The Rector of the Benefice, Rev Gillian Mann, conducted a morning service at St Andrew’s Church thanking the Gardeners’ Club for the work it had done on the renewal of the flower beds on both sides of the Entrance Porch to the Church and herringbone brick patterned area in front of that Entrance. The Club greatly appreciated this dedication by the Rev Gillian for its contribution to the appearance of the Church.

Peter Beale completed his Trilogy of Talks entitled “Light through the Trees” on Thursday 30th September 2010to the Club, which extended the foundations established in his first two talks on the criticality of light in the evolution of the flora and fauna in the seasonal woodland habitat and the benefits ensuing from the management of that environment. His elapsed time photographs demonstrated his patience and knowledge in the progressive record of change; this was wonderfully illustrated in the pupation of larvae to form butterflies and evolution of voles, grass snakes and door mice in the woodland habitat. The Club has greatly appreciated being able to draw on Peter’s experience over many years as the Conservation Officer for the Forestry Commission in the South of England as well as his experience as nature observer and resident on the Suffolk/ Essex border.

Despite the cold winter, the six weeks prior to the Mart had been blessed with sunnier weather and some rain that provided the right platform for an excellent range of quality plants to be on offer at the Gardeners’ Mart a week before the Spring Bank Holiday Saturday. With the Mart once again starting at the earlier time of 9 o’clock, enthusiasts were there ready to pick up the many bargains on offer, such as vegetable seedlings, herbs, shrubs and the many varieties of tomato plants alongside the summer bedding and climbing plants (ranging through delphiniums, geraniums, begonias, lilies, rudbeckias, echinaceas, antirrhinums to agapanthus). There was a constant flow of customers throughout the morning such that by half past eleven, the sales team was able to retire to the front garden of the Bluebell Inn and enjoy a break with bacon sandwiches and thirst quenchers before finally returning the Green beside the War Memorial back to its usual tidy state. One particular feature of the morning, was a large number of cyclists stopped by at the tea and cake stall, organised by Zoe Hoar and Anita Rodgers and supporting the Mart, providing a substantial and well deserved boost to the funds raised by the stall for St Andrew’s Church.

The Annual Show in the Village Hall attracted a goodly number of entries from existing and new members of the Club in the Vegetable, Salad, Fruit, Flower, Cookery and Craft Classes, plus around 300 pupils’ entries in the Children’s Classes co-ordinated by Mrs Kate Hockley, a teacher at Radwinter C of E School and further entries from other children in the village. Our particular thanks go to Mrs Hockley, a teacher at the School, and to Niki McNeill and Sara Scott, who translated those entries from the school to the display in the Village Hall. As a consequence of the high number of Children’s entries, Angela Crane, who was judging the Classes for Children Aged 8 and under, was confronted with an almost overwhelming task in itself to complete it within the usual two hours; fortunately Joan Bannister, the Craft judge had agreed to take up the 50 remaining Children’s entries for those aged 9 to 11 years. The three other judges, Duncan Gates, Claire Watkins and Mary Green had more balanced portfolios. At the public viewing of the Show in the afternoon, there were around 60 visitors over the period and most stayed on for the presentation of the Awards..

There were two new lady members competing for the first time at the Annual Show, who were highly successful. Mandy Newman, who won the Jean Goff Novice Award for an individual not having won a Club Cup before, the Sidney Haylock Cup for Vegetables, the Salad Cup and the Harding Cup for Vegetables, Salad and Fruit and Jess Long, who won the Colonel Smith Award for Flower Arrangements and the President’s Cup for the lady with the most points. Julian McCarthy topped the male entrants winning the Domestic Trophy for Cookery and Crafts and the Ken Jones Cup for the man with the most points. The Committee was delighted with the number of older children entering Adult Classes and gaining first, second or third places. In the Children’s Classes Oliver McNeill wrested the Sue Walker Cup for Children Aged 8 years and under, in the usual tight contest with Dominic Easterbrook, the winner in 2009 and 2010. Hamish McNeill won the June Jones Cup for Children Aged 9 to 11 years and Isabel Rivers won the Margaret Lambkin Cup for Best Handwriting related to Age.

The complete list of trophy winners was as follows:

This year, despite the rain overnight, a blustery cooling wind and a couple of heavy showers during the day, the programme got off to a prompt start at 9 am on Sunday 17th July 2011 and largely kept to schedule throughout. As always, David, Meryl and Sophie Haylock had gone to great trouble in preparing excellent and challenging fences along with fine facilities for a superb day; spectator numbers were down somewhat because of the uncertain weather but the number of entries in the horse and pony events was similar to that in 2010.

