Upcoming Events at a glance
| Date & Time | Where | What – who to contact |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 19 February 2:00 – 4:00 pm | West Dean Centre, Bream | BGS Young Gardeners Suzanne Snowden |
| Saturday 21 February 12:30 – 3:00 pm | Yorkley Community Centre | FoD Seed Swap & Shop Kathryn Gardner |
| Friday 27 February All day | Stroud | Master Composter Training Workshop See “other events” below |
| Sat & Sun 28 February & 1 March To be confirmed | Maypole garden,High Street, Bream | Hedge laying Diana Standing |
| 13 February –21 March 9:30 am – 4:00 pm | Newport Museum | Roots & Rivets exhibition See “other events” below |
| Tuesday 10 March 7:00 for 7:30 pm | Rising Sun pub, Bream | Annual BGS meal -Book by 28 February! Suzanne Snowden |
| Friday13 March 10:00 am – 12:00 pm | Bream Sports Club (monthly market) | Seed swap & plant sale Details in March Newsletter |
| Sat & Sun14 &15 March To be confirmed | The Butts, Clearwell | Apple Tree pruning Details in March Newsletter |
| Sunday 15 Feb 5:00 pm Saturday 21 Mar 4:00 pm | The Flour Mill, Bream Maypole to Flour Mill, Bream | Forest Dance Walk Forest Procession Details in March Newsletter |
| Saturday 21 March 1:00 pm at WDC or 2:00 pm at venue | Newent | Trip: Kitchen Garden Plant Centre – Book now! Diana Standing |
| Saturday 2 May 9:30am at WDC or 11:00am at venue | Morton Hall, Reddich | Trip: Morton Tulip Festival – Book now! Diana Standing |
| Contacts: | Kathryn Gardner & Suzanne Snowden: breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com | Diana Standing: bgsprogsec@gmail.com |
Also see the programme for Tender Shoots here: Programme – Tender Shoots Garden Club Network
Jane’s Jottings
Well Imbolc (half way between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox) has been and gone, nature is stirring, slowly waking up and showing signs like the wee red stars of the female hazel flowers. We’ve just had a beautiful sunny day and I counted 13 different plants flowering in my garden, most of them sweetly scented ~ such a joy.
Some of my jobs for Feb:
- Sowing : aubergines, chillies and sweet peppers need doing now if not already sown, spring onions, pea shoots, lettuce ~ if you would like a comprehensive list of things to sow go to Stephanie Hafferty’s page on FB ‘What to Sow in Feb’ and her excellent advice.
- Cut back the old leaves of Epimedium before the flower stems start showing
- Cut back the old flowering stems of the autumn fruiting raspberries and mulch
- Prune Wisteria down to 2 or 3 buds to encourage flowering + mulch
- Continue lifting pots and leeks/weeding/mulching veg beds
- Cut back and clear some of the herbaceous borders and if the stems might still hold snugly homes for wee beasties then I pop them at the back of the borders to clear up later.
Do remember there’s still plenty of time left for more frosty nights!
See you around, Jane ☺
BGS Events
BGS Young Gardeners – Thursday 19 February
We will be running a Young Gardeners session, for primary children and above, in the West Dean Centre. Places are limited so booking is essential.
We’ll be talking about tomatoes, planting seeds, making ketchup and encouraging them to enter classes in the Summer and Autumn shows. We’ll also be planning a planted wheelbarrow exhibit to be made by them and entered into the RHS show at Badminton later this year.
There is more about Young Gardeners in the AGM report later in this newsletter. If you would like to book a child’s place, or get involved yourself, please contact Suzanne. breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com
FoD seed Swap & Shop – Saturday 21 February
In conjunction with the Forest Food Network and other local gardening societies, we will be running a seed swap and sales event in the Community Centre Yorkley, GL15 4RS. ///multiple.scariest.pest
Please come along to exchange surplus seeds or simply buy them. There will be plants and seed potatoes available to buy, and a specialist sharpening garden tools. And (obviously) teas, coffees and homemade cakes etc.
If you would like to volunteer to help, have seeds to donate or want further information, please contact Kathryn Gardner. breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com
Hedge Laying – Saturday 28 February & Sunday 1 March
BGS members will work together to lay a native hedge at the Maypole in the centre of Bream – GL15 6EQ. ///craftsman.faces.rating. An excellent opportunity to learn a traditional countryside skill. This is an ongoing project, and new members are always welcome. No booking necessary.
Please wear stout shoes and warm outdoor clothing. Safety glasses and gardening gloves will be available. If you have any hazel for staking and top weaving, please bring it along. For further information, please contact Diana. bgsprogsec@gmail.com
BGS Annual Meal – Tuesday 10 March – Book now!
