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.
21st May: Committee & members – SALGA AGM and plant sale. An opportunity for all our members to come along and hear what has been happening in SALGA during the past year and to sell and buy plants from your garden and/or allotment.
18th June: Pip Smith – The drought resilient gardener. Pip is a landscape gardener with over 17 years’ experience working within the landscape industry. He has held the post of head gardener at several public and private gardens, most recently at Wollerton Old Hall in Shropshire. He believes garden design should consider and embrace the climatic challenges we all face and that planting must be resilient and able to withstand the constantly changing climate.
16th July: SALGA Show Committee/Question Panel. Learn how to enter our popular Summer Show, have your questions answered and share expertise about gardening with fellow members.
20th August: Stewart Linford – Early English weoodlands brought to life. Stewart draws on decades of experience gained in creating ‘luxury in wood’ to inform and entertain his innumerable audiences. He has a degree in wood science and a distinction for his thesis on Traditional Chair-making. As an ancient woodland owner and custodian Stewart describes coppicing, regeneration and tree planting practices that care for and preserve our vital natural resource in addition to telling us about charcoal burning and the ‘Bodgers’ in the Chiltern beech woods.
17th September: Charlotte Howard – House plants and how not to kill them. Charlotte has over two decades’ experience as a hands-on gardener, garden designer and horticultural adviser for a huge variety of gardens in Wiltshire, Hampshire, Bath and Bristol. She is an RHS Master of Horticulture with a National Diploma in Horticulture. Charlotte will talk to us about all things houseplants. As she says, “Whether you’re a serial plant murderer or just want to up your indoor plant game, this talk covers the key to long-living, healthy houseplants.”
15th October: Jane Moore – Structure and Sparkle in the Garden. Jane will describe the strong plants that bind the garden, and the stunning flowers that make a good garden shine. She has written for The Times, The Guardian, The English Garden and for BBC Gardeners’ World magazine, as well as appearing on various TV programmes including Gardeners’ World, and has won numerous awards for her writing and her gardening including the Relais & Chateaux Garden Trophy, the Garden Media Guild Journalist of the Year and has been runner up in the GMG Columnist of the year twice.
In her talk to us Charlotte says ” I’ll take you through my seasonal star performers, extolling their virtues with examples from my garden, and setting the stage with a backdrop of shrubs that I consider my reliable supporting cast.”
19th November: Lara Honor – Skool Beanz Children’s Garden. Lara will describe how she turned a neglected and overgrown allotment in her village into an abundant children’s garden that benefits the whole community. She is a full-time gardener who developed a passion for no dig and growing vegetables while working for Charles Dowding. Inspired by Greta Thunberg, Lara transformed an overgrown allotment in her village in Somerset into a garden specifically for children, teaching them through her Skool Beanz gardening club how to grow vegetables and flowers and how to garden to help nature, with lots of arts and crafts thrown in.
Lara will bring assorted merchandise to sell on the evening (she has a card reader), including books, calendars and gardening crafts.
18th December: SALGA Quiz & Ploughman’s Supper. Celebrate the end of another successful gardening year with your SALGA friends by taking part in our annual quiz and ploughman’s supper evening.
