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| Water butt courtesy of Network Rail | Garden Club members on the platform |
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| Dawn Chapman – first ornamental garden | Tug of War team at work on embankment |
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| Garden Club team take a break | Adopters star in the Annual Concert |
Station adoption – Lympstone Village
- people in village remember an embankment floral display by volunteers in 80s
- by 2006 embankment overgrown with brambles, nettles etc.
- Avocet Line Rail Users Group (ALRUG) formed October 2007
- FGW approach ALRUG about station adoption late 2007
- ALRUG + Parish Council call public meeting Lympstone Village Hall January 2008
- FGW attend and sign up 12 of 24 parishioners present as station adopters
- further six adopters subsequently recruited (and others since then)
- Garden Club agree to oversee a planting scheme on the platform
- “Friends of Lympstone Village Station” formed (but has never had a meeting!)
- PC Chairman repairs planters on station
- Garden Club plant planters and hanging baskets in Spring 2008
- FGW provide £75 pa towards cost of planting
- balance of Friends’ money held in ALRUG accounts
- Network Rail provide former DMU wash container for water butt on platform
- local contractor agrees to fill water butt at intervals without charge
- Garden Club volunteers form watering rota for planters and hanging baskets
- Lympstone Compost scheme provide compost free of charge
- volunteer Dawn Chapman makes small ornamental garden on embankment
- local catering business donates a further planter and more hanging baskets
- Winter 2008/2009 – embankment strimmed by volunteers
- Network Rail provide wooden sleepers when section of line is relaid
- Village Tug-o-War team put sleepers in place to make small garden plots
- Dawn Chapman clears and digs upper stretch of the embankment
- Kings Garden Centre donate plants and material for embankment work
- January 2009 – station adopters perform sketch at Annual Village Concert
- February 2009 – appeal in village newsletter for people to adopt small plots
- five families recruited to tend small garden plots on embankment
- Shears Café agrees to keep a donation box towards plants
- anonymous passenger donates £100
- large area of embankment now under cultivation by Dawn Chapman
- Garden Club plant Spring and Summer displays on platform
- FGW nominate Lympstone Village garden for Community Rail awards
- Dawn Chapman collects third prize on behalf of Friends at ACORP dinner
- FGW provide passes for first of waterers’ annual outings (on Tarka line)
- Winter 2009/2010 Garden Club plants first Winter display on platform
- March 2010 – appeal for more people to adopt small plots
- further sleepers installed to make extra plots
- bracket supplied by Exeter depot allows reinstatement of third hanging basket
- 2010-2014 struggle to keep steeper sections of embankment tidy
- various plants donated but most fail to take hold among grass, nettles etc.
- some small gardeners more diligent than others!
- Garden Club continue with three plantings a year and watering rota
- Loss of water supply leads to abandonment of hanging baskets in 2013