NewsletterJanuary2005

The Annual General Meeting of the Newton-le-Willows Gardeners’ Association will take place on Thursday 27th January 2005. The meeting will be held at the Kirkfield Hotel, Church Street, Newton-le-Willows, and will commence at 7.30pm.

AGENDA

1. Apologies for absence.

2. To read and approve the minutes of the 2004 A.G.M.

3. To discuss any matters arising from the minutes.

4. Financial report.

5. Secretary’s report.

6. Election of Officers, Committee, and Auditors for the year 2005.

7. Any other business.

Nominations for the positions of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer, General Secretary, Show Secretary, Hut Manager, and Membership Secretary, or any other items for the agenda, should be submitted to the General Secretary Mrs. Silvana Briers, at 9 The Strand, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, Lancs, WN4 8LD. Telephone number 01942 717030, by 20th January.

Our Vice-Chairman, Robin Spencer, has announced his retirement from the committee, and we are all very grateful to Robin for his loyal support over the last five years. We shall also be very sorry to lose our Treasurer of the last two years, Alistair Walton, who has expressed a wish to stand down this time.

MEMBERSHIP

Your membership fee is due for renewal on the 1st of January and you can pay and obtain your new card at the Sales Hut or by post from Mrs. Sandra Ferry at 26 Gorsey Brow, Billinge, Wigan, Lancs WN5 7NX. Tel. 01744 893423. Or why not come along to the AGM and renew your membership there! The fee is £3 per annum or £2 if you are over 60 years of age. As last year we are including with this letter a copy of our latest promotional leaflet, together with an application for membership of the Association, and we would be very grateful if

everyone could please try and recruit at least one new member during 2005. Our first priority last year was to arrest the slow decline in membership over the last few years, and with the help of the leaflet drop carried out during March and April we actually did more than this and managed to increase the membership to 629, slightly more than the total for 2003. We will probably do another leaflet delivery this year in selected areas and if you would like to help with this please contact Sandra, or leave your name and phone number at the Hut. We could also do with some volunteer postmen to deliver our newsletters twice a year, particularly in Golborne, Burtonwood, St. Helens, and Warrington. If you are interested and would like to help, again contact Sandra, or leave your name and telephone number at the Hut.

Some members have agreed to receive their newsletters by email attachment, or to be notified when they can read them on our web site. Obviously the more members who elect to do this, the more our printing and distribution costs will be reduced. If you are interested in receiving your letters electronically please contact our webmaster at inimeg29@netscape.net and state whether you would like to receive by attachment or just to be notified when the letter is available on the internet.

ERIC JENKINSON

We are very sorry to announce the death in October of Eric Jenkinson who had been a member of the Association for a very long time. Always a keen and successful exhibitor at our shows, Eric was a friendly and likeable man who always worked to very high standards. He served on the committee from 1976 to 1988, and as our Show Manager for some of that time, his insistence on things being done properly, made him an excellent candidate for the job.

SALES HUT

The shop will re-open after the winter clean-up on Sunday 9th January and the full opening times will be as follows:-

SATURDAYS: 29th January to 24th September. 10.30am to 12 noon (Closed Show Saturday 10th Sept.).

SUNDAYS: 9th January to 13th November. 10.30am to 12 noon.

WEDNESDAYS: 30th March to 15th June. 7.00pm to 8.00pm.

We will do our best to maintain prices at the same level as last year. The Cromwell Multi-purpose compost will definitely still be available at £3 for a 75litre bag and we will repeat last year’s offer of a 100litre bag of Levington Multi-purpose compost for £4.50 (the price of a 75litre bag) for as long as stocks last). This is a good offer but is for a limited period only, so please visit the Hut as soon as possible to take advantage. We also have bags of peat and wood chippings at £1.99 per bag.

The following varieties of seed potatoes, onion sets and shallots will be in stock during late January/February

First early Arran Pilot, Pentland Javelin, Rocket. All potatoes £1.75 for 3kg

Second early Wilja, Estima, Kestrel. or

Main crop Majestic, Maris Piper, Sante. 60p for 1kg

Onion sets Sturon, Turbo, Red Baron - 75p for 500gm bag.

Yellow Shallots - £1.50 for 1kg bag.

Flower, herb and vegetable seeds from Van Hage are in stock now and hopefully later on gladiolus and begonia corms will be available.

Top quality wild bird food is in stock now (supplied by CJ WildBird Foods):–.

