Gardening Club Current Events
Outing to Hartland Abbey Monday 8th May
There will be an outing to Hartland Abbey and non-members are most welcome to join the trip. The coach is £14.50 per person which includes entrance to the Garden only. If you wish to go around the Abbey there is an additional charge of £3.00 per person. The coach leaves the Square at 9.45 am with pick ups in Braunton and Barnstaple, leaving Hartland Abbey at 3.30 pm.
To book a place please contact Jan on 01271 879599.
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16th March 2017
The first meeting of the 2017/2018 year saw a record 41 attend an Annual General Meeting. Of those attendees 10 people joined with new members from Braunton, Bickington Fremington and Chittlehampton.
The AGM took its normal format and we were pleased to welcome Nina Parry back on the committee – who are now ‘The Magnificent Seven’. Again it would be nice to welcome some new, younger blood to the Club to ensure its survival. Subscriptions will be kept at £6 per annum and £2 entry for members and £2.50 for non members.
The competition winners for the year 2016/2017 were joint first – Pat Rothwell and Ruth Verney and second – Gill Ginnings. Details of an extra event were announced – a trip to Hartland Abbey on Monday, 8th May by coach – we were impressed with the garden when Nigel Alford, the head gardener, visited last year.
Andy gave us a demonstration of the new remote control screen and said the new projector was to be fitted soon so we would be able to make use of the new equipment bought for the Parish Hall from grant applications made by us and the W.I. to secure funds from the Solar Park Grant.
Our new members from Fremington Gardening Club invited us to their 150th anniversary party on Wednesday, 17th May. Their Chair had delved into the North Devon Journal records to establish when the club was formed – we thought we were doing well at sixteen years old. As well as the celebration goodies to eat and drink, Mark Baker from Tiverton Canal will come along to entertain us.
We were delighted to welcome Anni and Graham from North Devon Hedgehog Rescue based at the bottom of Fox Hill just before the A361. Graham started the evening off with a clever hedgehog quiz – he asked the questions we had three possible answers to choose from – what a clever way of getting over facts and figures about hedgehogs. He told us more as he told us the answers. It was a sad fact that many members had not seen a hedgehog for years – an indication of how few of these lovely creatures are about nowadays. A few had been spotted in the local area which is good as there are so many badgers around. Anni then told us how she cares for the hedgehogs she rescues and there were lots of photos to look at and pamphlets to read. She explained to us how we as gardeners can prevent them from getting injured, drowned or poisoned.