Spare seeds help fund a new picnic garden at Penrith station

Spare seeds and small donations have helped volunteers create a new herb picnic garden at Penrith station. Passengers and local residents can now enjoy rosemary, sage and thyme in a revamped green space on platform two.

Penrith Community Gardeners worked with Avanti West Coast, which manages the station. Their seed and plant donation point has raised more than £2,500 over four years, supporting the group’s planters and displays as well as the new garden.

The idea started with a simple exchange: people left surplus plants and seeds in a handcart, while others collected them for an optional donation. Avanti’s original 2022 report recorded 250 donated strawberry plants and more than £200 raised by May 2022.

The new opening report gives no visitor counts or measured wellbeing results, and the garden relies on continuing volunteer care. A separate red deer garden is still being developed.

But a modest way to share what gardeners already have has helped turn a station space into somewhere people can pause and enjoy.

Sources

• BBC News — Volunteers revamp railway station’s green space, 7 October 2026
• Avanti West Coast — How the seed donation point began, 27 May 2022
• Avanti West Coast — New community garden opening, 7 October 2026