Annual Parish Meeting Garden Club Report

Garden Club Report - May 2024

The Stoodleigh Garden Club has enjoyed another very good year, with membership increasing to 41.

The Stoodleigh Annual Show in August last year was a great success, expanding to use the outside of the Parish Hall for various activities complementing the Show competition within. Funding for the Show is now being ring fenced and we were able to add £149.90 profit from the Show. We would like to thank the Trustees of the Tiverton Agricultural Association for their ongoing support of the Garden Club with a donation of £100 towards Show expenses. Plans are well underway for this year’s Show, which will be held on Saturday 24 th August. The Show schedule can be found on the Garden Club page of the Stoodleigh website, along with other Garden Club information and the Programme of events. We are grateful to Geraldine for maintaining the website for us.

During the past year the Garden Club has arranged many activities and visits, including a visits to Marwood Gardens, Westland wildlife garden, Ashley Court, Regency House and Wildside. We enjoyed a talk on hedgehogs by Stephen Powles. We had further willow weaving sessions and tried our hand at stained glass and glass fusing in South Molton. A plant Bring-and-Buy and coffee morning was organised at Honeywell, to raise funds Macmillan and we have run the plant stalls at the Spring and Autumn Fairs for the Parish Hall.

The tubs at Kissing Gate are maintained by the Garden Club and this year have been planted up by Jill, giving us another spectacular display. We hold a garden gift card for £100 kindly donated by the family sponsoring the seat memorial to Mr and Mrs Sellick, for future maintenance of the area.

Swap-Box report

The Swap-box at Hillcrest was used throughout last summer, though there seemed a shortage of spare produce. Many other items, useful, interesting or attractive, were swapped and it will be opened again later this year. Hopefully it will be in full swing as the summer progresses.

Shirley Cope, Stoodleigh Garden Club