Say Hello to Thistles Market Garden!

We received lots of fantastic applications from charities and good causes to be our Charity of the Year in 2025, but the overwhelming winner in our staff vote was Thistles Market Garden near Boston. 

Thistles in Sutterton supports adults with a learning disability and currently provides purposeful activities in horticulture to 22 people from Boston, Spalding, Heckington and Holbeach. 

Choosing between all the applicants is always a very difficult decision, but Thistles offers such an amazing service to people in the Boston area with a learning disability that we knew we’d love to support them this year. 

Not only that, but we’re a green fingered bunch and we love a bit of gardening, so in many ways it was a no-brainer!  

Our partnership with Thistles 

Throughout 2025 we will be working with Thistles for free, helping them with their marketing, profile raising and social media and setting some fund-raising targets that we really hope to smash this year. 

Manager Michael Burgess said: “We’re over the moon to have been chosen and very grateful to the guys at Shooting Star for offering to help us this year. 

“We’ve made a lot of progress and grown the charity over the past two years, but we’re ambitious to do more, and we’re sure Shooting Star will be able to help us achieve our goals.  

“We’re looking forward to putting together a marketing and fund-raising plan for this year, so watch this space!” 

Thistles is the 18th charity we’ve helped since we launched our Charity of the Year initiative in 2009. Organisations we’ve supported in the past include Help Me, I’m Fine, Headway Lincolnshire, Sophie’s Journey and the Children’s Bereavement Centre. 

You can read about all our past charities on our charity page. 

Did you know you can buy fresh produce from Thistles? Find out more by visiting their website: www.thistlesmarketgarden.net. 

Stay tuned for more news and exciting events from Thistles over the coming months!