The Garden Club meets at 7.30pm every 4th Thursday of the month in the Village Hall (Melchett Hall), unless otherwise stated. Annual subscription for 2007 remains at £7. The cost for visitors is £2 for meetings, although different charges apply for visits and events. Refreshments of tea or coffee and biscuits are provided free of charge at normal meetings. Club members benefit from a 10% discount at Courtens Garden Centre in the village and discounted seed/bulb orders. We are hoping to introduce a plant sale/swap at meetings in the Village Hall, when members can bring surplus plants.

The Club tries to organise a varied and interesting programme, including outings, barbecue, pumpkin competition and a quiz evening. In June we have a plant stall at Whiteparish Fete and shall be very grateful for any plants you can spare on the day for sale to replenish Club funds.

For reports of our 2005 activities, click here. For reports of our 2006 activities, click here.

For photos of some of our recent activities in the website's Galleries section, click here.

Our AGM was held on November 22nd, when the minutes of the last AGM were adopted. Colin Iles, our Chairman welcomed members and he was pleased to report a good year overall and thanked the Committee for their support throughout. He was delighted that Stella Gardener has agreed to take over from Dave Boakes as Treasurer, however a vacancy still remains for Club Secretary, as Ilona Hocking has “retired” from that post. He thanked them both for their hard work and input over the years. Dave Boakes reported that financially, the Club is in good shape and we have a net surplus of £384 compared to a loss of £122 last year. The May plant sale and the stall at the fete helped to boost our finances considerably. The Treasurer gave special thanks to John Butcher for kindly auditing the accounts. Membership fees are to remain at £10.00, and at present we have 45 paid up members. Kate Roberts gave a résumé of our 2008 programme and asked members to let her know if they had any suggestions for future visits or subjects they would like covered by guest speakers. The club’s 2008 programme of events is listed below.

After the AGM closed we were very lucky to have Pat Woodruffe share her slides and experiences of a recent trip to the Algarve, Portugal. We were “whisked away” to warm sunshine and the most exquisite plants and flowers that live around the coastline. The amazing thing was that most of them could easily be grown in this country! We all appreciated her vast knowledge and enthusiasm, so thank you Pat for entertaining us. The evening concluded with a sociable gathering around a table laden with tasty bites and a glass of wine.

Our first meeting of the year is on January 24th when Douglas Patterson will give us a talk on Rosemoor RHS Garden. It is a beautiful garden and much to look forward to.

The Club Committee send Season's Greetings to all members and friends.

49 adults and 15 children supported this event with a total of 298 exhibits (43 adults, 17 children 321 entries last year), a very pleasing number, as this year the rules were changed to only one exhibit per class per person compared with two items per class in 2006. On one of the few hot, sunny days this summer, a lot of people dropped in to admire the display, have a cup of tea and buy some raffle tickets. The Flowers and Floral Decorations Sections in particular looked stunning, as did the tea table decorations of sweetly scented roses and greenery, which were subsequently raffled. As usual the judges praised the quality of the exhibits and the overall appearance of the Show, which made all the hard work of the committee and the people entering their produce worthwhile. The cups and prizes were presented by our Community Beat Officer, Henry Clissold, who, arriving in uniform, gave rise to some speculation on whether the village hall had become a crime scene!!

The programme from January 2008 to early 2009 is as follows: