The Conservatory has had another successful year, thanks to the volunteers who visit daily to water the plants and check on maintenance issues.
The conservatory team has continued to welcome visitors on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons.
This was the first year since the pandemic that we have reintroduced a full programme of events. We started in Spring with a variety of well supported plant sales. We were also pleased to welcome back local musician Marc Harris who performed in May and September. We introduced a new musician, Nickie Hart. Nickie, who is very local to the park, sings and plays keyboard. One of the volunteers put on a drawing workshop, which was well received. A new venture was the cookery workshop provided by Samina. Samina used ingredients provided by plants grown in the Conservatory to produce a simple delicious salsa. There was a very successful plant sale held in conjunction with the Palmers Green Festival, when over 1,000 visitors came to the Conservatory. Elizabeth, one of the volunteers opened her garden at Arnos Park Lodge to raise funds.
Talks were given by the volunteers to local Gardening Groups.
The exterior of the Conservatory is being refurbished. Thanks to Enfield Council for funding this work. The railings, in front of the Conservatory, had paint chipping and rust appearing. The Conservatory Group decided to use some of the funds raised by the plant sales to employ a professional decorator to strip back the railings and repaint. The railings look very smart now.
The Banana plant was a success again this year. One of the volunteers used some of the crop to bake banana cakes for sale in the Greenery café. Our new Papaya plant has, also, borne fruit. We have increased our collection of ginger plants, and these have flowered. Our collection of exotic plants continues to delight visitors. We were pleased to be awarded Gold by Enfield in Bloom again.
Access to the Conservatory is, currently, restricted due to internal scaffolding. The Conservatory will be closed to the public until further notice. The work is estimated to take 3 months.