Bedding plants will be on sale at the polytunnel at the rear of the Hut during April, May, and June, also veg. plants, herbs, and perennials. We are short of help with the plants and so would be grateful for some extra assistance with pricking out the bedding plants and generally helping around, so if anyone can spare an hour or two from time to time, this will be very

WORLDWIDE WEB

Just the usual reminder about our web site at www.nlwgardeners.homestead.com

The site contains quite a lot of information about the Association, latest news, events, show schedules, pictures etc. It is hoped that we will be able to publish some gardening articles on the site soon but these things all take a lot of time so please bear with us. Please have a look at the site if you are on the internet and let us know what you think about it by signing the guest book

CROSSWORD

Enclosed with this letter is our latest prize crossword puzzle. Our compiler has made another easy one so please have a go as the first two correct solutions out of the hat will win vouchers to be redeemed at the Hut!

2005 PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

Thursday 27th January

Annual General Meeting.

Thursday 24th February -

Annuals and the basics of seed sowing - Illustrated talk by Don Sutcliffe.

Thursday 31st March

“Chrysanthemums” – talk by Bill Dabs

Thursday 28th April

Vegetable talk by David Metcalfe of the National Vegetable Society.

Thursday 26th May

"Organic Herbs and Nutrition” – talk by Mandy Wellens-Bray.

Thursday 30th June

An evening with a wandering environmentalist, from woods and bugs to weeds and slugs. A talk by Rob Williams.

Saturday 10th September

Grand Flower & Vegetable Show. St. Aelred’s School, Birley Street, Newton. Doors open 2.0pm.

Thursday 27th October

Outdoor winter flowering displays. Talk by Veronica Finney of Lumber Lane Nursery, Burtonwood.

The Kirkfield Hotel will again be the venue for the AGM and all the evening meetings which will start at 7.30pm.

Saturday 16th April - Coach trip to Harlow Carr Gardens near Harrogate. Leave Newton (Blue Bell Hotel, High Street) at 8.30am picking up at the Harrow in Culcheth at 8.45am. Leaving from Harlow Carr at 4.0pm. Cost including coach and entrance to show - £13.

Wednesday 22nd June

- Coach trip to Holehird Gardens near Windermere (home of the Lakeland Horticultural Society), then to Hayes Garden World at Ambleside. This one starts from Culcheth and picks up in Newton High Street (outside the old police station) at 9.15am. Returning from Ambleside around 5.0pm. Cost including coach and donation to Holehird Gardens £10.

Friday 16th September - Coach trip to Harrogate Autumn Show. Leave Newton (Blue Bell Hotel) at 8.30am picking up at the Harrow in Culcheth at 8.45am. Leaving from Harrogate at 5.0pm. Cost including coach and entrance to the show £16.

More details will be available at the Hut. A deposit of £5 per person is payable on booking please.

GRAND FLOWER & VEGETABLE SHOW – SATURDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER 2004

What a wonderful day the 11th September was with such beautiful displays of flowers and vegetables. I certainly was very impressed, especially after the atrocious summer weather we endured last year, and I am sure that the large numbers of visitors to the Show were as well.

Stuart Clensy of Maghull was the most successful exhibitor being awarded the Gordon Brooks Trophy for most points in the Show and the National Dahlia Society’s silver and bronze medals. The H K Jeacock Trophy for the most points gained in the Chrysanthemum section was awarded to Ian Burns, whilst Stan Kostrzewski won the British Gladiolus Society medal, and Albert Lyon for many years the mainstay of the vegetable section was awarded the National Vegetable Society medal.

This year we introduced a children’s colouring competition which proved to be highly popular and we will be continuing this in 2005, and there will be a new photography class for the children.

Congratulations to all the exhibitors and a big thank you to everyone who exhibited and helped with the show. A fuller report with pictures appears on our web site at www.nlwgardeners.homestead.com

The Show this year will be held on Saturday 10th of September and preparations are already underway. I am already looking forward to the day and hopefully the event will be just as successful as 2004.

Ursula Siney

Show Secretary

PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSES

There will be three classes in the Show this year and these will be:-

a) Winter. b) Skyscape. c) Pets.

POSSIBLE ANNUAL ROSE SHOW

It has been suggested that we resurrect our Annual Rose Show which was last held in July 1997. The main problem with this may be finding a suitable date to avoid clashing with another local show, and also we need to look very carefully at the financial implications. It would not be a big show, and it possibly wouldn’t happen till 2006, but it would most likely include classes for roses, sweet peas, other cut flowers, pot plants, and maybe some early vegetable classes.

If any of our regular September exhibitors, and indeed anyone really, would be interested in supporting a July show, our Show Secretary, Ursula Siney, would be very pleased to hear from you. Tel. 01942 274584