The club aims to provide a monthly programme of talks,
competitions and other activities, on all aspects of gardens
and gardening, covering the needs of both the expert and the
complete beginner. We also have excursions to places of
interest. Activities are held in an informal and friendly
atmosphere, and talks are followed by the opportunity to
exchange news and views over a cup of tea. Visitors are
welcome to attend the meetings
Annual Membership £7. Visitors £1.00.
Do come along!
The programme of events for 2010/11 is posted
below
Our next meeting
on Thursday 7th April 2011 in the Chapel
Vestry (7pm for 7-30pm start)
is Ness Gardens by the head Gardener Paul Cook.
Please note
the change of Venue
The competition is A Vase of Spring Flowres
and the
photograph is of
Your Favourite Garden
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Previous Meetings
The new season had a great start in May
with Kate Taylor from Denbighshire County
Council giving us a talk on Biodiversity.
Some frightening facts made us realise just how many plants
and animals are being lost around the world. But then she
gave us tips on how we can all play a part in our gardens to
help our native flora and fauna survive.
The Gardeners Question Time evening in
June, prompted many questions, which were
ably answered by our local experts - Jim Buchanan
and Graham Pickles. Everyone picked up some tips on
how to improve our plants and gardens.
Later that month our plant sale and coffee morning was a
huge success, raising £480.
A big Thank You to everyone who contributed in any way.
July
saw Graham Pickles back again, this time
giving us an excellent talk on Roses.
He explained about the different types of Roses and brought
along some plants to demonstrate how they should be pruned.
With tips on the way to grow them and how to combat pests
and diseases, we should all have beautiful roses in our
gardens next year.
Our Garden Visit was to the nearby garden
of Bryn Bella in Tremeirchion, which
features an award winning gravel garden, designed by the
multi gold medal winner Andy Sturgeon. Open under the
National Garden Scheme to the public, we enjoyed a private
visit in the evening.
After the Summer
break, we returned on
September 2nd
when
David Toyne gave us a fascinating talk all
about
Vegetables.
David showed his
expertise by bringing along a book he had written on the
subject along with another that he recommended. His talk
covered various topics, such as soil preparation and site
selection, to the different vegetables we can grow,
including some unusual ones we may not normally think of.
We were also
given tips on how to grow vegetables in containers and even
how to cook them!
So there is now no excuse for not growing our own tasty veg.
Sadly there were no entries for
The Most Unusual Vegetable
but the Best Photograph of
The Fruit and Veg Garden was won by
Marguerite Andrews
2nd place
Lynda Jones and 3rd place
Gwyneth Wynne
October 7th
saw
Mike Blackburn returning to give us Part 2
of his
Mountain Garden talk.
Mike is a keen
photographer, so knows all about light and how to make best
use of it in a scene.
His garden has
spectacular views of the mountains and coast towards
Anglesey and Puffin Island, so has been designed to make
best use of the ever changing light and views in all
seasons. There are many trees and shrubs planted in
combination to give interest throughout the year and provide
natural habitats for a wide variety of wildlife. He stressed
that we should view our garden as a whole including
'borrowed' plants and views from neighbouring gardens and
the countryside, rather than just looking at individual
plants. Make the most of light and place plants where they
will be seen to best effect.
The competition for
The Heaviest Yield of Potatoes was won by
Wenna Roberts with 7.5 Lbs
Joint 2nd with 7 Lbs were
Margueritte Andrews and
Peter Saunders
3rd place went to
Lynda Jones with 6.5 Lbs
The Photograph of
Mountains and Streams was won by
June Lawrenson
2nd place
Gwyneth Wynne and 3rd place
Basil Jones
Les
Starling
spoke about
Trees and Woods of North East Wales on
November 4th.
Les used to work
as a Forestry Officer and so knew his stuff. He gave us an
interesting talk, not only about the trees themselves, but
also about the wide variety of wildlife to be found there.
He explained how
important our woods are to biodiversity and how the animals
such as the Dormouse adapts to the type of woodland
available.
The competition
for a
Plate of Three Apples was won by
Gwynedd Wynne
2nd place
R.D. Jones and 3rd
Wenna Roberts
The Photograph of
A Tree in Summer was won by
Marguerite Andrews
2nd place
June Lawrenson and 3rd place
Sue Rumbold
The meeting
decided that the Annual Dinner, on 27th January 2011 will be
at Nant-y-Felin, Llanrhaeadr. Menus will be circulated at
the next meeting.
