Wootton Courtenay Gardening Club was established in 1999 to provide opportunities for villagers to enjoy talks and discussions on gardening topics, and to visit interesting local gardens. The Club is funded by a combination of membership subscriptions and the proceeds of the annual village Flower and Produce Show, held on the first Tuesday in August. Click here to view a gallery of photos from the 2024 Show.
The club warmly welcomes everyone who has a garden in the village, whether they are novice gardeners or green-fingered wizards. New members can join at any time of the year, and the Club offers friendly and enthusiastic support to beginners and experts alike. Non-members are welcome to attend our talks (see below).
Our garden visits, which are self-drive/car-share, are generally paid for by those taking part in the trips. However, once a year the club funds a trip for Club members only, ensuring that the selected garden is opening for charity (the National Garden Scheme, for instance), so that any funds spent by the Club go to a good cause.
The Gardening Club actively seeks to put excess proceeds from the Flower & Produce Show to good use, particularly in the field of horticulture. In 2023, Adam Reed, who runs the community gardening project Good Vibe Veg (GVV), based at Horner Farm, initiated a school visits programme with Porlock School. Pupils visited on a regular basis, in their year groups, to experience the GVV garden. They sowed, grew, weeded and harvested, and learnt about where food comes from, healthy eating and sustainability. The Gardening Club offered GVV £300 to buy tools, wheelbarrows and gardening gloves suitable for the children, and the Committee decided to support Adam’s project on an annual basis for the foreseeable future. In 2025, to facilitate more school visits to GVV, we increased the Club’s annual donation to £400. Click here to read the latest update on this scheme. Find out more about Good Vibe Veg here.
The club has become a Plastic Free Ally, supporting plastic reduction in the garden and encouraging sustainable gardening techniques, such as avoiding the use of weedkillers and pesticides. Advice on how to avoid plastics and practice sustainable gardening may be downloaded via this link:
Annual Membership costs £10 per person
Visitors are welcome to attend meetings – £3 per person
Membership forms are circulated in January but may be obtained anytime from Marion Jay. Alternatively you can download and print off the form here: 2026 Membership Form
Chairwoman
Marion Jay 01643 841486
Treasurer
Peter Stenner
Committee
Peter Clapham
Jeremy Curtis
Nigel Humphries
Ingrid Popplewell
Programme 2026
Talks are held in Wootton Courtenay Village Hall. Our February talk will be held via Zoom. Subscription fees are due in January. Booking forms for garden trips will be available from Spring 2026. A summary of the 2026 Programme will be available here in due course (useful to put on the side of your fridge as a reminder).
All talks begin at 7.30pm unless otherwise specified
Tuesday 20th January, 7.30pm
Gardening Club AGM
All club members are invited to attend the Annual General Meeting, which will be held in the Village Hall. After the business of the meeting has concluded, we will enjoy wine, tea, coffee and nibbles, and there will be a chance to win a prize in the Chairwoman’s Quiz. Please bring nibbles (finger food only) if you wish, and indicate where food is gluten free, if possible.
Friday 19th February
Self-Drive Trip to Higher Cherubeer, Winkleigh, Devon, EX19 8PP
Garden entry & refreshments combined (GF cake available): £10pp on the gate
At an elevation of 500 ft at the head of a valley on the edge of Dartmoor, this 1¾ acre country garden is sheltered from the worst of the winter weather by beech hedges and swathes of native trees and basketry willows. In February, herbaceous borders and woodland beds are awash with spring treasures, including hellebores, naturalised cyclamen, scented winter-flowering shrubs and – spectacularly – over 400 different varieties of snowdrop. There is also an alpine house, a kitchen garden with a large greenhouse, and an orchard. Jo holds a National Collection of cyclamen species. It’s a great winter garden thanks to the bare-bone structure provided by the willows and hedging, which create a sense of place. There are usually plants for sale, too.
As it’s February, if the roads are likely to be icy or the Met Office issues any kind of weather warning, this trip will be postponed or cancelled. You will be informed via email if this is the case.
