Upcoming Events at a glance
| Date & Time | Where | What – who to contact |
|---|---|---|
| 3 April – 7 June 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Check Lydney Park Gardens for dates | Lydney Park Estate | Rhododendron Gardens open |
| Tuesday 14 April 7:30 – 9:30 pm | St James’ Church Centre ///strong.placed.stylists | April meeting: “For the Love of Blue Poppies” talk by Marion Stainton |
| Saturday 25 April 11:00 am – 5:00 pm | West Dean Centre | artsFEST & banner parade Kathryn Gardner |
| Saturday 2 May 9:30 am at WDC or 11:00 am at venue | Morton Hall, Reddich B96 6SJ | Trip: Morton Hall Gardens Tulip Festival Diana Standing |
| Friday 8 May 10:00 – 12:00 | Bream Sports Club | Friday Market: Plants & seeds |
Contact Details
Kathryn Gardner & Suzanne Snowden: breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com
Diana Standing: bgsprogsec@gmail.com
John Theophilus: secretarybgs100@gmail.com
Jane’s Jottings
Woohoo! Proper rain at last, I was beginning to wonder if we wouldn’t see the likes of it until September 😀 The garden perked up and my rain butt, that I had to empty about a month or so ago, is now half full ~ I may have to do another rain dance to fill it up.
As to the garden ~ so much happening this month, much sowing still to be done ~ I’ll probably be doing my cucumbers, French climbing & dwarf beans, runners etc in the next couple of weeks (biodynamic sowing time is 24th April to 1st May). Every day there seems to be something that needs potting up but not much planting out done yet, although I’ll probably start soon keeping the vegimesh I bought last year on hand to cover things in the cold.
I know that some of you get Charles Dowding’s newsletters and would recommend them to all ~ I found this one particularly helpful ~ https://newsletter.charlesdowding.co.uk/p/how-to-navigate-a-typically-variable-spring.
Enjoy watching the spring green explosion in your gardens and see you on Tues for Marion’s talk, Jane 🙂
Upcoming BGS events
Meeting, 14 April: For the love of Blue Poppies
Change to the advertised talk!
Our monthly meeting for April will be held in the Church Centre of St James’ as the sports club is unavailable.
A last minute change to the advertised talk about Biodynamics which has had to be postponed to later in the year, sorry! Details of the rearrangements will be published shortly.
But thank you Marion Stainton for stepping into the breach. She will deliver a fascinating talk about the plant hunters who were enthralled by the Himalayas and the plants they brought back, which we have in our gardens to this day.
artsFEST at West Dean Centre, 25 April
As part of the Dream for Bream initiative (of which BGS is a part), there will be an arts festival run by the Canopy Creative Network at the West Dean Centre on 25 April. Lots of things to do and get involved with, including a “Banner parade” through the streets of Bream. You can find out more here: artsFEST | Canopy Creative Network .
We are planning to parade our BGS banner and have a plant stall at the event. If anyone has plants they can provide or wishes to volunteer to help, please contact Kathryn Gardner on breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com.
Visit: Morton Hall Gardens tulip festival, 2 May
What 3 Words ///brief.zooms.interests.
Bookings for this visit are now closed. Some 20 members are booked onto timed visits. If you are one of them, you will be receiving further details soon. If you have questions, please email Diana Standing here bgsprogsec@gmail.com or Kathryn Gardner here breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com.
Monthly Market at Bream Sports Club, 8 May
We will be taking a stall at BSC’s monthly market in support of the Club, with whom we have such close ties. We will be selling seeds and plants. We encourage members to attend to stock up, visit the other stalls, and enjoy teas, coffees and cake. Anyone wanting to bring along surplus plants and seeds or volunteer to help on the stall, please contact John Theophilus on secretarybgs100@gmail.com.
Visit: Nant-y-Bedd gardens, 18 July
Negotiations have been completed on our proposed trip to visit Nant-y-bedd gardens and the date for the trip is 18 July.
These are marvellous gardens. You can see more details on their web site here Nant-y-Bedd. Booking forms will appear shortly and you will be advised in plenty of time, but put it in your diary now – you won’t want to miss it!
Other Events
We receive lots of requests to publicise events for other clubs and organisations. This month I have put more or less all of them into the following table with little detail, but links to where you can find out about them.
