Step Outside Garden Group
I set up ‘Step Outside’ an allotment gardening group at Kingston Lacy in 2016. This is a collaborative project involving Wimborne Dementia Friendly Community, National Trust, Dorset Council and In Jolly Good Company. It’s a great afternoon out and you don’t need any experience of gardening to join in. Some like to sit and chat, whilst others harvest vegetables and pick flowers. As well as gardening we offer art, crafts, live music, storytelling and gentle yoga and we supply tea and posh biscuits. We close for the winter and reopen in March.
We meet every 2nd and 4th Friday afternoon at Kingston Lacy.
CHARGES
We rely on the donations from our guests who attend our groups. Whilst there is no set charge we encourage people to give as much as they can afford.
We were filmed at our ‘Step Outside’ allotment
Dorset Council commissioned Pageant Productions to make this excellent film of us having fun together at our Kingston Lacy ‘Step Outside’ allotments. They want to showcase the work of In Jolly Good Company on the Dorset Council website. We are delighted with it, as we feel it really sums up what we do and our approach to working with people.
Your time with us
• Each session is 2 hours long.
• Activites include gardening, relaxing, chatting and catching up, cutting flowers, harvesting, walking and arts and crafts.
• Refreshments supplied.
• We meet from March to October and our lovely group of volunteers care for the allotment over the winter months.
• Whilst there is no set charge we encourage people to give a voluntary donation.
Our Lovely Rob
I first started working with Rob Stansby when I was with Alzheimers’ Society and he began by helping me run the Memory Café in Wimborne. Rob quickly showed that he was a volunteer par excellence, with his kindness and infectious sense of humour. He was perfect at making people feel welcome and helping them to take part in activities. He was a natural choice to ask to help set up the ‘Step Outside’ allotment group in 2016 and he has been my right-hand man there ever since.
With a keen love of nature and knowledge of gardening, Rob has supported countless people to enjoy our plots. He was just perfect at making our guests feel at home and at their ease. Especially any men who came on their own who were treated to Rob’s warm greeting ‘Alright mate’, which magically made things OK. He made people feel welcome and seemed to attract wildlife in the form of our friendly Robin and ‘Eagles’ as Rob called them (buzzards). Rob also formed a great friendship with the rare breed pigs that were resident near our plots for a time. Making special trips to Wimborne Market to buy huge quantities of carrots to feed them with. No wonder they loved him!
The truth is, we all loved him. Sometimes during lockdown, Rob and I would spend a precious afternoon at the plots on our own. I got to know him a bit better then and I am so grateful for that time – I always felt uplifted by my time with him and I learnt such a lot about life. Always a keen swimmer, I loved to hear Rob’s watery tales and there was usually an element of danger in every one of them.
He was not just a colleague, but a dear friend – I am proud to have known him. He has taught me so much about how not to be selfish, to care for others and how to lead a good life.
“When I arrive here I feel alright. I feel like I’m in the right place.”
Andy, who lives with dementia and attends Step Outside Allotment Group