Updated Calendar 2023

It has been a long time since we updated you about our Community Gardens. The Jubilee Garden in Station Road has had a very tough time this summer due to the exceptional heat and lack of rain, however, most of the shrubs and plants have survived and we are confident they will thrive next year with a bit of TLC. We are planning sometime in the spring to replace the sleeper wall with a much more robust and long lasting stone wall as the sleepers have now come to the end of their useful life.

The Orchard has produced an abundance of apples which we think have been picked and used by the village community, we will be looking to give all the fruit trees a good prune early in 2023.

Do please take a look at our updated Diary page on this website as it will give you all the work party dates and events that are taking place in 2023. I would specifically like to point out that we are holding a talk in North Hall on Friday 21 April in aid of our adopted charity, Perennial, who support people in Horticulture. This talk will be by Ben Pope who is Head Gardener of an amazing garden in West Sussex. We know this will be an interesting and entertaining talk, please make a note in your diary.

Our annual BBQ will take place on Friday 7th July in the Jubilee Garden and we will again be holding two litter picking sessions during the year.

SAVE THE DATE

Make a note in your next year’s diary that The Loxwood Community Garden Initiative will again be hosting a talk to raise funds for our adopted charity, which as you all know is Perennial, a nationwide charity that supports many people who are involved in horticulture in one way or the other. The talk will be by Ben Pope, a very well known local Head Gardener, who has been involved in all aspects of horticulture for the last 21 years. His talk will be entitled “Making the most of what you have”, which as the title indicates is getting the best out of your garden.

The talk will be held at North Hall, Loxwood, on Friday April 21st 2023, when there will be a licensed bar and a fund raising raffle. Further details in the new year.

Our next Work Party will be next Saturday morning, 30th July at North Hall , when we will be raking up the grass from the wildflower meadow. If possible bring rakes, forks and a wheelbarrow. Normal start time of 9.30 am.

See you then

Graham

Annual Members BBQ

Our annual members BBQ will take place on Friday 1st July in The Diamond Jubilee Garden starting at 6.30pm. All are welcome to come along , the format will be the same as in previous years, we provide the cooked John Murray sausages in hot dog rolls, you bring along the tipple of your choice and a chair if you need it. We ask you to make a small donation to cover our costs, this is a social event to thank our supporters, not a fund raising event.

If you wish to come along please let Graham know, see you then.

Work Party

Our next work party will take place on Saturday 25th June in the Jubilee Garden, normal start time of 9.30 am, we will be weeding as usual.

May Update

Work Party

Our next work party will take place on Saturday 14^th May in the Jubilee Garden starting at 9.30 pm. We will be weeding and giving a general tidy up, prior to the open gardens on the 22^nd May, as we are part of the gardens open on the day.

Membership

Many thanks to everybody who has renewed their membership, your support for this village initiative is much appreciated and all monies will be required later in the year when we replace the sleeper wall. If you haven’t renewed as yet it is not too late, either by bank transfer or to our membership secretary in cash or cheque.

Open Gardens

As stated above on Sunday 22^nd of May Loxwood and Ifold will be holding an open garden day to raise funds for Loxwood and Alfold churches, there are eight gardens to visit.  The starting point will be North Hall where you can obtain your route maps , pay your money and have an afternoon tea. The gardens will be open from 1pm—6pm.  As well as the Jubilee Garden our own garden at Spy Farm will be open, hopefully we will get to see you all then.

Best Wishes

Graham Moore

Social Evening / Talk

Our social evening/talk yesterday went exceptionally well, we managed to raise just over £500 for our adopted charity, Perennial, who support people in horticulture. We were entertained by Annie Guilfoyle who talked about what makes a great garden. Her talk was very interesting and informative and her enthusiasm for her subject was unbounded. Many thanks to everyone who came along and especially to our helpers on the night.

Hope to see some of you on our village litter pick on Saturday 9th April.

Graham

Annual Membership Due April 2022

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP DUE APRIL 2022

This last year has been a very strange one for all of us, however, in a lot of cases the one thing that has kept us sane has been our gardens.  During the various lock downs, we have managed to keep on top of our valuable community amenities i.e. the Diamond Jubilee Garden, the orchard and wildflower meadow at North Hall as well as the small area around the Telephone Box.

As well as maintaining these areas, we have managed to repaint the Telephone Box and given the whole area a good tidy up and again this year, we have produced over 40 bundles of bean poles and pea sticks for the village.

Sometime during this year, we will be having some major works completed in the Diamond Jubilee Garden.  We need now to replace the old original wooden sleeper wall with a more permanent stone wall as the old wall has come to the end of its life and is becoming dangerous.  Obviously, a replacement stone wall will be very expensive, however, it will last for ever.

We will be holding our annual BBQ for our Members in the Diamond Jubilee Garden on Friday July 1^st, further details will be announced nearer the time.

Our subscription rates remain the same as previous years, a minimum of £10 for a family and £5 for a single.  If you would like to find out more information about our organisation, please look at www.lcgi.wordpress.com

Graham Moore, Chairman

………………………………………………………………………………………………

I/We would like to renew my/our Annual Membership of the LCGI.  Enclosed £……

From:   Name ……………………………  Address  ……………………………….