I’d be interested to hear whether this is helpful – please email me with comments at secretarybgs100@gmail.com.
| Date & Time | What/Where | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Friday 17 April | Talk about origins of the National Garden Scheme Bishopswood Village Hall | Bishopswood History Group |
| Saturday 18 April | Bristol Rare Plants & Orchid Fair St Phillip & St Jacob Church, Bristol | Bristol Rare Plants |
| Wednesday 20 May | Remember the 1926 strike – exhibition Dean Heritage Centre | Miners Strike | DHC |
| Sunday 30 May | Remember the 1926 strike – talks Dean Heritage Centre | Remember 1926 | DHC |
| Saturday 6 June | Coach trip to RHS Wisley Stonehouse Gardening Club | Stonehouse G C events |
| Various | Grange Project Eco courses | www.grangeproject.co.uk . |
| Various | Perennial (horticulture charity) exclusive guided garden tours | Garden Tours | Perennial |
Also, right on our doorstep and always a treat
Lydney Park Gardens, from 3 April Rhododendrons
What 3 Words ///degrading.strut.minimums
Lydney Park Gardens’ fabulous display of Rhododendrons is open for viewing on various days from 3 April until 7 June. Always worth a visit to this lovely local garden with the bonus of tea rooms, museum and Roman ruins to fill your day.
Visit their website here to find out their opening days Lydney Park Gardens.
National Gardens Scheme
Don’t forget that more or less every weekend there are great NGS gardens to visit. Try this link for our local area NGS Gloucestershire County Booklet 2026
Other News
Visit: Kitchen Garden herb nursery
Over 20 members visited the Kitchen Garden Plant Centre near Newent on Saturday 20 March. It was a truly memorable day. We were first given a guided tour of their very efficient operations. Then we were let loose to choose from their stock of hundreds of herbs of every description, to buy our take home goodies.
“Kids in a sweetie factory” is the best way to describe our reaction!
The nursery is remarkable for their environmental ethos and the quality of their produce. All available to buy online at https://www.kitchengardenplantcentre.co.uk
Film: “Seed – the untold story”
As part of the Forest Food Network, we helped to organise a showing of the documentary film “Seed – the untold story” at the George in Newnham on 9 April. A good number of BGS members attended as part of a full house audience of over 40. Jane Carr was on the Q&A panel with Adam Alexander and Marion Stainton.
A thoroughly entertaining evening was had by all. Tasty veggie stew to start, then a fascinating film about the struggle to maintain a healthy and diverse range of seeds for food crops. Finally, an informative and cheeringly hopeful discussion from a very well informed panel. Marvellous!
Young Gardeners’ RHS entry & Summer Show news
We are still awaiting news as to whether our proposed wheelbarrow garden has been selected by the RHS committee to compete in the Badminton Show. If it is, expect a plume of white smoke from Suzanne’s chimney!
The garden in a wheelbarrow competition was discussed at a recent ‘Dream for Bream’ meeting and plans are forming to invite wheelbarrow gardens designed by children to appear at our Summer Show from all over the Forest (probably…).
In other Summer Show news, Kathryn is working furiously on the schedule. The class list will be published very soon.
New lockers
We were successful in obtaining grants for new storage lockers at the Sports Club to hold our gardening equipment, and for the masses of materials required for our Young Gardeners group.
They have now been delivered and erected behind the containers by the usual stalwarts (thanks again). Very smart they look too, not to mention sturdy and spacious.
If anyone has troublesome in-laws coming to stay and wants to hire an external bedroom suite, open negotiations with Suzanne….
Raised bed at BSC
We are still awaiting news on whether we will be granted money to replace the raised bed structure at BSC. We are on a “promise” – but await final confirmation.
In any event, work will be required either on the existing bed or on a grand replacement. We will need people to help maintain it through the summer (weeding and watering). Anyone who is interested please let me know at secretarybgs100@gmail.com
Photograph competition
Don’t forget there is a competition to get your photographs in the BGS 2027 calendar. To enter, send your photographs (landscape orientation) of plants, nature or of local interest to secretarybgs100@gmail.com. We will be selling this calendar in October or November, ready for Christmas!
Plant price comparison tool
We have been approached by a member of Bampton Gardening Club who has developed a web based plant price comparison tool (free to use). We’ve looked at it and it appears to be legit. If you’d like to take a look for yourselves here is the link ComparePlants.uk
Sales and Wants
One of our members has some old bottles which are surplus to requirements. If there are any bottle collectors amongst you who would like any of them, please let me know on secretarybgs100@gmail.com.