Our annual get together and meal will be held in the Rising Sun in Bream this year. ///buckets.decks.shortcuts. It is essential you get your meal orders in by the 28th February. You can download the form from the BGS website here.
Please contact Suzanne (again!) to book. breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com
Trip: Kitchen Garden Plant Centre – Saturday 21 March – Book now!
An opportunity to visit a Chelsea gold medal winning nursery which is right on our doorstep but not normally open to the public. The Kitchen Garden Plant Centre in Newent are family growers of herbs and edible plants who have a passion for the natural environment and are committed to sustainable practices. Please sign up here Kitchen Plant Centre – Booking form.
Trip: Moreton Hall Gardens – Tulip Festival – Saturday 2 May – Book now!
Come with us to the annual Tulip Festival held in the beautiful gardens of Moreton Hall. Over 100 tulip varieties can be admired in borders, pots and as cut flowers. Swathes of naturalised bulbs may also be enjoyed in the glorious spring meadows and woodland gardens. Visit their web site here mortonhallgardens.co.uk.
Please sign up here ASAP to allow us to assess numbers. Moreton Hall – Tulip Festival: Booking form
Other events
Events which may be of interest to BGS members.
Master Composter training – 27 February
We have been contacted by Garden Organic in Stroud, https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/. They advise that they are expanding the Master Composter network in Gloucestershire in conjunction with Gloucestershire County Council. There is a free Master Composter training workshop which will take place on 27 February in Stroud. Anyone interested should contact the organiser Paddy Halling. phalling@gardenorganic.org.uk
Roots & Rivets exhibition, Newport Museum and Art Gallery – until 21 March
Our very own Magdelena Sienkiewicz has a piece of art in this exhibition and we thought members might be interested to visit. Find out about it here Roots and Rivets Exhibition.
Other News
Film of 160th Summer Show
Is available from a link on the BGS website. See it here Bream 160th Summer Show YouTube
Members-only classes for the 2026 Shows
Those members who attended the AGM should have picked up a small packet of seeds to allow them to compete in this year’s members-only classes. These seeds are also available free of charge to members who sent their apologies and to other members for 50p.
Further details about the competitions and full growing instructions may be found in the link button below or contact Kathryn for a printed copy. breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com
Report on visit to Painswick Rococo gardens
Our first garden visit of the year was to the Rococo gardens at Paiswick on a beautiful sunny day, the subject of a talk we received late last year.
12 members attended and had, by their own reckoning, a jolly good time. Here are some photographs for those who couldn’t make it, showing what you missed (courtesy of those who could).
Report on February BGS Textile Group
Just a heads up to BGS members who don’t know about our Textiles Group, run by Suzanne Snowden. We meet in the Evergreen Hall in Broadwell on the third Monday of the month and make interesting things out of fabric.
You may have noticed banners and similar decorations at our shows and events. Here are some pictures of things made at the meeting on 16 February.
Anyone interested in joining should contact Suzanne. breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com
Volunteering opportunity at Taurus crafts
We have been approached by Taurus Crafts in Lydney to see if any of our members would like to volunteer to help them build a ‘Wonderpod’ area; effectively a sensory garden that can be enjoyed by both the public and the community that the Camphill Village Trust supports.
Anyone interested in helping, either on a one off or more regular basis, should contact them directly, thank you. Robin Elston, Volunteer Resource, Taurus Crafts. Robin.Elston@cvt.org.uk
Calendar photograph competition
Don’t forget to send in photographs for the BGS calendar. They need to be landscape view. Send them to secretarybgs100@gmail.com
AGM report
We held our Annual General Meeting on 10 February at the Bream Sports Club. 50 members attended, including 5 who joined on the night. The following is a brief summary of the main points and decisions taken. Formal minutes of the meeting will be posted on the BGS website in due course.
Finance
The BGS had a surplus of income over expenses in 2025 of just over £3000. The main sources of this surplus were sponsorships and grants for our shows and a certain amount of monies received from grants which have been received in the financial year but not yet expended.
Both Summer and Autumn shows showed modest profits on paper, but were much closer to break even if grants and sponsorship are taken out. It is proposed to retain the surplus against the possibility that we will be unable to attract these sorts of income streams in the future.
Besides our shows, the main expenditure the Society has is paying for speakers, room hire etc. for our monthly meetings and similar events. Here we are facing rising costs on all fronts. The budget for hiring speakers and paying expenses based on our current income is now some £100 per meeting, which is insufficient to maintain the standard we presently enjoy.
There are proposals (below) to raise more money from sources other than membership fees, but in the light of the current financial situation the committee proposed a fee increase to £15 per annum in 2027. This proposal was accepted unanimously.
