings, some second hand tools and a few lovely women who came along to help us. I have a photo of me from that day looking absolutely exhausted, but I can remember thinking that I felt I was doing the right thing at the right time.

Since then, it has been such a wild ride! This year’s main moment being us hiring a team of wonderful, amazing, dedicated women. Cath and Emma came on board as the Gardening To feel Good dream team and have worked so hard to create a beneficial and valuable series of groups to support women in our community. They have achieved so many wonderful things and welcomed so many women and girls into our communtiy garden. I am so grateful for their commitment and enthusiasm and for creating a warm, welcoming environment for our attendees. Our lovely Erin, who has been around since the beginning, also came onto the official staff team. Erin has always been our freelance florist, but this year she stepped up and became our Open Day Leader and Volunteer Coordinator. I imagine many of you will have met Erin and been inspired by her creativity and floral talents and I am so grateful to her for helping with the development of the business and going above and beyond in all that she does. Our third year also welcomed Kate onto our board of Directors - she joined Jane and I for the decision making fun! Kate has been a valued volunteer for a long time and I was so thrilled when she agreed to join the directors board; I value her opinion so highly and she has worked so hard, particularly with the development of our secret garden.

Speaking of which, this past year has seen a huge advancement for Bloom in the acquisition of our secret garden. For those who don’t know about it, this garden is a large, walled garden that is not open to the public. It is the garden where we grow all the flowers for our bouquets and events. We grow very intensively there and it is managed, developed and maintained by a very committed team of 7 volunteers. In June last year we got the keys and the space has been transformed! From an empty garden to a haven churning out beautiful blooms - we have picked literally thousands of stems - it is all thanks to this team.

Our first Open Day seems like so long ago now and it is amazing to see how far we have come. This year we have welcomed over 400 women to our community garden, have the support of 40 committed volunteers and sold hundreds of bunches of flowers to your lovely lot! What a journey…and there’s more to come.

This year we have collaborated with so many inspiring organisations. At our gardening groups we have worked with the Refugee Council, Mums In Need, Snowdrop Project and VIDA. We have also teamed up with some awesome women and companies to make exciting stuff happen including; Endless Love Creative, Tamper, Marmadukes, Kelham Candle Co, The Mowbray and many more.

Reflecting on these past three years is actually quite emotional - so much love, stress and tears has gone into making Bloom happen (and continue to run). With special thanks to Jane for keeping me afloat and stopping me from spiralling out of control. Bloom would, honestly, not be here with out. I feel incredibly grateful to every person that come to our garden, attended an event, bought some flowers, or shared an instagram story - you are the best. When I started out with this tiny idea of creating a safe space for women to enjoy a flower garden, I had no idea it would turn into what is has become. What special place to be a part of.

And it continues. Our fourth year is going to be bigger and better. We have some exciting news to announce soon about a new garden. So if you want to be the first to know, sign up to our mailing list.

Now, to eat some cake. Happy birthday Bloom! 💙