Travel time approx 1½ hours. Plenty of parking on site.
The Kings Arms in Winkleigh is recommended for lunch, and their menu includes GF bread and buns for sandwiches and burgers.
Tuesday 24th February – Lecture
Vanessa Berridge, via Zoom –
‘Garden Heaven – Inspiration and Escapism for Every Gardener’
Vanessa launched The English Garden magazine in 1997 and has written several acclaimed books on gardens and gardening. This talk encompasses a tour of 30 British gardens, classic to modern, including Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Bodnant, Kiftsgate, Levens Hall and (my favourite) Wildside. Vanessa wrote a book on the subject and will be showing us some stunning photographs to accompany the talk.
A Zoom link will be sent out to members via email a day or so prior to the talk.
Tuesday 21st April – Lecture
Rachel Martin from MoreVeg –
‘Seeds!’
Seed is one of the cheapest methods of propagation, and MoreVeg have lots to choose from! Based near Bridgwater, they produce seed in smaller packets than most commercial seed merchants, which is more economical for the customer and ideal for domestic gardeners. And it’s not only vegetable seeds – they offer a range of flower and herbs seeds too.
In this talk, Rachel will be giving us an insight into nursery life, telling us about a few of her favourite plants grown from seed, and offering some practical tips along the way. She will also be selling seeds, so bring your wallet!
Late April (Date and Location TBA)
Members’ Plant and Seedling Swap
The idea of the Seedling Swap is that members bring along surplus seedlings and small plants, and swap them for something different. No money exchanges hands – the benefit is the opportunity to grow something you haven’t tried before, and to get together for tea and cake and plenty of chat. There will be spare pots and compost for decanting seedlings from trays, and labels to help you remember what you’ve got.
NB: It doesn’t matter if you come empty-handed – all club members are welcome and you might find yourself going home with something new for your garden.
Please sow something in spring, or dig out some seedlings if you have some interesting ones sprouting in the border, pot them up and grow them on. Perhaps you have a particularly fabulous plant you can snaffle a piece from and pot up. Annuals, herbaceous plants, vegetables and even cuttings of shrubs – all grist to the mill. It would be useful if you labelled them so that people know what they’re taking home.
Thursday 7th May at 2.30pm
John Addison –
‘Propagation, Part 2‘
If you attended John’s talk on propagation last year, you’ll know that he only had time to cover the basics. Luckily for us, he was happy to come back and tackle the more advanced propagation techniques, such as layering, root cuttings and, if we’re lucky, grafting. With years of experience teaching at Cannington College, he is also able to answer any questions you might have on aspects of propagation.
This will be a practical demonstration – do come along, and bring your notebook!
Monday 11th May
Self-Drive Trip to Hollam House, Dulverton, TA22 9JH
Meet at the garden at 2pm. Garden entry: £7 Refreshments: £5
A five-acre, sloping Exmoor garden with ponds, a water garden, woodland plantings, borders and meadow areas. May is an excellent time to see the rhodos and azaleas in full swing, along with the last flowers of the magnolias and the early ones of cornus and viburnum. The garden is on a large scale and boasts some magnificent mature trees which sit well in the landscape. Interesting borders too, with some unusual plants. Refreshments available, including gluten free cake.
Please note: this garden is not suitable for those of limited mobility due to steep terrain. No dogs.
Travel time: 30 mins. Parking signposted on site.
Wednesday 24th June
Self-Drive Trip to Avalon, Higher Chillington, Ilminster, Somerset, TA19 0PT
Meet at the garden at 2.30pm. Garden entry: £7.50 Refreshments: £4.50
A secluded hillside garden with wonderful views which, on a clear day, reach as far as Wales. The lower garden has large herbaceous borders, a sizeable wildlife pond and two greenhouses filled with South African succulents. The middle garden has mixed borders, wild spotted orchids (and mare’s tail) on the lawn, an allotment area and a small orchard. The upper garden has a spring-fed watercourse with ponds and terracing.
