Notes on the April Meeting of FOTV Costessey Community Gardening Club held in the Jerningham Room, the Costessey Centre at 7.30 on Wednesday 20th April 2022.
Pauline Williamson welcomed the 21 people attending the meeting, extending a special warm welcome to the three new potential members who were visiting in response to social media advertising, and to Vilius, attending to support Henry with technology support for the club.
She apologized for the last-minute cancellation of the March meeting due to her ill health. To prevent this happening in the future, she asked for a couple of volunteers who could “take the reins” at the last minute to ensure that the meeting would still run. Virginia and Sheila Harris volunteered. Similarly, it would be appreciated if members would be prepared to assist with running the raffle should Lella be unwell, and with preparing refreshments should Linda and Sian be unwell. If Pauline is unable to attend, lifts would be appreciated for Sian and Linda (Grove Avenue and Easthills Road) neither of whom have their own transport. The formation of a WhatsApp group for the club has greatly facilitated communication between members e.g. to arrange watering sessions or last minute rearrangements etc.
She highlighted that following the successful launch of the club, which had been assisted by the generous free venue hire of the Rymartz Gallery by Costessey Town Council, we now needed to hire a larger room, the Jerningham Room, at a charge of £25 per month. In order to prevent the raising of our membership fees to cover this cost, she had successfully applied for a South Norfolk Council “Go For It” Grant of £300 which covers the annual venue hire.
She pointed out that there were some tomato plants and other items for sale, with proceeds going towards club funds. She encouraged members to bring along any surplus plants to future meetings, as well as to raise other plants in preparation for our stall at the Costessey Fete.
Pauline gave a brief update on the Well-BEE-ing Garden. She had just completed the End of Grant Report for the garden as it was six months since we had been awarded the initial £5000 by Saffron Housing Trust that enabled us to install the first five hexagonal beds and to plant the original structural plants. Some extra planting of all seven beds will continue from the end of April though into May. She mentioned the next two watering sessions and asked for volunteers. Again, as a measure of delegation, she asked for two members to volunteer to take the role of collecting the watering kit from her garden at such time as she may be unable to provide the kit herself. Maureen and Debbie volunteered.
She said that the Sensory Garden beds at Brooklands Care Home were almost ready for planting and asked for volunteers to join a group of members to plant up this garden. On Tuesday, 3rd May a group of seven members planted this Sensory Garden to the approval of staff and residents at the care home. We have been invited to join them for their Platinum Jubilee Grand Opening of the Sensory Garden on June 3rd. A really successful completion of one of our community gardening projects! Photographs are to be found on our Facebook page and on our website.
Pauline talked about the stall that we shall be sharing with Henry and his Britannia Garden Centre at the Costessey Fete and gave some preliminary details, asking for volunteers to help with the stall. The stall will run on Friday 3rd June from 10.00 to 5 pm, and from 8.00 to 5 pm on Saturday. She asked for volunteers to assist and made a list of those who volunteered. Details discussed included who could provide necessary hardware such as tables, chairs, gazebo, plantstand etc. At present, we hope to run a raffle and a quiz, sell plants, show a display of our club projects and provide sunflower plants for children to nurture. The stall will need a banner and bunting. Only one car will be allowed by the stall. We shall discuss the stall in greater detail at the next meeting in order for this event to be a successful and enjoyable fund-raiser and to promote our community gardening club to local residents. Please bring along any further suggestions to the next meeting.
Pauline also suggested a future venture for the club, that of informal coffee mornings in members’ gardens, possibly with visitors donating cakes, plants etc, as a social fund-raising effort, making the most of sharing our gardens with other members, sharing ideas, planting layouts etc. These coffee mornings could be once a month, possibly during the first week of each month, half way between our monthly meetings.
To extend our “Plants For Free, - Propagation” theme, Virginia kindly demonstrated some easy house plant propagation techniques, using specimen plants of String of Hearts (Ceropegia woodii), String of Beads, (Senecio rowleyanus) and Hoya canosa – the wax flower – an evergreen perennial with fragrant flowers. She also kindly offered packets of wildflower seeds collected from her garden to members. There was also a discussion about members’ tips for slug control in response to Julia’s query.
The next meeting of the club will be on Wednesday 18th May. Doors open at 7.00 pm for a 7.30 start.