Chairman’s letter Autumn 2022

Chairman’s letter - Autumn 2022

Dear Members,

Looking back over the last year, we have had our usual high standard of informative speakers -  Andrew Ward, with Plants and Prejudice (and I still don’t like bright yellow); Joe Sharman, Mr. Snowdrop, who sprang into the breach when Anna Pavord was unable to come at the last moment; Timothy Walker showing us how to prune trees and shrubs; Micheal Perry with his Houseplants, and as I write, we are anticipating an interesting talk from our Speaker at the AGM, Ed Berger and his talk on Herbs For Health.

Our visits have included the beautiful Childerley Hall and Gardens and Fullers Mill Garden at West Stow, but unfortunately we had to cancel Ulting Wick and Furzelea due to lack of support. On a perfect English summer evening we enjoyed our Summer Social in Sue de Sabata’s stunning garden in Chelsworth, with generous quantities of food and wine. Our thanks to her for being the perfect hostess. The EAGG Garden Tour finally hit the road in September where about 30 members enjoyed a visit to six glorious gardens in Kent, where we were very lucky with the weather.

Looking forward we have a terrific line up of speakers for 2023,  Steve Edney, Troy Scott Smith, Lucy Hutchings and more, and we will hopefully have some exciting news on a celebrity speaker soon. As far as visits go, we are hoping to reinstate the visit to Ulting Wick in Spring, see the restorations at Easton Lodge Gardens, and arrange a coach visit to Great Dexter Spring Plant Sale by coach, sharing with Boxford Garden Society, to spread the cost.

We hope you will all bear with us while we get our new subscription systems in place, and we apologise for any inconveniences caused by this, but it will all be much easier soon. We are also in desperate need of some new members on the committee, as we are losing our secretary, the amazing Liz Law, and  technical genius Matthew Long. So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do  come forward, without a committee there is no EAGG. We are a happy team and plan the speakers and visits, holidays and events, and we have good cakes! We need a Secretary, a job which could be split into Membership Secretary and a Meetings Secretary, thus halving the work.  Someone who is good with setting up equipment for talks, and anyone who can manage web page technology, and if you would like to take on the plant stall, that is in need of someone too. Training and help is at hand, so don’t be scared!

My thanks go to the whole committee who give up their time and energy to keep this running smoothly, particularly to Fiona Pearson who shares the Chairman’s post with me.  Thanks to Sue deSabata and her tireless work on the website, and for her work as Co- Chair, Widget Finn for arranging such brilliant speakers, and Isobel Ashton for the Newsletter, and to Matthew Long for his amazing technical experience and although he is not standing for the committee, we hope he will still be on hand if there is a crisis with projectors or computers,  we still need you! Huge thanks too, to our Treasurer, Louise Chambury; to Maggie Thorpe, our President for her wisdom in all things – thank you , and to everybody else who helps behind the scenes, Nicholas Pearson with teas  and raffle ticket selling friends.

Jackie Rocker is giving up the plant Stall, which she has run uncomplainingly for a very long time, so we give her huge thanks for her supreme efforts there, and if you would like to come up Jackie, we have a small ‘thank you’ for you, and also not forgetting the mountain of meringues she makes for the Summer Social.

Thank you to the members for your continued support, without you there is no EAGG!

Finally, in recognition of the outstanding work done by Liz Law, who despite being unwell has carried us through Covid and Zoom Meetings, sent out endless information for members, and who does so much more than we ever know behind the scenes to facilitate the smooth running of EAGG, we award her with a life membership, and had she been here today, she would also have had some flowers, we will save that for another meeting. We wish her better health and a good rest for recovery.

Good health and good gardening to you all.

Erica Legge

Joint Chairman October 2022