Gardeners' Society AGM 2010

Last night was the Gardeners' Society AGM. It was held at the beautiful 'big house' of the village, with oak panelling and roaring log fires (sorry, no photos, you'll just have to believe me).

Lucy (Chairman) opened the meeting by saying what a lovely year it had been, with a really hard winter, a late spring full of flowers, a warm summer and a long colourful autumn. Which I found interesting, because I really struggled at the beginning of the year. The late persistent snow and frosts set all my seed sowing plans right back and I just couldn't make up for it again. My repeated attempts at parnips and carrots just wouldn't grow at all, and lack of rain in the early summer set my pumpkins and squashes back a bit too. Hey ho, the great thing with gardening is, there's always next year!

We discussed the current state of the finances, which caused some debate, and eventually we amended one of our proposals and voted to scrap cash prizes at the shows, and give extra certificates out instead (in addition to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Highly Commended certificates we already award). We also currently award points for each place which decides who wins the Society's trophys and cups throughout the year. We agreed to make this 'league table' much more public to inspire a real sense of competition! ...Not that I need much encouragement! My Dad came to the summer show, and heard me talking about what I'd entered for each class and about how I was trying to keep my aggregate points up in the hope of winning a trophy, and he said 'What happened to my shy little girl?' to which I replied 'She found her competitive spirit!'

We then went on to talk about the various visits and social evenings we had lined up for 2011. This includes our own take on the RHS 'Dig Together' campaign (4-5th Sept '11), which we have decided to expand into a series of events over the year, including masterclasses on topics like seed-sowing, taking cuttings, pruning etc. Our intention is that these will be outdoor events, and will encourage non-members to join in, and maybe join-up!

We also talked about the brand new website www.charinggardeners.org.uk that a subset of the committee are working on (I'm supposed to be helping, but have managed to miss both meetings so far - hopeless girl!). Again, the idea of the website is to encourage new, and potentially younger members to join in and take part. The society has been praised for having over 100 members and 3 official shows a year, but the committee is conscious that without new members we won't be able to maintain this. The Society is well over 100 years old...so we really wouldn't want it to fizzle out on our watch!

The evening was rounded off with a glass or two of wine and lovely nibbles, courtesy of our kind host and hostess who have invited us back next year too. I'm looking forward to it already.

Very pleased with the results

Well, I'm back from the Garden Society Garden Show, and I've been surprisingly successful:

Four 1sts
Three 2nds
One 3rd
and a trophy for aggregate points in the cookery class - I'm really chuffed

Here's some photos of the highlights:

Apparently the judge was very complimentary of my Yule Log and my method for tying off my onions and shallots (thanks for that go to Vegmandan from the Vine)

The Holly on top of the Yule Log is made out of Royal Icing sugar. I mixed it with cocoa powder. Piped the outlines in a soft-peak mix, then flooded the centre with a runny mix, then made a soft-peak white mix and piped on the veins while the rest was still soft, so it sort of flowed into the runny mix. They were then stuck on with more royal icing after the cake had firmed up in the fridge over night.

Oh yeah, I put a nip of whisky in the butter icing...no wonder the judge was raving about it!!!!

My first post...I'm very nervous.

It's two days before the Garden Society Autumn Show, and my garden is looking a bit disasterous.

• My huge pink Dahlias have been munched by earwigs (must remember to put straw-filled flowerpots out next year to catch the little blighters).
• My tomatoes are looking great...but they are all green - not a red one in sight!!
• I have one pathetic french bean
• My carrots are tiny

However, I might be able to scrape together a fair set of shallots, my grapes are looking super, I've got quite a few pumpkins and squashes, some lovely tiny purple chillies called 'Pretty in Purple', and I've managed to grow celery (thanks to my friend Zazen's advice), its quite slender, but its worth a go.

I've entered 21 classes for this show, but I don't think I'll  have enough produce to actually exhibit in that many classes on the day. I haven't looked at the lottie for a couple of weeks, so I'll either get some nice surprises, or some nasty shocks! Eeek!

I'll post an update with some piccies after the show on Saturday.