The HDGC BBQ Cooking and Serving team had seen a number of changes in personnel over that in 2010 with Dave Boreham taking charge of the barbeque ably supported his sous chef, Ben Boreham, Sarah-Jane Davies, Julian McCarthy, Paul Davies, Diana Frost, Susan Ray, Nigel Smith and Brian Ray. There was much demand throughout for barbequed burger, sausage and bacon rolls with or without onions, vegetarian kebabs and stuffed mushrooms, prepared by Jan Rennie, and particularly hot tea and coffee at the expense of cold drinks because of the coolness of the day.

Hanne Greville–Morris has stepped down from the Committee pending a planned family move out of the area to the South West. We would like to record our thanks to Hanne for her commitment to the Club over the years and her willingness to engage actively with all its work.

The Committee would like to record its thanks to Sue Bright for agreeing to be co-opted onto it for the rest of the year.

There are two remaining events in this year’s programme and these are:

Tuesday 27th September 2011 – “Fruit and Vegetables” – Talk by Tom Cole (ex-BBC Broadcaster on the subject) at 8.00 pm in the Village Hall.
Friday 14th October 2010 – The Annual Autumn Show will be held in the Village Hall commencing at 8.00 pm.

Brian Ray
Secretary

The Annual Dinner at the Bluebell Inn attracted some twenty five members to a most convivial evening. Rod and Marian Stokes and their team at the Bluebell provided members with an excellent set of choices for each course with excellent wines and beers to complement them. Once again the floral gifts from Evergreens for the ladies were very much appreciated and all those present enjoyed the occasion very much.

The AGM, being the second event of the 2011 Club year, was held on a cold winter’s evening. The evening was split between formal business matters and a subsequent social gathering with drinks and a range of light bites providing members with the opportunity to mull over what had been a second very cold winter and its impact on gardening activities for the rest of the year. There were sixteen members present on the night and a substantial number of apologies.

Diana Frost chairing the AGM welcomed those present and reported that the Committee had met on seven occasions during the past year. Following approval of the previous year’s minutes, she invited the Honorary Treasurer, Chris Scott, to give his Financial Report for 2010. He reported there had been a surplus of £513.89 in the year with a resulting end of year balance of £6,168.76. The major sources of income during the year were the Horse & Pony Show (£744.41), the Gardeners’ Mart ( £638.81) and Subscriptions (£117). Thanks were recorded to Tricia Ridgway particularly for auditing the books and the 2010 accounts of the Club.

Diana Frost, in her Chairman’s report, indicated that the Club had enjoyed a varied and successful programme over the year, although the winter had influenced the timing of many flowerings that were not under glass. In April, there was a very well attended and enjoyable walk of Hempstead Woods led by Simon Leatherdale of the Forestry Commission. The village clean-up day, however, was poorly attended and only limited basic work was undertaken. The Gardener’s Market, one week in advance of the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend was a complete sell out. The Annual Show in July with over 60 people attending was a mixed success with vegetable classes depleted because of the late start to the growing season but the flowers, cookery and the children’s classes excelled. The Horse and Pony Show was well attended with many participants. The Autumn Show was well attended with a new cadre of winners enjoying success, including 10 year old, Harris McCarthy.

The election of officers and committee members then followed and the Committee elected for 2011 consists of Chairman – Diana Frost, Secretary – Brian Ray, Treasurer – Chris Scott, Committee Members – Sean McCarthy, Sarah-Jane Davies, Julian McCarthy and Life President – David Haylock. Hanne Greville-Morris stepped down from the Committee, after having made a full and valued commitment to its work over the past few years, because of an impending move away from the area.

Simon Leatherdale guided a dozen members on this second walk through Great Bendysh Wood to observe the changes that had occurred in the woodland environment there since the first walk in 2003; the management programme of the Forestry Commission had changed over that eight year period, the balance of trees from coniferous to deciduous and used the fencing off of areas to change the grazing patterns of deer in the Wood. The impact of this programme had had a significant impact on both the flora and fauna there over this period. There was a distinctly greener appearance to the wood reflecting the enhanced level of lightness and all those involved in this visit had the full opportunity to interact with Simon, to whom our especial thanks must go.

