Green-fingered great gives back

With gardening-themed hymn parodies, potted poetry and amusing anecdotes, gardener, broadcaster and novelist, Alan Titchmarsh, had the audience enthralled at The Crown Hotel in Blandford on Thursday 19 November.

The special Evening with Alan Titchmarsh event was in aid of the Army Benevolent Fund (ABF) The Soldiers’ Charity and was sponsored by The Gardens Group, with additional support from Gillingham-based Orchard Park. In the true spirit of the event, the two garden centre businesses joined forces to help raise a total of £3,000 for the charity, which was set up in 1944 to support serving soldiers, veterans and their families.

For more information about ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, please contact Richard East, chairman of Dorset ABF The Soldiers’ Charity by email, east-rs@hotmail.co.uk or visit www.soldierscharity.org.

_{Picture caption:  L-R Richard East, chairman of Dorset ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, Sue Hardy and Richard Cumming, directors of Orchard Park, Alan Titchmarsh and Louise and Mike Burks, managing directors of The Gardens Group.}