February AGM

Tuesday 2^nd February 2016

A warm welcome to all our members was given by Jenny Padfield to start our new gardening club year. We were given a lovely reminder of all the wonderful speakers, trips and activities we had over the course of 2015 from Mick Poultney’s compost tips, Foraging, Invasive Species and garden history with Nathalie Mignotte to trips to the Bristol Botanics, The Lavender Farm all ending in our alternative Christmas gathering!

Jenny had prepared the accounts for the year with her usual eye to detail, with every penny accounted for and balancing. If anyone would care to view the accounts they are more than welcome. It was noted that membership levels are down and this needs addressing if we are to go on, but our visitor numbers are up. The plant sale was a huge success and we are looking forward to doing it again this year on 8^th May. Another point made was that speakers fees are steadily increasing with travel costs being the most increased cost. It was observed that we need to ensure a balance in our spending month on month to keep a healthy bank balance, but also agreed that the club money should be used for the club as much as possible rather than gathering interest in the bank.

An interesting point was made, that in order to be more attractive to a wider audience we could alter the name of the club to The South Bristol Gardening Club. This was met with much approval and will hopefully help our drive for new members.

Many thanks are given to Jenny Padfield and Celia Williams who after years of service have stepped down from the organising team. They have really done an incredible job over the past few years, facing some challenges and giving us all the benefit of their time and efforts, and all our thanks go out to them.

We welcome back Wendy Desyllas, who has been on the organising team for a year now, and new team members Elaine Beckett who will become our Treasurer and Elizabeth Jackson who will be helping out as well.

Sadly, Emma Moore from the Calendula Project couldn’t join us in person but sent a wonderful update about the project and some of us will be looking forward to joining in with the project once again this year. If you want to put your name forward to grow some seeds on then please let Wendy know asap on wendy@frisbeecreative.co.uk

Our own Matthew Symonds gave us an update on the success of the European Green Capitol 2016. The Bedminster Secret Gardens was a roaring success and is scheduled for 2 dates again this year. Some gardens from last year will be open again with another 50% of previously unseen secret gardens being added to the list. £1200 was raised by the scheme last year which enabled the planting of a community orchard opposite Dean Lane Swimming Pool. Look out for more information and if you would like to get involved either contact Matthew through the club or leave him a message at the Southville Centre. It has also been confirmed that the Good Garden Awards will be going ahead again this year, with us all striving to get an award as a thankyou from the team encouraging us to keep our front gardens looking beautiful. Patchwork group are getting together to transform the disused church entrance on North Street to create a parklet!

If you haven’t seen, we have a new tea rota for this year with many gaps, so please could you put your name down to help if possible.

Many thanks to you all and see you in March!