Old Sarum Garden Centre holds open day
The Alabaré site wants to show more of us what they do
There's a chance to have a look behind the scenes at a garden centre with a difference in Salisbury today (Saturday 22nd July).
Charity Alabaré runs the business in Old Sarum, but it's mostly staffed by people with learning disabilities.
It's to help them gain new skills, build confidence and have some respite, but perhaps also find other employment.
Manager Markus Fanti says they want to welcome others in to find out more:
"This is not a normal garden centre - the clients come first, the customers come second. (The Open Day) shows people what we're doing on a daily basis - carpentry, IT - everything that goes on in the background that people don't see, so it's an important day."
The Open Day's on between 10.00am and 2.00pm for anyone to attend, with free entry.
We can see things like bat boxes and hanging baskets made by the clients for sale, as well as food and drink, and the annual dog show on site too.
Markus says they've also been working closely with other parts of the Alabare family too:
"Our other development centre at Barford St Martin are bringing some pottery that they've been making (for the Open Day) and our Boots on the Ground project, which is run through the homeless veterans side, is bringing a pizza oven.
"We also loan out our café to a scheme called Brew and Banter, and this is for ex-servicemen to come along and it's about connecting and talking."
And he says they've adapted well following COVID, when they remained working as much as they could, but didn't have any outbreaks of the illness:
"(The clients) don't want to be in big groups, they want to be spaced out. We've made some changes at the centre with regards to our session times, which in some respects has made an improvement, so we've kept along those lines."