Despite the very cold Winter, March and April have been blessed with some warmer weather, that augurs well for a range of good quality grown summer bedding and garden plants, including delphiniums, hardy geraniums, day lilies, rudbeckias, echinaceas, herbs and more; this event will take place as usual from 9.30 am on Saturday the 21st May in the weekend preceding the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend on the green beside the War Memorial and opposite the Bluebell Inn. It is one of the Club’s major fund-raising events of the year, at which you can buy premium quality plants at bargain prices, so please do support it.

Judith Ewer has kindly agreed to open up her extensive, landscaped gardens at Blagdens House, Bumpstead Road, Hempstead CB10 2PW to members of he Club and their friends. This will be on the afternoon of Sunday 3rd July 2011. Further details on this will appear in June Edition of the Hempstead Newsletter.

The schedules have been revised and updated with some new classes and will be issued with the Hempstead Newsletter in May. Anyone else wanting a schedule can obtain one from the Hempstead Village website http://www.hempstead-essex.org.uk or directly from me on 01799 599728. Entries for the Show need to be delivered to the Village Hall on the Saturday morning of the 10th July between 8.00 and 10.15 am after which the Hall is cleared for judging, which commences at 10.45 am. The Hall will re-open at 2.30pm for viewing and the Cups and Trophies will be presented at 3.45pm

All entries need to be removed by 5.00pm.

The Horse & Pony Show will take place by kind permission of David & Meryl Haylock at Hill Farm, Hempstead commencing at 9.30am on Sunday the 17th July. Schedules will be available from David Haylock on 01799 599238. The Show offers a wonderful mixture of showing and jumping classes and is ideal to enter for the young horse/ child/ older horse/new rider, etc, and there is always the clear round ring; it is also planned to continue to have a number of classes for showing dogs.

The HDGC BBQ team will be out in force with their extensive menu for meat-eaters and vegetarians alike, and plenty of drinks on hand for whatever the weather may throw at us!

If you are not competing, do please come along and support the event by walking round the showground and enjoying the food and surroundings at this traditional Village celebration.

Brian Ray
Secretary

Once again the weather over the past three months has provided many challenges for gardeners and has resulted in array of spectacular images of the gardens and the countryside generally, particularly as a result of heavy snow and the searing frosts, that brought us near continental style winters. However, the recent spell of warmer weather has brought new life to gardens and a greener appearance to Hempstead and its approaches. The Club would like to thank its members for the time they have committed through the late autumn and the winter to the upkeep of public displays of plants and general appearance of the village both at its centre and the approaches to it from all directions.

The first event of the year will be the Club’s Annual Dinner in the Bluebell Inn on Thursday 24th February; this has always been an enjoyable and convivial event and any members wishing to attend should make early contact with Sean McCarthy on 599558.

This event, following closely on the heels of the AGM, has a full report on the activities throughout 2010, by the Club’s Chairman, Diana Frost, followed by the annual financial report from its Treasurer, Chris Scott, along with a presentation of the programme planned for 2011 and election of officers for 2011. This will be an opportunity for members attending to socialise with drinks and nibbles provided by the Club.

Simon Leatherdale, the lead member of the Essex and Suffolk Wood Management team for the Forestry Commission, will take us on a guided tour of Great Bendysh Wood, which will allow longstanding members to see the developments there over past eight years since our last visit and newer members to get a glimpse an example of some outstanding wood management.

The Gardeners’ Mart is a major Club event that attracts the largest number of participants; its location is in the Centre of the Village beside the War Memorial causes passing traffic to stop and abandon their cars for a spending spree of the vast array of plants, shrubs, herbs and items for gardens at bargain prices and produced by its members. The Mart is open for business from 9.30 am, although items for sale are on display before that

We look forward to seeing you at any of our events during the course of the year.

Brian Ray
Secretary

Membership of the Gardeners’ Club stands at 155 currently and the Club is keen to increase that in 2010 to nearer 200. Membership costs have remained unchanged for over 20 years and are £1 for Annual Membership and £10 for Life Membership. The Club offers considerable benefits, including lectures on gardening-related topics, organised visits to gardens, participation in the Annual Show with low entry fees, purchase of high quality plants at its Annual Gardeners’ Mart, free entry to the Autumn Show and discounting of purchases at a local gardening centre. If you have not yet signed up for membership of the Gardeners’ Club this year and wished to join, do make contact with me on 01799 599728 to effect the necessary arrangements.