Royal Visit We were very honoured to host the King on his first visit to Kent. His Majesty spent some 40 minutes on a tour of the Garden meeting volunteers and young carers from Sandown Primary and Leaps & Bounds who use the garden. Deal Festival We hosted Deal Music & Arts Festival Day for the community with children’s arts session, several music ensembles and a magical Open Poetry session under the Walnut Tree with over 600 visitors. Organisation 2025 was our eighth season in the garden and first with our new CIC structure. Some background achievements were setting up the new structure, volunteer directors, getting policies and governance in place. Key to this new structure with be a formal ten-year lease with Historic England/English Heritage which in turn will unlock further funding opportunities to develop the garden. Acknowledgements We are a purely volunteer led group with no paid staff – Our volunteer group expanded during the year with about 35 regular volunteers although this expands to 50 on our open days. This year we produced a record 3,670 hours of volunteer time with 5-10 volunteer sessions a week. We are very grateful to have received funding in total of £2,500 from Dover District Council, Sergeants Mess Panto, Rotary Boxing Day Dip and the Boatmen’s Charity in 2025. Horticulture: Another record year in terms of developing the Garden: New Vineyard We cleared, levelled & prepared an area of 450sm for new Vinyard of 50 Solaris vines. These are disease resistant (PIWI) grape variety developed for cooler climates Recovery of ‘Edwardian pebble path’ As part of the Vineyard project we were able to fully recover& restore the pebble path that dates back to the Georgian ‘hot-bed’ site Extension of Wild flower meadow area with over 16 native meadow plants. The meadow is ins 2nd/1st year of a four year project Completion of the Orchard project We crowdfunded some £6.5k in 2020 to re-establish the orchard in the garden based on the 1872 orchard plan. Working with Grow at Brogdale we have planted some 140 apple, pear, soft fruit and nuts in the garden. This year we planted the last crab apple of that project. New Composting toilet built New Staging area for Propagation More oak benches made by the woodworking team Wildlife & Habitat We were very happy to contribute to English Heritage at Deal Castle gaining a Platinum Award in the UNESCO Green Impact Programme Creating a supportive habitat for wildlife is one of key objectives. This year we continued working in the following areas (details in appendix) Working with colleagues at Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory we also conducted our first over-night moth surveys. One of volunteers (Maria) is a trained Bumble Bee Conservation Trust Bee walk leader who has introduced our regular bee walks in the garden (details in appendix) We monitor and record the following: Wild Flowers Butterflys & Moths Bees & Pollinator (MH) Birds Reptiles Small Mammals Wild planting areas – Nettles/wood piles cEducation Walmer Castle RHS Stage 2 Horticultural Course The course run by EH at Walmer Castle but does some of its practical skills in the Captain’s Garden. Bumble Bee walks New this year we started bee walks in the garden for the public on our open days and by arrangement for school and other groups using the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust educational material Moth Survey Several volunteers attended the on-site moth surveys run by SBBO. Fruit tree pruning mentoring sessions (Sue Dawson) Vines mentoring ( Tom Berry/John Mancini – Brentley Farm) Deal & Walmer Swift Group stalls at our open days Community We held five Open days in 2025 which saw some 2150 visitors to the garden and raised in donations £4.8k We welcomed the following community groups to the garden in 2025: Mayor of Deal Town Council (Official visit) Bright Sparks Nursery School Dover Society Sandown Primary School – Young Carers Leaps & Bounds – Photo group Deal Hop Farm – Stalls & Harvest Deal Music & Arts Festival Deal Radio Dover Beekeepers Walmer & Deal Action for Swifts Landcharmed Walking Group Burma Star – VJ Day Poetry Workshop x2

During the year we meet with representatives from English Heritage, Dover District Council and Deal Town Council. English Heritage (our landlord) has provided us with a conservation statement for the site which sets out their objectives We regularly take feedback from our public visitors to our open days (approx. 2,150 in 2025) and our community groups who use the garden We have regular volunteer meetings, volunteer suggestion scheme, all volunteers can become members of the company and the formal AGM is open to all members who also vote for the directors team.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration