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£25,000 windfall for community garden projects in the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire thanks to Simpsons Garden Centre in Inverness





As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Lucy Taylor and Siobhan MacBean (front centre) from Simpsons Garden Centre. Picture: Callum Mackay.
As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Lucy Taylor and Siobhan MacBean (front centre) from Simpsons Garden Centre. Picture: Callum Mackay.

Communities across the region will bloom a little more colourfully this summer thanks to a £25,000 windfall from an Inverness garden centre.

Simpsons is celebrating its 25th anniversary and to mark the occasion it has awarded grants totalling £25,000 to 114 school, charity and community garden projects.

Nearly 300 applications were received as part of Simpsons’ ‘Garden Project 25’ initiative.

And the company’s team said they were “overwhelmed but extremely impressed” by the phenomenal response from groups across the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire - as well as the “quality and diversity” of the projects seeking a share of the pot.

Siobhan MacBean and Lucy Taylor from Simpsons Garden Centre with 104-year-old Ann Milne from Lochbroom House, Ullapool. A keen gardener, Ann will be ‘overseeing’ the care home’s garden plans. Picture: Callum Mackay.
Siobhan MacBean and Lucy Taylor from Simpsons Garden Centre with 104-year-old Ann Milne from Lochbroom House, Ullapool. A keen gardener, Ann will be ‘overseeing’ the care home’s garden plans. Picture: Callum Mackay.

Gardens projects which were awarded funds from the garden centre came from as far as Wick in the north to the Isle of Skye in the west to Fraserburgh in the east and Fort William in the south - plus everywhere in-between!

Marketing manager Siobhan MacBean said: “As we celebrate our 25th birthday year, it’s great to give back to the community which has supported Simpsons from the beginning. Being part of our community is so important to us and has been since the garden centre opened in 2000.

“We were so thrilled to receive so many applications from such varied and diverse garden projects. Gardens which have received funding include memorial and sensory gardens, outdoor spaces to help people with additional support needs and dementia, community fruit and veg growing to intergenerational gardens - where nursery and school children can learn from older and retired gardeners.

As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.
As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.

“It was truly inspiring for our panel to read about each garden which submitted an application. It was a very difficult decision for our team to decide on the final gardens which would receive funding. We all know how gardening and being outdoors is so good for physical and mental health and there are so many great projects out there. All of the garden projects should be very proud of the impact they are making in their communities”.

For the full list of successful garden projects, visit www.simpsonsgardencentre.co.uk/garden-project-25/recipients.

As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.
As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.
As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.
As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.
As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.
As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.
As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.
As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.
As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.
As part of Simpsons 25th birthday year celebrations they will be supporting 114 garden projects across Highlands, Islands and Aberdeenshire. Picture: Callum Mackay.

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