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Exciting News!
Santa is coming back to Plant Pots and Wellies!
Visit Santa's Hollow to meet Santa and other Christmas characters in a relaxed event for children with additional needs and anyone who finds Christmas a little bit overwhelming.
As a special surprise for Children with Additional Needs, Santa is once again setting up a temporary home in Harlow, for families to visit. Santa is making this event really relaxed, as he knows that Christmas can be an overwhelming time.
There will be some great photo opportunities, helping to us to bring the Spirit of Christmas to your family, creating beautiful memories for all. Write and post your letter to Santa in our special delivery post box too.
You can also have a chat with the Big Man himself in his cabin, who will be giving out gifts to all those amazing children, that he knows have tried their very best this year!
Whilst with us in Santa's Hollow, you can take part in various activities, including making a Christmas decoration and decorating gingerbread biscuits.
This year, Santa has some interesting company – a whole cast of Christmas characters, both naughty and nice! Keep an eye out for any mischief-makers who might be plotting to stop Christmas from happening and make sure to report them to Santa's Friends, who truly love the holiday. Let’s work together to keep the Christmas spirit alive and well.
2026 Willow Wreath Making Workshops
Book soon for one of our 2026 Willow Wreath Making Workshops
Guided step by step, you’ll create your own natural willow wreath. Working with willow, fresh greenery and colourful embellishments you'll design a wreath that feels personal to you with plenty of time to chat and enjoy the process. Whilst creating, relax with a complimentary hot chocolate or mulled wine and mince pie.
Dates/Times:
28th November, 10am or 1pm
5th December, 10am or 1pm
12th December 10am or 1pm
Price: £27.50 per person
Place: Parndon Wood Nature Reserve
Santa's golden surprise for Pat after burglars steal her Christmas magic
Santa's golden surprise for Pat after burglars steal her Christmas magic
You're right it's not Chistmas yet but Santa took the time out of his busy schedule to pay a suprise visit to one of our very special allotment supporters.
Follow the 'Your Harlow' link here to see how Santa made Pat's day once again - a 'good vibes' story to lift your spirits!
Jimmy passes his Wheelbarrow Driving Test!
Well done to Jimmy for passing his Wheel Barrow Driving Test. Just for a bit of fun, Jimmy completed all the essential categories to ensure the safe use of our 'manually propelled, single-wheeled, dual handled utility devices'! Taking on tasks such as a hill start, an emergency stop, safe reversing (with sound effects) and management of an unsafe load, he is now the proud recipient of the first (and possiblly only) Plant Pots and Wellies Wheelbarrow Driving Test Pass Certificicate.
The Great Autumn Gathering!
25 Oct 2026
Children, their families and all the volunteers welcomed in the autumn season at The Great Autumn Gathering!
Hosted by Plant Pots & Wellies and PACT for Autism the event was filled with autumnal themed woodland folk, games, activities and crafts. The children met lots of characters including the Pumpkin Farmer, the Silly Scarecrow, the Autumn Fairy and the Giant Squirrel and took part in fun activities such as archery, welly wanging, drumming and crazy golf. Taking place at Parndon Wood Nature Reserve, the richly coloured trees in their woodland setting all helped to create a wonderful atmosphere for a fun filled, enjoyable afternoon.
Strings of the Night!
Strings of the Night!
9 Oct 2026
Well done to the Plant Pots and Wellies Productions group who presented their gothic musical entitled 'Strings of the Night'!
Performed at the Harlow Playhouse and watched by an audience of 100+ people, the show was a triumph! Boasting brilliant characters, atmospheric music, beautiful singing, wonderful costumes and a dark mysterious set to bring it all together.
High Wych Scarecrow Festival
High Wych Scarecrow Festival
Sept 2026
Sept 2026
We braved the very changable weather at this year's Scarecrow Festival! Rain aside it was a great community event. We met lots of lovely people, danced to music played by the brilliant bands and sold a number of our delicious jams and chutneys.
Sawbridgeworth Allotment Show
5 Sept 2026
Another great year for us at the Sawbridgeworth Allotment show - 7 awards! That's brilliant considering we had no summer rain. Well done everyone!!
Enchanted Garden 30 May 2026
Visitors stepped into an Enchanted Garden filled with imagination, creativity and family fun.
