2020 In Review
A Review of 2020 from the AGM
Well, what a year to try and summarise. We started 2020 with much excitement and expectation – we had just secured the prestigious opportunity to host Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time and were in active preparation for the logistics of tickets, advertising, catering and so on.
March brought us a glimpse into Japanese Gardens with Vincent Gradwell and our last on-site meeting before the start of national lockdown. Some might have expected that the temporary closure of our meeting venue would have meant the temporary closure of Worplesdon Garden Club, but they would have underestimated our tenacity!
With a successful dry-run of a web-based Committee meeting we embraced the new normal of Zoom. Although unfortunately not accessible to all, we have still been able to consistently have 35-40-plus Members getting together every month.
We had two very enjoyable monthly talks in January and February from John Negus and Keith Hine on Water Gardens and Plant Propagation and a Club Lunch at The Nags Head. Then our focus turned to GQT and an evening with the Somethinelse production team and 150 members of the public being entertained by Pippa Greenwood, Matt Biggs and Matthew Pottage, with Peter Gibbs in the Chair. This was quite an undertaking and I would like to thank everyone who helped to make this the success it was. This includes the Trustees of Worplesdon Memorial Hall, our current Committee, Jeff Woodhams and Sue Jane. Little did we know then that this would be one of the last public recordings of GQT in quite some time.
We started this wonderful world of Zoom meetings with Keith and I showing the Flora of Madeira and the Canary Islands, and then progressed to a variety of show-and-tell evenings and speaker talks.
Despite many downsides of virtual meetings, the use of Zoom does allow us to spread our geographic net far wider when it comes to Speakers.
In addition to the local speakers of John Baker on Butterflies and Sophie Leguil on Plant Heritage, we enjoyed Sue Jeffries from Lancashire talking about Container Gardening and Dr Ian Bedford from Norwich talking about Wasps. We even learned the magic hand movements necessary to deter them come the summer.
Our Summer Show too went virtual for the first time and we embraced the joys of live voting via Zoom polls to sift through the 82 magnificent entries across 15 Classes of flowers, vegetables, photographs, and handicrafts. Thank you to everyone who embraced this diversion from the norm and had fun entering exhibits or voting on the night.
Some other Club activities did still continue. In the Spring, our regular Plant Stall and attendance at Boot Fayres selling plants transitioned into a door-to-door delivery service. Thanks go to the many members who contributed plants, but especially to Barbara who again nurtured hundreds of the plants that contributed to the success of this venture.
A partial lifting of the lockdown constraints in the summer did allow us two wonderful opportunities to get together as a Club and enjoy some local gardens. The first of these in August was the Members’ Garden Day at our garden. Again, the amazing help of many members of the Committee helped Keith and I pull this event off under the challenging, but necessary, Covid Secure guidelines. Then at the start of September an opportunity to visit the showcase garden at Chinthurst Lodge in Wonersh opened to us under the National Garden Scheme.
And finally, we were still able to turn the magnificent photographic contributions from 14 Club members into a wall and desk calendar. There may not be many activities that are currently being written on those pages, but the photographs still sing out and give us welcome thoughts of better times to come.
I have already thanked many people but would like to again extend my thanks to the Committee for their support during my first and unconventional year as Chairman. The continued success of the Club isn’t something that just happens but something that requires considerable effort from a considerable number of people. I also must say a special thank you to all the Members who have helped carry this Club forward and continue to do so. Our web site in 2020 featured just shy of 1000 photographs from the activities, the monthly potting shed, Members’ gardens, and other events throughout the year, and together with our Facebook page continues to attract visitors and indeed members from far and wide. Thank you all.
No one can know exactly what 2021 will hold for us, but one thing I am sure of, Worplesdon Garden Club will continue to be a source of education, entertainment, enthusiasm, and friendship, and it will take far more than a global pandemic to stop us from blooming. Here’s to a healthy and happy year in the garden.
Tim Bonnert
9th February 2021