January 2025 Newsletter
Wishing all our members a happy, healthy and peaceful new year.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting is on Thursday 6th February.
Membership Subscriptions
Membership remains at £5. Ideally, we would like members to pay by bank transfer:
a/c Plympton Gardeners
Sort Code 30-94-58
Account No. 00930198
Reference your surname
Alternatively, please pay by cash at the January coffee bar or by cash at our regular meetings.
Coffee Bar
A message from Lloyd –
Plympton Gardeners are running the Coffee Bar at Harewood House from Monday 6th January to Friday the 10th from 10am to 2pm each day.
We would welcome any additional help to that already offered, even if it's just for a few hours. We especially could do with more help on Thursday if you have any time free.
We would also appreciate any offers of bakes during the week as the first week can be quite busy with people keen to get out after the holidays.
Finally, we are running our Bric a Brac stall and Tombola all week so if you want to drop by with any donations during the week we would be delighted to see you (someone will be attendance from 9.00am- 2.00pm daily). In 2025 we are supporting and raising funds for the Plymouth branch of the Elder Tree befriending charity.
If you can help at all or just need a bit more information, please contact Lloyd Hills at lloydhills10@gmail.com or on 07579767124
Recycling Opportunity
We would encourage members to support the Dartmoor Zoo (Sparkwell) Recycle and Raise campaign.
After Christmas, when all your festive treats have been eaten up, Dartmoor Zoo are collecting clean plastic tubs for recycling and raising funds. They will accept, until 15th February 2025, the following items which can be left at their gatehouse. Alternatively, please bring them along to the Coffee Bar next week, the February meeting or pass to Jill or Phil.
Confectionary tubs (Celebrations, Quality Street & Roses etc.)
Ice Cream tubs
Cracker tubs
Milk bottle tops
Plastic Takeaway containers
Put them to one side before Green Bin collection day.
Spring Show Saturday 15th March
Schedules are now available, please contact Paul Hutchings 07974 406179; paul.hutchings1957@gmail.com
Programme for 2025
FEB 6th AGM Followed by a talk by Ben Candlin on “Adventurous Plants”
MAR 6th Daffodils and Saltram–Martin Stott
MEMBERS DAFFODIL COMPETITION
Mar 15th SPRING SHOW
APR 3rd “Lovely Plot” - Olga Grieves
MAY 1st All about Pelargoniums – Brian Carlson
JUNE 5th Knowing your soil – Becky Searle
JULY 3rd Bees and honey -Mark Grieves
AUG 7th How to revive a tired garden- Elizabeth Holman
AUG 16th SUMMER SHOW
SEPT 4th Creating a planted display - Stella Exley
OCT 2nd “A Westcountry girl of colour” – Jacquie Felix
MEMBERS ONION COMPETITION
NOV 6th Floral Celebrations – Sue Minter
DEC 4th MEMBERS' CHRISTMAS EVENING
bingo, a raffle and a very tasty buffet supper. A cheque for £1150 was presented to a representative of the PGA
charity for 2024, First Responders.
November Newsletter
November Meeting
This month’s meeting is on Thursday 7th November, 7.30pm in Harewood House. Our guest speaker is George Kestrell with a practical demonstration on Propagation. Free tea and coffee, sales table, raffle, and informal competition.
Coffee Bar
We are once again running the Community Council Coffee Bar - the week following our meeting (w/c 11th). If you can bring along a store cupboard item for the Tombola stall it would be much appreciated. Also, if you should be having a pre-Christmas clear-out, we would welcome any decent items for the bric-a-brac stall. Any donations can be brought along to Thursday’s meeting or taken along to the coffee bar – Monday to Friday, 10.00am – 2.00pm.
Lloyd has most days covered with volunteers but he would value any additional help. An hour or so, especially over the lunch period, would be a great help and would give others a chance to take a break. Please contact Lloyd
07579 767124; lloydhills10@gmail.com
Or, speak to him on Thursday
Seed Catalogues
We have a very few Suttons and Dobies left. Many members now browse and order on line and it is still possible to obtain the discount this way. Discounts are: 50% off packet seed and 20% off other live products including potatoes, garlic, shallots, onions, plants and bulbs & fruit. You will need to quote our unique codes allocated to us, to use when ordering. Please contact Dave Wickstead 01752 319435, or reply to this email for the codes.
