#VolunteersWeek - Our first-ever volunteer relocates his RHS Malvern Spring Show Garden ‘TIR’ to Lords Park farm
This week is Volunteers Week, and what better time to celebrate our first ever volunteer, Nick Anthony, and his incredible RHS Malvern Spring show garden, which has been donated to Glasbren to live on here at the farm!
Nick Anthony siting trees from his RHS Malvern Spring Show garden at Lords Park farm
This week is Volunteers’ Week, an annual UK-wide campaign held from the first Monday in June to celebrate and recognise the contributions of volunteers. Launched in 1984, this initiative has been running for over 40 years, providing organisations and communities a platform to thank current and past volunteers for their invaluable efforts.
Volunteers have been the lifeblood of Glasbren since we began, a vital part of bringing life, meaning and community to the farm, and demonstrating the power of growing food and tending land together for healing, of the land, ourselves and our sense of belonging. So many people have come through the farm gates over the years, hundreds of volunteers who have made their unique mark in the story of Glasbren. Some have come once, a few times or for a chapter in their lives. Others have joined us season after season, committing Thursdays in service to the farm and the project.
Volunteering is not just about coming down to help out, or indeed about how much work we get done. Folks join us for a myriad of different reasons and enjoy different benefits from their time here. Some come to learn new skills in permaculture, sustainable living and food production. Others come to feel a part of a welcoming communtiy of practice, who share values, interests and passions. Often volunteering is a very practical way people can be in service to the land in times of environmental crises and ecological collapse. For many, it is about being somewhere safe, held by nature, where they are free to be themselves and arrive exactly as they are on any given week.
We are so grateful for our volunteers - and this Volunteers’ Week, we want to celebrate the impact volunteers, past and present, have made to Glasbren and our mission. Each volunteer is a part of the Glasbren family, and each has left a legacy in its unfolding story. Diolch o galon | thankyou from the bottom of our hearts to all volunteers!
What better time, then, to celebrate our first ever volunteer, and a big milestone in his life that will have a lasting impact on the farm. A few weeks ago, we made a trip to Malvern to collect plants, trees and materials from an RHS Malvern show garden designed by our very first volunteer Nick Anthony. Nick was our first volunteer, joining us on our original site in the early years of building the project 6 or 7 years ago. He has come on quite a journey since then, from mental health struggles, to setting up his own landscaping and garden design business, The Garden Cambrica, to recently designing, funding and delivering a Bronze-medal award winning show garden at the RHS Malvern Spring Show with his collaborator Sam Rees of SCR Ponds and Landscaping.
About the Garden
TÎR (the Welsh word for land or landscape) represented a fragment of Welsh waterways and forests, centred around a sculptural pond formed by boulders and moving water emerging from a waterfall.
Carefully selected materials, integrated water elements, and layered planting combined to create a cohesive and immersive experience. TÎR reflected the evolving story of the Welsh landscape, from industrialisation to regeneration, from rugged beauty to tranquil calm. Incorporating a wildlife-focused ecosystem pond, natural and locally sourced materials, deadwood habitats and bug houses and native woodland and hedge plants, the garden explored the enduring relationship between land, water, and people in Wales, rooted in a strong sense of place and informed by the concepts of Cynefin and Hiraeth, belonging and nostalgia. The planting scheme featured naturalistic layers of spring colour, incorporating grasses, ferns, and flowering perennials with subtle references to Welsh identity woven throughout.
“We chose to create TÎR as a natural progression of our work and collaboration in Wales. The garden brings together art, ecology and landscape to tell a story about place, about how land and water shape identity, and how thoughtful design can support regeneration and renewal.”
Nick and his collaborator, Sam Rees, in the show garden…
Nick receives his bronze-medal for the garden
Glasbren’s Abel joins Nick to deconstruct the garden and bring it back to Llansteffan
The garden was sponsored by British Flora, a premier British brand specialising in high quality native wildflower plug plants and seed. British Flora have a vision for a biodiverse rich Britain, where wildflower species flourish and our ecosystems are restored, providing habitat solutions that support biodiversity.
We couldn't be prouder of Nick and all he has achieved. His garden reflected many of the themes we hold dear here at Glasbren - Welsh heritage, belonging, place, language and a celebration of Welsh landscapes. Not only does the garden find its perfect final home here for those reasons, but also because it represents a full circle moment for Nick. His first show garden continuing its life here, at Glasbren, a community and project whose story Nick is such an important part. We were there to help him deconstruct the garden, and can attest to the hard work, resilience and vision that went into the garden, and the integrity of the story behind it. It feels so right that the farm should be the long-term home of the elements of the garden, and that it should live on in spirit close to where Nick lives and on a place he feels connected to, and where it will be enjoyed, celebrated and provide therapeutic benefits to volunteers and visitors alike long into the future.
Nick’s story is one of the power of volunteering as a pathway to healing, purpose and renewal.
We’ll be sharing more volunteer stories this #VolunteersWeek here on the blog and on social media, so stay tuned! If you’d like to find out more about volunteering, visit glasbren.org.uk/volunteering or get in touch with our Volunteer Coordinator, Lottie Williams, at volunteer@glasbren.org.uk. We welcome volunteers every Thursday from 9.30am until 3pm. All ages, experience levels welcome. Lunch and refreshments provided.
