Annual General Meeting 2014

Thirty-one members of the Garden Club met on Thursday 20th November for the AGM. This was held a month later than usual, in order to accommodate the speaker for October.
The Chairman and Treasurer were re-elected. Winnie and Wendy stood down as Vice-chair and Secretary. Peter was elected Vice-chair and Lyn was elected Secretary.
The Chairman reported on another successful and enjoyable year for the club. The Treasurer agreed but reported that since the finances were not quite as healthy as previous years it would be a good time to increase the entrance fees. This was an item on the agenda, the fees having remained the same since the inception of the club. The members were all in agreement that the entrance fees should rise. A suggestion came from the floor that the annual subscription should also rise. This motion was a popular one and was carried.
The Flower of the Month Competition was won by Kathleen with a penstemon.

Pruning - especially trees and bushes

For our October meeting on Thursday 16th we welcomed back Trevor Rogers. We had a very large turnout, including five visitors, and the evening proved to be lively and enjoyable. Trevor gave us a really interesting talk about pruning. He covered all the basic principles of tools, methods, timings and techniques - most of them illustrated - and was happy to answer numerous questions afterwards.
We again had a large number of entries for the Flower of the Month Competition. It was won by Ann Boggis with an extremely large dahlia.

Drought-resistant Gardening

We were expecting to listen to David Chatters talking about fuchsias for our September meeting. Unfortunately David was unable to attend - we wish him a speedy recovery.
Instead Tony gave us a talk about the various strategies to use to cope with drought in our gardens. Since our weather patterns vary so much the information should prove useful. He told us about water storage and optimal watering techniques as well as some of the science of soil structure. He also told us about the ways in which plants have evolved to cope with drought conditions. This led on to the types of plants that are drought tolerant and thus useful in our gardens.
We had a good number of entries in the Flower of the Month competition - it was won by Pauline Barkworth with a dahlia.
Also we were pleased to welcome four new members to the club - Linda and Steve Pidgeon, John Bennett and Kath Wood.

Annual Flower and Produce Show

Bicker and District Garden Club held their Annual Flower and Produce Show on Thursday 21st August. We had a good attendance and all the classes were well supported. As usual the cakes, jams and chutneys had to be sampled before being voted on. It was a very enjoyable evening. The above photograph is of the winning entry in the novelty class - a clock on a plate. Gill Sayer had put a lot of thought into her clock and was a worthy winner.

Our Summer Event - A Garden Party

Peter and Ronnie again kindly hosted our summer event in their garden. Around thirty garden club members enjoyed Pimms, lovely food and good company in attractive surroundings. To top it all the weather was glorious.

An Outing to Bressingham Gardens

We had a trip to Bressingam Gardens which are near Diss in Norfolk, on Monday 7th July. A number of friends joined us. The weather was lovely - fine all day, but not too hot. The gardens looked beautiful and we all had a very enjoyable day out.

Ornamental Grasses

Our speakers on Thursday 19th June had travelled a long way to see us. John and Gail Summerfield have a plant nursery, Westshores, at Whitton which is five miles north of Scunthorpe. They specialise in ornamental grasses and that was the subject of their talk to us. Their talk was very entertaining as well as informative. They also brought along a good selection of reasonably priced plants.
The Flower of the Month Competition was won by Barbara with some Black Lace Elderberry.

Cottage Favourites

For our May meeting on Thursday 15th we were pleased to welcome back one of our regular and popular speakers - Andrew Sankey. I believe the turnout was the largest we have ever had and Andrew's talk was very well received. He told us about many cottage garden plants, illustrated with photographs. Andrew also spoke about their use as herbal remedies and their many country names. He also brought along plants for us to buy.
The Flower of the Month Competition was won by Carl with a very large red poppy. The competition was really well supported this month.

Doddington Hall: the House & Gardens

         © Copyright Jo Turner and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

We were pleased to welcome David Logan as speaker for our April meeting on Thursday 17th. David is the Head Gardener at Doddington Hall - and has been for about a year. He gave us a short history of the house. It is an Elizabethan building whose footprint is the shape of a letter "E" to honour the first Elizabeth. David also told us about the development of the various gardens, formal, wild and kitchen, with accompanying photographs.
The Flower of the Month competition was won by Penny with an aquilegia.
We are again pleased to welcome some new members - this time Carl and Christine, who live in Swineshead.

Clematis

Our March meeting was held on the evening of Thursday 20th. We were pleased to welcome as our speaker Jackie Sturgess of Sholtsgate Nursery,Whaplode. Jackie grows many varieties of clematis for garden centres. She told us a bit about the history of clematis plants and showed us photos of different types. She also brought along a good variety of clematis plants for us to buy - at a very reasonable price. The evening was quite informal and people were able to ask plenty of questions about pruning, planting, situation etc.
The Flower of the Month Competition was won by Kathleen with a primula.

Organic Vegetable Growing

 click photo to go to Vine House Farm website

We were pleased to welcome Nicholas Watts, of Vine House Farm, Deeping St. Nicholas, as our speaker for the February meeting on Thursday 20th. Nicholas farms some of his land in the conventional manner and some of it organically. He explained how conventional farming, with the spraying of weeds, is not kind to wildlife - especially birds. This is because no weeds mean no insects and thus no food for birds. Nicholas grows organic vegetables and also organic seeds for other farmers. He also grows large quantities of seed for wild birds. Last year he sold 1,500 tonnes of it to his customers.
Our membership continues to increase. We were pleased to welcome four new members - Shaun, Val, Sandra and Margaret.
The Flower of the Month Competition was won by Pauline Ranson with some Wych Hazel.

Happy New Year!

Bicker & District Garden Club held their first meeting of 2014 on Thursday 16th January.The speaker for the evening was Tony, our chairman, and his talk was entitled "Flowers and Photography". Tony showed us many photos of flowers - which brightened a dark winter evening. He gave us ideas for taking better photographs and also more unusual ones. His suggestions ranged from close-ups of flower borders to interior shots of arrangements in church flower festivals.
We were pleased to welcome two new members to the club - Terry and Edwina.
The Flower of the Month Competition was won by Barbara with some winter jasmine.