Monthly meetings take place at Immanuel Church Hall, Upham Road, Swindon SN3 1DH, usually on the 3rd Thursday of every month, unless noted otherwise.
We have access to the hall and kitchen from 7.30pm, and the speaker will begin at around 7.45pm. We serve teas and coffees before the speaker’s presentation. We will also be holding a raffle at many of our monthly meetings – tickets are sold before the presentation, and the draw takes place immediately after it.
Meetings planned over the next few months are outlined below.
20th November: Laura Homes – Garden Design. Laura grew up in Cornwall, and her garden design work is hugely influenced by the many world-famous gardens there. Falmouth Art School with its beautiful gardens by Barbara Hepworth, cemented her passion for blending garden design and contemporary art. Laura has created three of her own gardens, plus two community gardens and an allotment project for a charity. Her approach to gardens is that they should be spaces we share with nature, they must be both good for people and the planet. Her designs include planting for birds, bees, and other pollinators, which means no use of pesticides or slug pellets.
11th December: Quiz and nibbles. A social get together where we enjoy some food and drink together, and stretch our minds with a short quiz.
22nd January 2026: Chris Rumming – Promoting Healthy Soil and Promoting Wildlife on the farm. Chris is in charge of the day to day care and welfare of the turkeys on Lydiard turkey farm. When he is not doing this, he making things in his shed, growing giant vegetables or performing his duties as assistant shepherd. He will share with us his the methods to encourage healthy soil and a myriad of wild life on his farm.
19th February: Harriet Rycroft – “Potty Time”. Harriet is a gardener, writer and teacher of container gardening who currently works at the Cotswold Wildlife Park. She was the head gardener at Whichford Pottery for many years, becoming well-known for creating spectacular container displays all year round. Harriet lectures, teaches and writes about container planting. With Tim Miles, she wrote and provided most of the images for a book about the gardens at the Cotswold Wildlife Park. Her book, “Pots”, was published in 2022 by Frances Lincoln (copies will be available on the evening for the reduced cost of £10.00).
19th March: John Farrow – South Swindon Green Trail. Following his fascinating talk to us last year about the Wilts and Berks Canal and its remarkable wildlife, we have asked John to return to us to speak about the South Swindon Council Green Trail. This is a recently completed circular walk following green areas within Swindon including Coate Water, the woods off Pipers Way, the Canal at Wichelstowe, the old railway line and Buckhurst Field.
