In October 2025, Hastings residents and community groups came together on the seafront for We Dig Hastings, a pilot planting weekend hosted by Transition Town Hastings. Over two days, more than 50 volunteers worked alongside a team of experts from Great Dixter Charitable Trust, including Fergus Garrett, Chief Executive and Head Gardener.

The team created a trial bed on the seafront at Denmark Place using a range of soil mixes with different amounts of sand, shingle and organic matter. This marked the first step in studying what type of biodiversity-rich planting thrives best in our challenging coastal conditions. The team is now monitoring which plants best withstand drought and wind damage.

The launch of the project was documented by local filmmaker Andrew Davies, whose short film shares the energy of the weekend and explains the inspiration and thinking behind the planting. The film can now be viewed on The Hastings Town Deal website.

The findings from the seafront trial planting will play a key role in helping to shape the wider landscape design for the town centre public realm project, currently scheduled to start construction in Autumn 2026.

Fergus Garrett says: “This trial marks the beginning of an exciting exploration into a possible new palette of plants that can withstand the unique challenges of our coastline – wind, salt spray, and shifting soils – and testing familiar species planted small and young in various mixtures of soil, sand, and substrate to see how they establish in different growing mediums without supplementary feed and watering.”

Over the coming year, a small team of Hastings resident volunteers, led by Great Dixter and supported by local gardener Sam Van Den Bogaerde, will track performance, resilience and maintenance needs. The next monitoring session takes place on 21 May. Everyone is welcome to drop by, ask questions and watch the team in action!

Future plant-monitoring will take place on: Thursday, 21 May 4pm-7pm, Thursday, 23 July 8.30-11.30am, Friday, 6 November 10am-1pm

For updates and to get involved with future initiatives, visit the Transition Town Hastings Facebook page facebook.com/transitiontownhastings Watch the video on: hastingstowndeal.co.uk/latest/we-dig-hastings-update-watch-our-videonbspnbsp