Children and their families were tasked with helping the pirate to find the 48 fairy houses that were hidden among the museum grounds. The fairy houses were imagined and handcrafted by our wonderful team of volunteers and included buildings such as the Moon Petal Manor, Fire Station, Luna Lighthouse, Thatched Cottage, Button House, Windmill on the Hill, Hatastic hat shop and Tinkerbell's Hollow. It was lovely to see the children’s excited faces light up as they turned a corner and found another tiny magical dwelling.
The enchantment continued via a whole host of magical characters brought to life by the Plant Pots & Wellies Productions group. The mischievous goblin ran a somewhat ‘dicey’ dice game, and two friendly gnomes had a lively hook-a-fish game for the children. Elsewhere in the garden, two mysterious wizards mixed ingredients and creating magical spells and a dragon trainer encouraged children to swap a truth for a tooth. Visitors also met a travelling musical storyteller and her delightful puppet, Lola. At the Mermaid Cove the children had fun blowing bubbles in the air with the mermaid. Visitors who went to see the majestic unicorn and its trainer were given unicorn food to encourage unicorns into their own gardens. Nearby a fairy and her fairy godmother helped children hang wishes to the wishing tree. The woodland fawn greeted visitors with special keepsakes as memento of their visit. And last but by no means least there was the Knights Academy where budding young knights were taught the art of sword fighting and other knightly skills.
Adding to the enchantment, children also enjoyed making their own magical creations in the craft area. Activities included creating unicorns, hedgehogs, butterflies and wands allowing the young visitors to express their own creativity while adding to the magical atmosphere of the event.
Volunteers from Plant Pots & Wellies and Harlow Museum all helped to bring this special day alive, so a big THANK YOU goes out to everyone who made the day such a success.
Harlow Awards May 2026
We are delighted to have been nominated and then won the Environmental Stewardship category at the 2026 Harlow Awards!
Vanessa and Julie swapped their normal allotment attire for their posh frocks and attended the event on behalf of Plant Pots and Wellies. We are proud to have been recognised for our achievements and of course the award is for all our lovely volunteers and supporters. Thank you everyone for your hard work, kindness and support.
Alice in Wonderland Easter Adventure
Children and adults were welcomed and entertained by a medley of beloved characters from the whimsical world of Alice in Wonderland. To name just a few there was Alice, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Queen of Hearts, the Duchess, Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Children were set the challenge of finding a hidden word by enlisting help from the playful characters who gave them riddles, small tasks and clues. These then lead the children to a hidden word which was to be presented to the White Rabbit before receiving their well-earned chocolate egg.
In addition to the merriment created by the characters, there was copious amounts of tea and cake along with flamingos, croquet, playing cards and of course a few gifts to purchase!
We can safely say that our volunteers and characters (brought to life by the wonderful Plant Pots & Wellies Productions group) had as much fun as the children, making this an extra special Easter holiday!
Helping to keep our patch tidy!
In February, two groups of willing volunteers from Plant Pots and Wellies took part in Harlow Council's Spring Clean Up. With gloves, bags and litter pickers we helped to clean the streets around the allotment. With around 6 bags filled, that's a lot of litter no longer blighting our patch! Thank you to all who helped!
Santa’s Hollow 2025
Wow, what a busy time of year for Santa and everyone at Plant Pots and Wellies!
We had visits from ‘the Big Man himself’ who loved meeting all the children. Santa’s Elves were kept busy with The Moss Boys, the Naughty Pie Rats and Thistletoe the Mischievous Fairy. Much fun was had by everyone and it was lovely to see the children taking part in the craft activities, meeting Santa and going home with their gifts.
Willow Wreath Making Workshops
Much fun was had for the 2025 Willow Wreath Making Workshops. A time to relax with a hot chocolate or mulled wine and allow the creative juices to flow during an otherwise busy time of year.
Wreaths were made from scratch by weaving willow and then adorning with greenery, ribbons and embellishments. Lots of proud crafters ready to take their makes home!
😯Murder in Wellies! 😯
Our talented actors from Plant Pots and Wellies Productions delivered another brilliant murder mystery show in Sept 2025. This year’s production entitled Murder in Wellies was set at the Plant Pots and Wellies Hotel in wartime 1942. As you’d expect, it contained all manner of twists and turns keeping the audience second guessing before attempting to solve the ‘whodunit’. Did you guess the murderous villain correctly?
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