| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Mary-Jane |
How do you start up a gardening club?Those of you who have followed the story of our village school (which closed the year before last) will know that it's been successfully re-opened as our local village hall (and I'm on The Committee).
Although the hall has been increasingly used for a variety of community events, it wasn't until last night that we held our first proper 'Community Evening' to encourage all the residents to get together and discuss how they'd like to see the village hall develop. We had proper questionnaires for research purposes and one of the main suggestions to come out of the evening was the need for a gardening club of some sort and I was asked by a number of people whether I'd be interested in starting one up... 
Now, I'm under no illusions that it's my gardening prowess that's wanted here (we have a wide variety of keen and successful gardeners living locally with a collective age and experience of about 1,000 years +) it's more my stamping foot, bossy manner, organisational skills and clipboard wanted to get it off the ground.  I haven't committed myself as yet, but am quietly giving it some thought.
So, my Downsizer friends - how the HELL does one start up a gardening club anyway?  I haven't the faintest idea what I'm supposed to...
Any thoughts, suggestions or experience of such a thing? |
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| Mrs Fiddlesticks |
There's one in the next village to us. Here's it's website which might be of use as it shows the programme of events which might give some ideas as to the sort of thing gardening club members expect
http://www.kbsgardeningclub.org.uk/index.htm |
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| Mary-Jane |
Oooh, thanks for that Mrs. F. 
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| Brownbear |
Find the most opinionated and cantankerous people in the area and ask them if they'd like to form a committee. By the time they've recruited members, they'll be too busy bickering among themselves to bother you with their problems. | ||||
| Mary-Jane |
Thanks BB - but not quite what I had in mind...
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| Brownbear |
All I meant was, the pushy ones will get on to the committee anyway, so why not start them off like that and let them get on with it? |
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| Mary-Jane |
That'll be me then.
No, we've got committees coming out of ours ears now - we just want a ruddy gardening club. What do gardening clubs do?
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| woodsprite |
Meet monthly, have speakers, visit gardens (including each others), have a sales'swapsies table, take a joint stall at local events. Any and all of the above!
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| Snowball |
Mary-Jane wrote
I have never been to a gardening club, but, I imagine they would do some or all of the following. Have guest speakers on whatever topics interest them. Swap seeds and plants. Have a general question asking session at most meetings. Organize plant bring and buy sales. Organize completions or shows occasionally. If this is being set up from scratch though, the short answer is, whatever people want them to do. Either call an inaugural meeting of the club and thrash it out there, or, send them all a questionnaire again. "What three things is is most important for a gardening club to do?" type thing. |
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| RichardW |
Er garden? Where's the door? Justme |
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| Mary-Jane |
At least the girls make sensible suggestions around here...
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| Brownbear |
Organise contests. Biggest cauliflower. The Esther Rantzen Prize for the root vegetable most resembling the male generative organ. Tomato most satisfyingly thrown at a local authority employee. Stuff like that. |
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| Mary-Jane |
 You're not taking this seriously are you BB?
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| woodsprite |
MJ, if I were you I'd try to find another localish club and ask them for a list of their most recent speakers. There are generally a group of localish experts that do the rounds. This will at least give you a start at putting together a program. A produce sale and seed swap is also easy enough to organise. Do you have a village fete or somesuch? It would be good to have a stall at such an event.
I miss living in a village, I too have 'clipboard' tendancies and would relish the idea of starting up such a club.
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| gil |
Practical workshops on stuff like pruning, grafting; visits to botanical gardens / places with collections of special interest.
The gardening club in the county town has connections with the local agricultural college. |
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| Home on the Hill |
You can affliate to the RHS or Garden Organic. I think the RHS stipulate that you have to hold a produce show each year, but you can share it with other clubs in your area - like the next village or whatever.
Also, there are loads of speakers lists available - RHS one is online www.rhs.org.uk Garden Organic have one but you have to phone up to get it www.gardenorganic.org.uk There's also one on the website of the Garden Writers' Guild. Usually you contact a speaker from the list and make the appropriate arrangements with them, then pay them on the night. You might need to provide a data projector or slide projector. If you want to have a big launch, pick someone well known (at least locally) and get as many people as possible to come along for the celebrity element. Visits are fairly easy to organise. You can just go to one another's gardens or book a coach trip to somewhere more commercial - CAT and Botanic Garden Wales spring to mind. These kind of places usually offer a discount for a group booking and may offer you a guided tour too. Get money for tickets of your members in plenty of time, and remember to publisize your trip to non-members via local notice boards and magazines. You could get a committee together and pass these ideas and tips on to them, or just diy and organise an initial meeting with a speaker and maybe a trip somewhere not too far from home - then see how things go. Good luck....Carrie |
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| Mary-Jane |
Thanks soooo much for all the suggestions so far folks - that's really, really helpful. I think perhaps I'll moot the possibility of a club and see how many people come along and go from there with all your idea in mind. I'm editor of the village newsletter so I think I'll get an initial meeting up and running in the Summer edition which comes out in May.
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| Brownbear |
I was actually being serious about the competition, if not the categories. One good one I saw was at a village show, which gave a prize for 'best soup basket'. Each year they chose a vegetable soup recipe, and people placed whatever of their crops were required as ingredients in a wicker basket, arranged as they saw fit, and the winner was the one with the best-looking overall selection of veg. | ||||
| Mary-Jane |
That's a good idea...
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| woodsprite |
Another comp I've seen is a variation on that. The club makes up a basket of veggies, with additional ingredients if required and punters have to guess what the ingredients are intended to make. Stick with something fairly straightforward.The punter pays a quid to guess and the winning punter gets the ingredients and a nicely printed recipe. This is a great little fundraiser for the club.
Another fundraiser is a dislay of moderately know plants, say 20 and the each punter buys a go at naming them. A plant quiz. The prize can be a plant or a cash amount. Punters love quizzes and if its not made too difficult (but it will need several more obscure plants) lots will enter which means more cash for the coffers.
Another idea for the monthly meeting might be to have a cookery demo based on glut busting! A 'cooking with courgettes', or 'things to make with green beans' should be very popular.
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| Mary-Jane |
Hey - what great ideas Woodsprite - thanks for that
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| woodsprite |
By the by, don't forget that if you need any equipment etc for the club, you should find out from the local authority about community funding. There will be at least one pot of money that you can apply to for funding. | ||||
| Mary-Jane |
Ah yes, that's something that the Steering Committee has got well under control.
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