Page 55 - Simply Vegetables Summer 2022

Midland Branch
MEMBERS 10000 TO 19999
Vice Chairs Report
As we move advancing into spring gardening with plants and vegetables growing at an alarming pace, more daylight and warmer weather benefits all of us.
We held our Midland Branch AGM at Hanley Swan on March 19th, where we welcomed a new Committee member, Albert Walker, into the fold. We move forward into another year with no-one
in the Chair, and all other officers are willing to continue for a further year, but one member stood down and a new one stepped forward. We had
of vegetables and plants grown by members of our committee and Society and to include an educational area.
Full praise to all who contributed to the prize-winning stand it won a well- deserved ‘Silver Award.’
Friday’s delight was a visit to our stand from HRH Princess Anne who had a chat with everyone.
Thanks to everyone who helped man the stand over the four days, from not only our committee members,
but members from our two local DA’s
a break for tea and cake, then we were entertained with a talk from Graham Wagstaffe, ‘Growing Veg in a small space’ which was well received with
a lot of questions asked and answered.
a visit to our stand from HRH Princess Anne
(Bucks and West Midlands) and NVS members from other Branches.
At time of writing, our next committee meeting is due on 9th June at The Scout Hut, Kidderminster to evaluate Malvern Show results and to
We held a committee
meeting at Kidderminster on April 9th and welcomed our new member, Albert Walker to his first meeting, great to have you on board Albert, thank you.
Our committee is, I believe, a great team and great teamwork will bring success all round.
April moved into May which brought a big challenge for us to compete at the Malvern Spring Festival (5th to 8th May). The challenge was to create a display
commence with forward planning for more Shows through the summer, Newport, (Shropshire,) and Shrewsbury.
We now turn our minds and look forward to our next major event with the Midland Branch hosting the ‘National Vegetable Championships’ at Malvern in on the 23rd, 24th & 25th Sept 2022.
Wishing everyone Good Health and Good Fortune
David Forrester, Vice Chairman
BUCKS DA
The year started after almost a
2 Year break with the AGM on Tuesday 8th February with a talk by Barry Newman on Growing veg in raised beds
The AGM which was completed in 20 minutes, prior to Barry’s talk, voted in a new Chairman David Ridgway, all the other members
of the committee were re-elected as follows Brian Butler, President, Jake Sale, Secretary, Bob Bleasdale. Membership Secretary, Valerie Fielder, Fundraiser, John Branham is staying on the general committee and is joined by Darren Pritchett and Jim Styles. The AGM was attended by 51 people including the National Chair, Sandra Hall.
During June, two garden visits have been arranged, the first to John Branham’s on Tuesday 14th and Rycote Chapel on Wednesday 29th. We will also be having our usual stand at The Bucks County Show on Thursday 1st September. To finish the year off we have two talks, Tuesday 11th October – Mick Poultney, Making Compost and on Tuesday 8th November – Simon Smith – Entering my Village Show at are usual venue, Wingrave Village Hall.
West Midland DA Report
I write this in my position as acting chairman and by the time you read this edition of Simply Veg our committee will have welcomed a new member in the form of Peter Chamberlain a long time NVS member and chairman of the Bishampton Gardening Club and his expertise is warmly welcomed. Two members have been appointed onto the Midland Branch committee for the coming year in an effort to fill vacancies and provide more assistance.
The committee members have been preparing plants for our display at Gardeners World Live to be held in June
at the NEC. We have also been helping the Midland Branch with their stand at the Malvern Spring Show. This is just one of the four shows we will be displaying at this year in an effort to publicise the NVS and hopefully attract more members. Our next
meeting is being held on the last Thursday in May and we will welcome John Boswell one of our members in giving his first lecture about growing vegetables. John exhibits at many of the local gardening club shows along with some judging and also manages four allotment sites in Stourbridge so is a busy person. We will be having a plant sale at our May meeting after John’s lecture so it will be a busy night.
Our stand at Gardeners World last year obtained a silver medal and we are hoping to achieve the same or better this year. We are growing a wide variety of vegetable plants which are always welcomed by
the public along with our assistance in answering as many of the questions the public ask. The stand will also have a section for children in an effort to arouse their curiosity and encourage them to eat and grow vegetables.
We would
welcome
both NVS
members and
non-members to
our meetings and
if you require a
copy of our 2022
programme, please
contact me and I
will send you one. At
our next meeting to be
held on the last Thursday
in August we will have a lecture by Peter Chamberlain about growing Dahlias for which he is a well-known grower alongside our usual raffle and Mini Veg show run by Roy James so it should be an interesting and packed evening.
Graham Brickstock FNVS
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