Tintern Garden Club

Tintern Garden Club is a village association with approximately 40 members who have a shared interest in the Tintern Community, gardening, handicrafts and local wildlife.

The  Tintern Garden Club (previously known as the VPA) was part of a county-wide affiliation of garden clubs, all of which had strong links with the Agricultural College at Usk. The year 2000 saw the County Organisation close down due to there being insufficient interest in running the organisation among the participating VPAs. However, Tintern Garden Club has continued to operate independently within the village.

As a garden club, we have monthly meetings in the Village Hall, on the third Friday every month from January- April and September- December, starting at 7.30pm. We have an invited speaker each month with a range of subjects such as travel, flower arranging, wine making, bees in the garden, wildlife etc. In the summer months we visit two gardens instead of having indoor meetings and also have a garden party at a member’s garden. The highlight of our year is the Village Show held in August when we hold classes for vegetables, flowers, pot plants, cookery, handicrafts and photography. This is open to all village residents including children. We are also planning some day outings to gardens a bit further afield and possibly some workshops held in members gardens about specific problems such as pruning or potting on orchids and other indoor plants.

We are always happy to see new members (the subscription is great value at just £10 per year) and non-members are also always welcome to come along to meetings for a charge of £2. If you would like to join the Garden Club, please come along to one of our meetings or ring Dave Tuffery on 01291 689909 or Liz Greatorex-Davies on 01291 689861.

Garden Club reports for this year are shown below.

For earlier reports, please click here.
Stacks Image 299
Garden Club Report February 2024

Wild daffs
The first Garden club talk of 2024 was a very informative one by Mr. D Hartnell from Bristol on “The Growing of Cacti and Their History”. He had brought along some specimens from his large collection of cacti to illustrate his talk and also gave us a slide show about the history of cacti collecting. Apparently all cacti originate in the Americas but it is very difficult to collect them from the wild now as they are protected. If you want to increase your collection, you will have to buy from cacti nurseries. We also learned of the difference between cacti and succulents- quite difficult to tell in some cases!

Dave Tuffery, our chairman, thanked Mr. Hartnell and then gave out the notices. A discussion followed about planting more daffodils around the village (this time native ones) to make it more welcoming for visitors and to generally tidy up a bit.

Our speaker next month is Dede Liss from Ruardean talking on “from Grain to Bread”. This should be very interesting, especially for the bakers amongst us, of whom there are quite a number. Perhaps we will get some tips for the bread making classes at the Village Show in August!

If you would like to join us for our monthly meetings, they are held in the Village Hall on the third Friday of the month at 7.30pm. Visitors are welcome at a charge of £2.00 per head or why not join the Garden Club for £10.00 a year? We are happy to welcome new members. For information, please contact Dave on 01291689919 or Liz on 01291689861.

Judith Dudley
Garden Club Report December 2023 and January 2024

The December meeting of the Garden Club was the Christmas party which was held in the Village Hall on December 15th. This was well attended and enjoyed by all.
January's meeting was the AGM - never very popular and the cold night didn't help people to leave the warmth of their homes! However, it is a necessary meeting and the thirteen who did turn out enjoyed a pleasant evening after the business had been dealt with.
Dave Tuffery (chairman) was away so the meeting was presided over by vice-chair Colin Dudley. The minutes of the last AGM were read & approved. The chairman's report was read in which Dave thanked all the officers for their hard work running the Club in 2023. He also spoke of the talks & visits we had enjoyed throughout the year and thanked Matt & Freyja for hosting our garden party in June.
Colin then gave out the sad news that Jackie Langdon, one of our long-standing members, had passed away. Jackie had been an active club member and served as social secretary for several years. She will be sadly missed.
Bernard Bradshaw gave us the treasurer's report followed by Lindsay Cobb with the report of the Village show.
Officers for 2024 were elected and remained unchanged from 2023.
Social secretary Liz Greatorex-Davies gave out the programme for the year and the garden visits were discussed.
In any other business a discussion was held about the date for the Village show and it was decided to hold it on Saturday 3rd August. The meeting closed at 8.45pm.
Our February meeting will be in the Village Hall on 16th at 7.30pm. New members are welcome to come along. The talk will be “Growing cacti and their history” by D. Hartnell.
For more information about the Garden Club, please contact Dave Tuffery on 01291689919.

Judith Dudley
Contact
Colin Dudley
01291 689636
email parvafarm@hotmail.com