What New Leaf Offers

New Leaf Garden Centre is part of our North Hub, situated on Southport’s Rotten Row, next to Victoria Park, home of the annual Southport Flower Show.

Our main focus at New Leaf is to support adults with learning/physical disabilities, those on the Autistic spectrum and those who use the service the opportunity to learn and develop new skills. These will enhance confidence, well-being and a sense of achievement, enabling them to reach their full potential in a safe learning environment.

We grow plants and vegetables (mostly from seed) using our Victorian greenhouse and polytunnel. We are developing a wildlife area by installing bird feeders, nesting boxes, insect stacks, shrubs, and flowers to encourage Bees, birds, and other creatures to come to our site.

This will encompass a quiet area with sensory plants, such as herbs, Lavender, and honeysuckle. It will also be a place for those needing some time out or alone.

Our activities include growing plants and vegetables, making hanging baskets and flower planters, woodwork and maintenance projects, seasonal decorations for our Christmas fayre, selling, and interacting with the public.

A key feature of New Leaf is our shop, where helpful gardeners and staff provide a warm and friendly welcome to everyone who visits.

New Leaf is run by a team of staff and those who attend the garden centre to grow, develop, and maintain the enterprise, welcoming customers and visitors while gaining essential skills which could lead to employment or volunteering opportunities.

We work closely with schools, offering sessional activities, setting tasks for them, and giving guidance and advice. This gives them the chance to try different vocations.

Another essential part of our work is acknowledging the importance of the seasons within our growing calendar and everyone’s lives. To enhance this, we have events throughout the year, such as our summer fayre, Halloween fayre, and Christmas fayre.

We open our gates on a Saturday for our Summer fayre, where we sell our vast range of summer plants and hanging baskets and celebrate the team’s hard work. In addition to the plants on sale, we also sell hot drinks, cakes, hot dogs, etc. At Halloween, we make craft items and display them around the site, plus offer pumpkin carving and hot beverages.

At Christmas, we open again on Saturday and sell lots of handmade Christmas decorations, beautiful wreaths, and fabulous Christmas trees. The site is decorated for the occasion, and we offer hotdogs, cakes, hot mulled wine, and a warm welcome.

All the money raised at these events helps buy equipment and other items for New Leaf.

Please keep a lookout on our website for dates and more details of these events.

We actively encourage the use of volunteers, so if you have some spare time on your hands and want to make a difference in people’s lives or just learn new skills, please don’t hesitate to contact us for further information.