Coach Trip to West Dean 25 July 2024

Our coach trip this year is to West Dean Gardens near Chichester.

This is one of the best restored gardens open today. Originally started in 1622, with many changes over the years, admire the walled kitchen garden, Victorian glass houses, Edwardian pergola, arboretum, sunken garden, river garden and much more. The garden is mainly flat but West Dean only have 2 manual wheelchairs (these cannot be pre-booked and the gardens are over a large area). There is a restaurant and coffee shop but do check their website (www.westdean.ac.uk) for more details.

Pick up will be Walton Ponds – 9am, Tadworth Bridge – 9.05am and Kingswood – 9.10am.  We will aim to leave West Dean at 3.30pm so back around 5pm.

The cost will be £32 per person. To secure your space we will require a deposit of £10 per person and the balance of £22 by 13th July.

Please contact Cathy and David for more information.

Annual General Meeting 14 August at 7.00pm  followed by a talk Beekeeping and the Asian Hornet Pauline Lane

This will be held at  St John's Church, The Avenue,Tadworth,KT20 5AB. Agenda below

Pauline and her husband started beekeeping 8 years ago and they have 2 hives in their garden in Cranleigh and 3 more in a field on a nearby estate. They are active members of the Guildford Association and are both involved in the Theory and Practical Training course for new Beekeepers. They find this a very fulfilling and enjoyable activity and bees continue to amaze and enthral them. They will also bring some honey for us to buy.

Saturday 28 September 2024 at 10.30  Main Hall Steve Edney - The Long Border

Steve Edney and Louise Dowle created the no name nursery out of a desire to share great garden plants with fellow garden lovers, both Lou and Steve are professional gardeners with Steve having been the head gardener at the award winning Salutation gardens in Sandwich for 17 years. The new venture is set on a 3 acre site which is designed as a plant playground for growing and testing plants with the aim of sharing these plants for sale in a sustainable manner by growing on site ourselves.

They don’t want to be Pidgeon-holed into one group of plants but  they have a real love of perennials and exotics so you’ll always see those on their display table plus all sorts of special plants to suit a range of situations.

They hold 4 national collections of plants. Persicaria virginiana cv’s, dark leaved dahlia’s, pseudopanax cv’s and plectranthus.

100m long and 6m deep the long border is one of the major highs of the no name nursery, 2,000 perennials, tree’s, shrubs and roses make up the hundreds of plant species planted for late summer, autumn and winter interest makes this border different from most. This lecture looks at the borders creation, maintenance and highs through the season, with of course lots of plant recommendations.

Saturday 2 November @10.30 in the meeting Room Caroline Halfpenny 

Scentsational Gardening A month by month look at different plants that can be grown to give us wonderful scents in our garden. Interactive with sample plants to sniff

Caroline is passionate about gardening and the landscape, she began her horticultural career with Gravesham Borough Council with responsibility for the Grounds Maintenance Contracts from the Riverside out to Camer Park. In addition she managed to secure the role of Allotments Officer which she loved, as she enjoys growing fruit and vegetables and wandering round allotments was a dream job.  She was guilty of organising the daffodils growing through the verges from Meopham to Gravesend (cheeky as it was her route to work).

She then became a self employed gardener while she completed her degree in Landscape Management and became a Mum.

From 2007 to 2014 she managed the Diploma in Horticulture at Hadlow College at both the Tonbridge and Canterbury site, in addition to lecturing at all levels from schools and Foundation through to Higher Education. She still lectures part time today as well as running Growth Matters , which covers all her loves Gardening and Education.

22 February 2025 10.30 Meeting Room

Jacqueline Aviolet - I am a Tulip

More information to follow