FINDON VILLAGE GARDENS ASSOCIATION

The Findon Village Gardens Association welcomes new members. We meet at 7:30pm on the last Friday in each month (except December) in the Village Hall. We normally have a guest speaker, with subjects ranging from horticulture to the history of canals; from trug making to natural history.         

We have an annual light-hearted quiz night, a Christmas Social evening and of course our two Flower shows, enabling members to grow and show prize blooms and vegetables, plus of course the cookery, photography and handicraft sections. During the year, visits to gardens and other places of interest are arranged, which make for a most enjoyable day or half day out. There is truly something for everyone. 

Annual membership is £5 with a £2 entry to the monthly meeting to include tea and biscuits.

Committee:

Chairman – Derek McCourty
Membership Secretary – Richie Line
Treasurer – Sue Line
Show Secretary – Sue Brown
Committee Members:
 Maureen Bowen
 Liz McCourty
 Rita Simmons
 Olwen Williams
 Paddy Winter

Dates for 2024:

29th March – 7:30pm monthly meeting 
Guest speaker: Jo Reading - Ferring Country Centre Commercial Co-ordinator

6th April – 2pm Spring Flower Show 

26th April – 7:30pm monthly meeting    
Guest speaker: Amanda Colberg - Garden Designer. Gardening for drought

31st May – 7:30pm monthly meeting     
Guest speaker: Martyn Cox. The secret history of vegetables 

28th June – 7:30pm monthly meeting
Guest speaker: Ben Pope. Making the most of what you have

26th July – 7:30pm monthly meeting
Guest speaker: Molly & Dan - Chalkdown Flowers. Establishing a sustainable cut flower farm

3rd August - 2pm Summer Flower Show

30th August – Quiz Night, bring a bottle

27th September – 7:30pm monthly meeting
Guest speaker: Jim Buttress. 65 years in horticulture

25th October – 7:30pm monthly meeting
Guest Speaker: Andrew Elms - Lordington Lavendar

29th November – 7:30pm monthly meeting
Guest speaker: TBC

6th December - 7.30pm Christmas Social 

2025

31st January - Annual General Meeting  

JULY MEETING

SPEAKER

Our speakers this month are Molly and Dan who own and run Chalk Farm Flowers in Rogers Lane, Findon. Established in November 2022 Chalk Farm Flowers is a sustainable flower farm growing seasonal cut flowers. They are both passionate in what they do and every decision made is dedicated to caring for the environment around them. Their talk is an insight into how they established themselves locally and the everyday running of this delightful enterprise.

SUMMER SHOW     SATURDAY 3rd AUGUST

With less than 2 weeks to our Summer Flower Show, please look in the Show Booklet for the extensive list of classes available for you to enter. Vegetables, Flowers, Floral Art, Cookery, Handicrafts, Photography and an easy Chocolate Cake are all classes which are just waiting for you to enter !!! It has been said many times that the success of the Show is down to the number of entries so PLEASE try and make an entry in at least one class. We absolutely love having lots of entries for the judges to deliberate over, it really does make a Show.

At the Spring Show, we had 123 entries which came from just 25 members. It would be really great if we could encourage more members to get involved and enter some of the classes.

If you don’t have an entry form, they will be available at the July club evening and entry forms must be into Peckham’s Butchers by 10.00am on Thursday 1st August.

The Cake Stall is always popular with our members and we would greatly appreciate any donations of home-made cakes for sale on the day of the Show.

Derek and Liz will be running the plant stall and would welcome donations from your own garden if you have been dividing plants. A label and colour of flower always helps when selling.

There will also be a “Pre-loved Garden Tools” stall. If you have any surplus garden tools, decorative pots, planters or garden gnomes which you would like to donate they can be brought to the Village Hall on Friday 2nd August between 6.00pm and 7.00pm or Saturday 3rd August between 8.00 and 12.00pm (Nothing electrical please).

QUIZ NIGHT     FRIDAY 30th AUGUST

This year, our Quiz Night will be run by local Quizmaster Steve Sharp and will also include a light buffet. To allow us to provide the food, we do need to establish how many people will be coming on the evening.

With this in mind, it will be necessary for you to purchase a ticket beforehand. These will be available at both the July club evening and the Summer Show. The cost of a ticket is the usual entry cost of £2.00 per person. Non-members and Guests will be charged £4.00 p/p.  Please bring your own drinks.

If you would like to book a table (Teams of 6 ), please let it be known when you purchase your tickets. This is a general knowledge quiz. It is not specific to gardening, although you never know what the questions will be!! There will be a raffle and also prizes for the Quiz winners!!

FLOWER OF THE MONTH

Our guest speakers will be choosing “Flower of the Month”. It would be nice to give them a good selection to choose from. As we are entering a hot Summer, there can be no excuses for not bringing along your prize blooms !!!  The winner receives a £5.00 garden voucher.

We look forward to seeing you all on Friday 26th July      

Derek McCourty  (Chairman)