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Garden Organic plugs 100k income shortfall

An organic gardening charity that axed 16 staff last year due to an income shortfall of £100,000 claims its finances are back on track.
Garden Organic (formerly HDRA) launched an urgent appeal for donations before Christmas, warning that vital projects risked being "shelved indefinitely" (AG, 19/26 December 2009).
The charity went into partnership with garden centre firm Webbs which now runs retail operations at Ryton Organic Gardens.
Garden Organic director of horticulture, Bob Sherman, said: "Things are a lot better for us. We made painful cuts last year but are now employing as many people as we did in 2009. Projects will not be lost, the research team are nearly all still here and we have good funding for them."
Bob added: "Webbs signed up to our organic gardening guidelines. We now have a professional retail partner on site. They know how to sell things - we can get on with being a charity. Webbs will only sell organic, sustainable and ethical products in our shop here."
Asked about last year’s £100,000 income shortfall, Bob replied: "We expected to end the year on a loss but actually had a slight surplus."