In February, we will have a Members Evening, which will take
the form of a General Knowledge Quiz and Picture Quiz (not
plants) followed by cheese and wine.
For our
December 9th meeting we went on a fantastic
visit to Bhutan with Tim Lever.
With a party of
other travellers he trekked 110 miles over 18 days, high up
in the mountains of central Bhutan. Reaching a height of
18,000 feet, with all the ups and downs he climbed an
equivalent of 25,000 feet. They had a team of 25 yaks with
sherpa’s to carry all the food, tents and equipment for this
amazing journey.
In search of a
red poppy they eventually found it high up in the mountains.
His stunning photographs showed off the landscape as well as
the wonderful flora he encountered.
The competition
for a
Winter Arrangement was won by
Gwynedd Wynne
2nd place Lynda
Jones and 3rd Sue Rumbold
The Photograph of
A Bridge was won by
Sue Rumbold
2nd place
Mike Smith and 3rd place Basil Jones
Since our last formal meeting in
December, we have held two successful social evenings.
January was our annual dinner at the Nant y Felin
Restaurant, Llanrhaeadr.
A much enjoyed evening with
lovely food, well served by a very pleasant staff.
As an experiment, in
February, we decided on a quiz night with a few glasses
of wine, cheese and biscuits, grapes and celery, etc.
A successful evening,
enjoyed by all present – we expect it will be repeated.
The competition for A
Pot of Bulbs was won by Lynda Jones
2nd Margaret Buttrick
The Photograph of A
Garden was won by June Lawrenson
2nd Sue Rumbold and
3rd Mike Smith
The AGM
took place on March 3rd. Mike Smith has taken over from Jill
K. Bunting as Programme Secretary and Tanya Smith has joined
the committee and taken over as Refreshments Organiser. We
had two resignations, otherwise the rest of the Committee
agreed to stand again for another year.
After the
business part of the meeting, Graham Pickles gave a
most interesting talk on some new products in his Garden
Centre, Greenfingers in Denbigh.
The competition
for A Pot of Daffodils was won by Eluned Jones
2nd June
Lawrenson; Joint 3rd Lynda Jones &
Gwynedd Wynne
The Photograph
of A Winter Tree was won by Jim Buchanan
2nd Wenna
Roberts and 3rd Eluned Jones
Paul Cook, the Curator of Liverpool University and
Ness Gardens, on the Wirral, was the speaker at the March
meeting. He gave us the history of the gardens and their
subsequent ongoing development. The Visitor Centre, Cafe
and gardens are continually being changed and developed and
it was good to hear that the bad winter had affected their
plants also!!
The winner of the photographic competition - 'Your
"Favourite Garden' was Sue Rombold - 2nd Lynda
Jones and 3rd June Lawrenson.
The vase of spring flowers competition was won by June
Lawrenson, 2nd Gwyneth Wynn and 3rd Eluned
Jones.
The next meeting on May 5th with be held in the Chapel (not
the Vestry) when the speaker will be Jane Allison - her
topic - 'Making the most of your space. The competition
will be 'Flowers in a Teacup' and the photograph -
'A Garden Archway'.
Subscriptions will be due at £7.00 per member and the
programme for the year distributed.
Jane Allison, a garden designer and nursery grower from
Cheshire was our speaker in May. Her topic was 'Making the
Most of your Space'. We were given tips on what to grow
and where to grow them with photographs to illustrate her
talk.
The photograph competition of 'A Garden Archway' was
won by Sue Rumbold, 2nd Jim Buchanan & 3rd Lynda Jones.
The competition of 'Flower in a Teacup' was won
by Sue Rumbold, 2nd Wenna Roberts & 3rd June Lawrenson.
The next mtg. on June 2nd is a visit to Sue Rumbold's
garden, 5 Ffordd Bryn y Garn from 7.0 pm onwards. Do come
and enjoy a glass of wine and criticise the garden, etc.
The competition will be a photo of 'A Stone Wall.
There will be a raffle as usual,.
On
Sat. June 4th the annual coffee morning and plant
sale in the Church Institute will take place - from 9.0 pm
until 12.0 noon.
There will also be bric-a-brac, cakes and a grand raffle.
All welcome