           Telephone ……………………..    Email ………………………………….

Please return to Mrs Pat Winney, Membership Secretary, Woodvale, Spy Lane.

Please make cheques payable to LCGI or pay direct to Lloyds TSB, A/c 39687060     Sort Code 30 94 41, Ref —Your Surname please.  If you are a new member could you please let Pat have the tear-off strip with your email address  to keep our records up to date.

Charity Talk/Social

LOXWOOD COMMUNITY GARDENS INITIATIVE

CHARITY EVENT –  TALK/SOCIAL EVENING

On Friday 1^st April the Loxwood Community Gardens Initiative will be hosting a Charity Talk/Social event at North Hall, Loxwood, in aid of Perennial, a Charity which helps and supports people in Horticulture. 

Perennial is a Charity that we have supported in the past and one that looks after many people who are involved in Horticulture who might have fallen on hard times for one reason or another.

The Talk will be by Annie Guilfoyle, a local award winning garden designer and a Chelsea Flower Show medal winner.  Annie also runs regular courses at Great Dixter and judges at various Garden Shows around the world.  Her Talk will be “What Makes a Great Garden and Designing Small Gardens”. 

The doors at North Hall will be open at 7pm where we will have a licensed bar selling real ale, wine and soft drinks.  Nibbles will be served during the evening. Tickets will cost £6.00 and numbers will be limited in the Hall so please book your tickets early by contacting Graham or Gina Moore ginamoore@btopenworld.com or telephone 01403 751722

Social Evening/Talk

We are planning to hold a social evening/talk to raise funds for a charity that the LCGI support which is Perennial, a charity that supports all types of horticultural professions when faced with illness or hard times. The talk will be held at North Hall on Friday 1st April 2022 (no its not a joke). The talk will be given by Annie Guilfoyle, a RHS Chelsea Medal winner and a very well known and respected garden designer. We will let you have more details nearer the time. However, in the meantime, please make a note of the date in your diary.

Many thanks to all our volunteers who turned out this morning to rake up all the leaves and complete the planting of our raised beds that are going to look a picture in the spring as they are all now planted with bulbs, alpines and herbs. Do take a look if you are passing.

In the orchard at North Hall, we have virtually completed the winter pruning of the Apple trees. Once the leaves have gone from the Hazel, we will start our coppicing programme for the year.

Our next workparty will take place on Saturday 4th December when we will complete the raking of leaves in the Jubilee Garden. Normal start time 9.30am

Annual General Meeting 17 August 2021

Below is a brief overview of our AGM that was held on 17 August

Present – Graham Moore, Gina Moore, Gary Postelthwaite, Liz Lancaster, Sandra Talman, Ann Smith, Pat Winney, Liz Agar.

Minutes of the Last AGM – Discussed as a true record and signed by the Chairman

Matters Arising – To be covered in future plans

Chairman’s Report – The Chairman reported last year had been a very difficult year due to Covid restrictions, however, our membership has been very strong and has increased from 102 families in the village to 126 families. We have completed the painting of the Telephone Box by the village shop. We did manage three work parties in the year as well as a litter picking session in conjunction with the Loxwood Society.

Treasurer’s Report – The last year financially has been a real success. Our receipts totalled £1,615.00 of which £1,305.00 was from membership. Our expenses for the year totalled £399.00 which covers running costs and insurance. Our balance at the Bank at the end of the year now amounts to a healthy balance of £3,200.00. We are trying to build up a fund of money as we know we are going to need to spend something in the region of £3,000 to £4,000 in the Jubilee Garden replacing the sleeper wall behind the seat. Our Auditor and Treasurer were thanked for their work.

Future Plans – As mentioned we need to rebuild the sleeper wall in the Jubilee Garden, hopefully, we will be able to achieve this sometime next year. We also need to top-up the bark on the ground which is also quite a large expense. After discussion, we decided to make a change to the raised beds as it is very difficult to maintain a regular watering regime to produce salad crops. The Committee have decided to replace the salad crops with herbs, alpines and spring bulbs.

We have a Litter Picking morning planned for Sunday 3 October.

Social Events – Our very popular Annual BBQ will in future be held at North Hall as it now has much improved facilities i.e. two new gas bbqs and twelve new picnic tables which could be used and will make organisation much easier. It was suggested that as the Loxwood Society has been disbanded that we have an event that could involve the whole village.

AOB – Our mechanical equipment i.e. power scythe, hedge trimmers and strimmer will need to be serviced over the winter. An Open Garden event in 2022 in aid of Church funds has been proposed. We will be looking into being a part of that event.

Graham Moore

Chairman

Change of venue for our next work party.

Our next planned work party for Saturday 28th August will now take place at North Hall, where we will be raking up the hay that has been cut this morning. The amount of hay that we need to remove is considerably more than in previous years, due to the very wet weather.

We will need as many bodies as possible armed with Rakes ,Forks and Wheelbarrows if you have one. Normal start time of 9.30am.

We will arrange another date for the work party at the Jubilee Garden in the very near future.

Look forward to seeing you on the 28th