The Garden Tour was a fabulous success, with over $30,000 being raised! What a great effort! Thank you.

The St Barnabas garden tour committee members are an experienced team of doughty parishioners who continued their efforts for the cause this year. Shirley-Anne Collins, Corinne Haines, Steven Marshall, Jo Cotton and I gathered for our first committee meeting in January with one garden under our belt and another 8 to find. Then began the search for willing garden owners which occupied a lot of my time for the first half of the year. Quite understandably there were a lot of knock-backs along the way – it’s a big ask to open your garden to the public - but in the end we got a wonderful variety of lovely gardens with owners, some of whom with no connection to St Barnabas, agreeing to support us all the way. We have a very good reputation in our parish of Fendalton!

The task of interviewing the owners and writing the booklet fell to me. Touring gardens is a very pleasurable task, even in the middle of winter. Jo used her skills gained from working in the printing industry to design the poster and put the booklet together. Who could have resisted her enticing pink rhododendrons?!

Corinne and her daughter, Rebecca, with the help of Anna Webster, organised a very extensive raffle and Corinne rostered the volunteers who provided security. Steven Marshall helped where he could, his experience with real estate is a great advantage. Cheryl Earl joined the committee later and was happy to organise the variety stall and helpers at 108 Heaton St.

The tickets and raffle went on sale in September and Shirley-Anne worked tirelessly to see that all ran smoothly. She and the ever-helpful Charles nailed corflute signs to fences and delivered marketing material. Marion in the parish office held everything together in her usual unflappable way. I can’t name all the people who have also helped - there are just too many - but it has been a wonderful effort by so many parishioners, including the generous souls who bought tickets knowing they would be unable to use them. Andrew found what it means to be priest-in-charge when I requested he spend the night before the tour on his knees praying for fine weather!

Generous sponsors were really easy to get: Harcourts Holmwood, our major sponsor, was very willing; I have a captive plumber, Jack Doyle-Phillips of Pureflow Plumbing; I reminded Jeremy Flood from Craig’s Investment Partners that we have long memories at St Barnabas and that he had promised sponsorship after the 2021 tour; Jo and I visited Holly Lea and they were happy to be a sponsor. Their award-winning gardens were an added extra to the tour.

I have been involved with fundraising at St Barnabas for 43 years and I encourage members of all congregations to join in when another project is suggested.

Margaret Harper

The weather was fabulous and the gardens even more fabulous! There were almost 500 happy garden spectators visiting some of the best gardens in Fendalton. Some had even traveled from far off Warkworth! Everyone was very positive about the tour.

Some of the feedback:

A fun filled, friendly and well received community event.

Lovely gardens and a very big welcome from our volunteers, our homeowners and our clergy.

I was in awe at the amount of work the home owners have put into these beautiful gardens

Inspirational

Amazing gardens

I managed to visit most of the volunteers who were all enjoying themselves and doing a great job, meeting and greeting and directing people around the gardens. I brought them some Fruit Bursts to keep up their energy, sorry if I didn't get to you, I didn't quite make it to everyone.

So grateful to the homeowners for opening up their gardens to us, those who contributed to the stalls, and raffles, and all the wonderful volunteers who helped make the day such a great success. Thank you, all.

Jo Cotton

Congratulations to all the winners of the raffles!

St Barnabas Garden Tour Raffle Results

And thanks to all those who donated the prizes.

Raffle One:

Felicity Cowper - Basket of Nutrimetics Beauty Products

Lester Chisholm - Court Theatre Tickets

Corinne Haines - Strange Bandit Vouchers and Gardening Products

Swee Stewart - Oderings Gift Pack

Raffle Two:

Steve & Helen Wakefield - 2 Nights Accommodation in Waikawa Bay

Geoff Hay - Gift Basket & Pot Plants

Marcus Read - Lawn Mower Service

Amanda Bell - Fox & Ferret Voucher & Potted Plants

And a Big Thanks to all our Sponsors.

Harcourts Holmwood

Pure Flow Plumbing

Holly Lea

Craigs Investment Partners