During the year we have had to deal with numerous changes of service levels and fees from our current banks and bankers. Most of these continue to mitigate against the use of cash for our transactions and our current approach of encouraging the use of bank transfers (BACS) for as much of our business as possible is sure to continue. We have opened a new account with the Monmouthshire Building Society which will help us avoid rising bank charges from our other accounts.
Our accounts were audited by Cecile Hunt again who provided an excellent service. It was proposed that we use her to audit next year’s accounts, which was accepted unanimously.
Membership
We had 143 listed members at the time of the AGM.
This comprises of 109 paid members, 4 Honorary Life Members and 30 members who did not rejoin last year. 12 new members joined on or after the summer show, therefore do not need to pay until the 2026 AGM.
We welcome all our new members.
After this AGM, once the membership subs payments are collated, we will be sending emails/letters to all listed members who have not paid. They will then be removed from our lists, if we have not received payment.
5 additional new members joined at the AGM.
Shows
The Summer and Autumn Shows continued the current trend of ever increasing exhibitors, entries and visitors attending; and accordingly financial successes (although, as noted in the Finance report, the profitability of the shows depended heavily on our ability to attract sponsors for marquees, section prizes etc.). The Show Manager (Kathryn Gardner) ‘managed expectation’ by pointing out that we have not had to contend with a rain washed Summer show for a number of years, and that in that circumstance all bets are off regarding financial success.
Details of ‘Who won what’ and show highlights will be included in the formal minutes of the AGM and published in due course.
Programme
Our Chair, Diana Standing, was unable to attend the AGM and Kathryn Gardner presented the report on our programme of activities. Various highlights from the programme in 2025/6 were described together with upcoming attractions, all of which will be presented in the soon to be published “BGS 2026/7 programme”.
Youth programme
The BGS started running small events for local children to be introduced to the joys of gardening during half term breaks and holidays in 2022. As much as anything to encourage entries into the children’s classes in our shows.
What started with a handful of attendees has grown dramatically so that we now have waiting lists and have had to move from a small room in the Library to the main hall of the West Dean Center. The scope of activities has expanded to include Citizen Science and currently an attempt to enter a children’s class at the RHS show at Badminton.
We now have 5 regular volunteer members who look after the groups and also prepare materials and resources. Although we have sometimes called on BGS funds most of the expenditure has been covered by the volunteers. We now face increasing room hire charges and mandatory expenditure on safety items etc. and the current funding model will not suffice.
We have made a decision not to charge for the workshops, to make them more accessible to all local residents. We similarly do not believe that it is reasonable to draw heavily on BGS funds which should be spent for the benefit of members.
We do believe that many of our members are sympathetic and interested in the work we are doing with local children and would be prepared to support it. There is limited opportunity for assisting with the activity directly so we are asking members who are inclined to assist to make voluntary financial contributions which will be used exclusively for Youth engagement.
A “collecting bucket” was put out at the meeting and will doubtless reappear at future events.
Proposal to commercialise Bee Hotel sales
In 2024 John Theophilus started making and selling ‘observation’ bee hotels on behalf of the BGS. Their design arose from a citizen science project undertaken by the BGS Young Gardeners.
The hotels are complex to build and require specialist woodworking equipment. They take some one and a half man days each to make each, making their manufacture by hand all but unsustainable. We also believe that we are currently selling them significantly below the best market price.
We have researched outsourcing the manufacture and concluded that we could have hotels built for us which could be sold profitably, if we ordered batches of 50 or more. A batch would cost around £3000 and (if our estimates of achievable selling price are right) achieve profits of around £2000. (To put this in context, it equates to the membership fees from just over 150 new members.)
There are obviously risks in investing £3000 from our reserves, although it is affordable. We therefore propose that, before embarking on this course, we do a pilot project to test our target selling price and online selling processes.
Risking reserves as capital for manufacture and sales of goods to raise funds is not currently within the terms of reference for our Society (although it is not precluded as such). The committee therefore sought approval from the AGM to undertake the pilot and, if successful, to proceed to raise funds in this way. The meeting passed the motion with no contrary votes.
Election of officers and committee
As usual, the committee and officers stood down and a new committee was elected.
All the current offices and members offered themselves for re-election with the exception of Margaret Kidby who has decided to stand down.
Margaret has given some 16 years of service to the Society and (in her absence) she was gratefully thanked by the Chair. We anticipate thanking her properly at some future event which she can attend.
No one offered to stand against any of the current incumbent officers, nor to join the committee as additional members. The current Officers and committee members were then reelected unanimously to serve for another year.
Finish
The meeting accepted the proposal that the next AGM would be held on 9 February 2027 and the meeting closed at 9:40 pm.
Sales and Wants
Offered free
Sturdy crate which could potentially be used, for example, as a compost bin.
Anyone interested please contact Diana Standing bgsprogsec@gmail.com