Greenfingers Gardening Club
the current Gardening Club started with humble beginnings in 1997. A meeting was arranged in the Village Hall Long Room on 20/10/1997 and we put twelve chairs out in the hope that somebody would turn up on the night! As it transpired there was a love of gardening and just over thirty people arrived and “Greenfingers” as it has become known was born.
It was suggested that we should have a monthly meeting in the Stockton-on-the-Forest Village Hall on the first Monday of each month and that is still basically the same format today. The first year getting established was fun and most of the monthly meetings were run by Nigel Collinson, doing general talks, quizzes, plant identifications and the like. On a sad note several of the original members have now sadly passed away but their memories live on within the club.
The general format of the club is now fairly well established in September, October, November, December, (not January in case of inclement weather), February, March and April we invite a guest speaker to come along and give us about an hour to an hour & a half presentation. The content varies greatly from growing your “5 a day”, perennial plants, where to grow them and how to propagate them, Burton Agnes Hall gardens.... the subject matter varies so much. In May, June & July we endeavour to arrange visits to local gardens, nurseries or places of interest. We have been to Andrew at Vertigrow, our friends at Deans Garden Centre & to Joe Maidens nursery near Harrogate to name but a few.
In December we hold our Annual General Meeting which has to be said generally only lasts 30 minutes, a sign that things generally run very smoothly and that club members are happy. After the AGM we usually have festive eats and drinks in the Village Hall Long Room, all members bringing along “donations” to the evening. We have also in recent years started holding an annual Garden Festival usually in early to mid September; Pat Jennings has kindly been at the helm of this event until this year when Valerie Crossley took over the reins along with the help of our Festival Committee.
If you would like to join the gardening club annual membership is currently £10 per person and runs from 1st January to 31st of December. We also charge £1 per meeting for members & £2 on the door for non-members who are most welcome. Our summer visits are priced individually dependant on the places that we visit. We also provide members with a regular newsletter; contributions are always gratefully received in the way of articles, tips, recipes, suggested places to visit and the like. Also you can use your membership card to get a 10% discount at places like Deans Garden Centre & Rogers Plant Nursery at Pickering.
For further information please contact Valerie Crossley on (01904) 400601 or email: valeriecrossley1@hotmail.co.uk