Membership 2025
Membership will remain at £5 for next year. Although our membership year doesn’t start until the 1st January, some members have expressed a wish to pay before then. Therefore, we will be pleased to take membership monies from the 11th November (Coffee Bar week) should you wish to pay early – please be assured there is no obligation to pay ahead of the New Year -, but it does relieve the queues somewhat at our February meeting.
Payment can be made in the following ways:
· Bank Transfer (BACS) to the following: a/c Plympton Gardeners
Sort Code 30-94-58
Account No. 00930198
Reference your surname
· By cash at the November coffee bar.
· By cash at the January coffee bar.
· By cash at Monthly meetings from February onwards.
As we will soon be paying bank charges for the clearing of cheques, we would prefer it if you could pay by cash or BACS.
2025 Programme
Carol has been working hard to find a range of different speakers and new topics. This is not an easy task and we appreciate her efforts and look forward to some interesting talks.
JAN 2nd NO MEETING
FEB 6th AGM Followed by a talk by Ben Candlin on “Adventurous Plants”
MAR 6th Daffodils and Saltram–Martin Stott
MEMBERS DAFFODIL COMPETITION
Mar 15th SPRING SHOW
APR 3rd “Lovely Plot” - Olga Grieves
MAY 1st All about Pelargoniums – Brian Carlson
JUNE 5th Knowing your soil – Becky Searle
JULY 3rd Bees and honey -Mark Grieves
AUG 7th How to revive a tired garden- Elizabeth Holman
AUG 16th SUMMER SHOW
SEPT 4th Creating a planted display - Stella Exley
OCT 2nd “A Westcountry girl of colour” – Jacquie Felix
MEMBERS ONION COMPETITION
NOV 6th Floral Celebrations – Sue Minter
DEC 4th MEMBERS CHRISTMAS EVENING
October Newsletter
This month’s meeting is this Thursday (3rd October), 7.30pm at Harewood House. The speaker is the ever-popular Saul Walker and his subject this month is “The Art of Growing in the Shade.” All the usual activities including free tea and coffee during the break.
ONION COMPETITION
At Thursday’s meeting we will be weighing entries for the heaviest Onion Competition. So, all those people who took a pot with an onion seedling back in the spring – now is the time to get it weighed. The onions don’t have to be “dressed” – just shown as they are – so leave on roots and outer skin but remove any soil. Good luck to all.
SEED CATALOGUES
We do have a limited number of catalogues for Suttons and Dobies seeds. (We have reduced the number of catalogues we receive as we often have many left over). There is the usual 50% discount on seeds and 20% discount on other items. As many people browse and order online these days it is still possible to take advantage of the discounts by using the code allocated to Plympton Gardeners. Dave Wickstead will have the discount codes available at Thursday’s meeting, enabling members to then order online in their own time.
CHARITY NOMINATIONS
We are now asking members to think about organisations that they would like to nominate as our charity for 2025. We have, for many years, supported various charities through monies raised during the year. If you know of a worthwhile charity that you think would benefit from a donation then please let us know. Suggestions to Carol Penhallurick please – 01752 336057; 07598 954273; carpen1948@aol.com A vote will be taken at the February meeting to decide the outcome.
Please provide supporting information with your suggestion – we have often favoured local charities as they can suffer from a lack of publicity compared to national organisations.
DRY MATERIAL FOR WREATHS
Some of our members will, once again, be making Christmas wreaths for sale at the Community Council Fair on 13th December. These proved very popular last year. All members can help by providing any dried poppy seed heads or teasels they may have. Please bring along anything suitable you have on Thursday or to November’s meeting.
COFFEE BAR
The next Coffee Bar is w/c 11th November. Lloyd Hills would be grateful for any donations of Tombola prizes and non- perishable sandwich items. Please bring them to Thursday’s meeting. We are very grateful to members who help man the coffee bar but we can always do with more to help to spread the load -just a couple of hours during the week would help – please see Lloyd on Thursday or get in touch with him – 07579 767124; lloydhills10@gmail.com
The coffee bar is open to the public from 10.00am - 2.00pm.