Newtown Linford Gardening Club

The Gardening Club was formed in May 2002 in response to a demand clearly shown in the Village Appraisal. Now we have over 100 members.

We have a full, interesting and varied programme. We meet on the 4th Tuesday of the month at 7.30 pm in the large hall at the Village Hall in Newtown Linford.

We have held our open evenings for several years now and they have proved very popular. We have had talks from David Howard, Head Gardener at Highgrove, and Nick Hamilton from Barnsdale. Since then Christine Walkden and Adam Frost have spoken to a packed room and more recently we have welcomed Chris Beardshaw, Fergus Garett from Great Dixter and Anne Swithinbank. There are several more of these events already planned for future years with other prestigious gardening personalities signed up to come to our village.

We have also visited some fascinating and well-known gardens including RHS Wisley, Kew, John's Garden, Coton Manor, RHS Harlow Carr, RHS Hyde Hall and Highgrove. We have also been behind the scenes at Wyevale and other nurseries which specialise in particular plants of groups of plants.

New members and visitors are welcome, for full details contact the Secretary on email 32couling@gmail.com.

Thank you for visiting our webpage. We had added new information. Please scroll down to the bottom of this page to go to Past Activities, Information and our Photo Gallery.

What's been happening

During the summer months our activities move outside with two trips and, every July, with our Summer Garden Party. The garden party was first held some fifteen years ago when our membership was quite low and we needed to engender some spirit and camaraderie into the club.

It was held at the home of secretary and treasurer Anne and David Couling and had an Italian theme of 'Pizza, Pasta, Pimms and Prizes' It was attended by around three dozen people and prove to be popular, especially with Pimms being provided. On another occasion it was 'Puddings, Pimms and Prizes with our secretary Anne making no fewer than nineteen different puddings!!!

By then, membership had increased to around sixty and we moved to the garden owned by our current chairman. Mike Newcombe and his wife Elizabeth. Their home is a more substantial place with two acres of garden, which was ideal to accommodate the increasing number of members.

Gazebos are erected to house the many tables and chairs which need to be laid out.

Every year now, around 100 people attend, some of them bringing their partners with them as guests.

Members do not pay anything to attend but visitors are charged a small feeto cover the cost of their food.

We provide a cold salad meal, usually ham and egg with a variety of salads, followed by a sweet, which has now become home made cakes provided by some of the committee. This fare has changed only once when we held a hog roast to celebrate our return after the covid lockdown.

The prizes come from a huge raffle. We ask members to bring a prize for the raffle and so we have almost 100 prizes on offer. As we have a tradition that no one wins more than one prize, it means that everyone goes home with a prize of some sort.

Every year, we hope for fine weather and, more often than not, our prayers have been answered This year it rained on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, but Tuesday was fine and so around 100 members enjoyed their evening as usual.

What's in store 🌳🪻

Our gardening club has developed a reputation for inviting speakers who have a national or international standing. Many are household names through their appearances on television and we are delighted to announce more such visitors in the coming months.

Tuesday July 23^rd

On this day we hold our traditional Summer Garden Party at Mountain Ash, Ulverscroft Road, the home of our chairman Mike Newcombe and his wife Liz. The gates will open at 6.30pm with food served after 7.00pm. As usual we will be offering Pimms, wine, beer and soft drinks at the bar and the food will consist of salad with a range of meats (or a vegetarian option), together with the usual accoutrements, followed by a range of cakes.

We will, as usual be holding our giant raffle, when we ask everybody to bring a prize for the raffle or a bottle for the bar and then raffle them off so that, with luck, everyone wins a prize.

There is no charge for members, but we charge £5 for any guests who come.

We will be issuing tickets for the celebrity evening with Adam Frost on this day, as we know it will be a very popular evening.

Tuesday August 27^th

is our evening visit to Belgrave Hall, which has a lovely garden to see. The hall is in Leicester just past Red Hill Roundabout in Birstall. The cost will be £2 payable on the evening and will include refreshments. Further details will be published nearer the time.

Tuesday September 24^th

We welcome back Arthur Parkinson. He has made quite a name for himself over the last few years, having worked with some of the major figures in horticulture and presented on television. His speciality is growing plants in pots and that will be the subject of his talk.

Tuesday October 22^nd ADAM FROST, designer, author and broadcaster