Owners Dee and Tony, who are both knowledgeable plantspeople, have created the garden in just over ten years, mastering the streams which would otherwise turn the site into a bog and removing the more rigid structural terraced features they inherited. Dee loves wildflowers and skilfully mixes red and white campion, betony, loosestrife, ox-eye daisies and others with more conventional border plants. The wildflowers and spotted orchids should all be at their best at this time of year. Gluten-free refreshments available.
Travel time 1½ hrs.
Directions: People sometimes have difficulty finding Avalon. In Google maps it’s best to enter ‘moor lane TA19 0PT’, and if you prefer to use what3words, it’s ///strut.atlas.resonated
Tuesday 30th June – Lecture
Saul Walker –
‘Woodland Gardening: the Art of Growing in Shade‘
Saul Walker is Head Gardener at Stone Lane Gardens and Nursery on the outskirts of Dartmoor. He is hugely enthusiastic about plants, especially exotics and shade-lovers. Saul describes this talk as: “A combination of looking at woodland gardens, how the conditions dictate how they should be planted, a small amount of practical advice, and then lots of plant suggestions. It’s one of my most popular talks.”
If you’ve got a shady shrubbery, dappled woodland or just a dingy corner in your garden and need some inspiration, this talk will give you plenty to think about.
Tuesday 7th July
Self-Drive Trip to The Flower Tree Flower Farm, Cox’s Ln, Taunton TA4 1DY
10.30am – 12.30pm. Meet at the Flower Tree at 10.30am.
Tour, demonstration and refreshments: £17.50pp
Nic runs The Flower Tree, a two-acre flower farm near Taunton, where she grows a wide variety of blooms for florists. She propagate annuals, biennials and perennials and grows them into plug plants for fellow flower growers (both large and small) locally and nationwide. The farm is off grid, using solar polar for the flower fridge in summer and propagating benches in winter. Their flowers are free from air miles, floral foam, chemicals and single-use plastic. Everything is propagated from seed or cuttings on site and grown in their own compost to improve the soil each year.
Nic will be giving us all a tour of the growing areas and then demonstrating how to make a bouquet. We will have the opportunity to pick some flowers to take home with us: £10, £20 and £50 buckets available.
Refreshments (including gluten-free) at the Field Cafe on site.
Monday 20th July
WCGC Members’ Village Open Gardens Event
Meet at Crockford House at 2pm
A new event for 2026! Crockford House, Dunkery Pleck and Manor House will be opening their gates to members for a half-hour guided tour of each garden, followed by tea and cake at Manor House. The gardens are close enough that we can walk from one to another, starting at Crockford. Come along at 2pm and join the fun!
Late July (Date and Title TBA)
A Talk by Ken Thompson
Tuesday 4th August – 2.00pm
Wootton Courtenay Flower & Produce Show 2026
The Flower & Produce Show is Wootton Courtenay’s biggest annual event, and one of the most enjoyable. It is not necessarily winning prizes that is the thrill, it is taking part and adding to the benches full of exhibits which creates that wonderful atmosphere in the village hall and brings us all together!
Schedules
The Schedules for this year’s Flower & Produce Show will be available to collect from the Villagers’ Stores in May. There are many different classes to suit everyone. If you don’t have much of a garden, you can bake, knit, sew, take photographs, and/or create a flower arrangement to enter for the Show. If you do have a garden, why not take a look at the schedule and think how many classes you might enter for the show.
The Flower Show Committee have drafted an Exhibitors’ Advice Sheet, to help participants understand what the judges are looking for when they assess the Show entries. This is just a friendly guide intended to help entrants, not discourage them! Click here to read the advice sheet. There will also be a copy on display in the Villagers’ Stores during the run-up to the Show.
Winners’ Cups
The Gardening Club will cover the engraving costs for all winners. Cups will be gathered at the end of this year’s Show, engraved, then returned to the winners.
Tuesday 15th September
Self-Drive Trip to Post Box Cottage, West Bagborough, West Bagborough, Taunton, TA4 3EF
Garden entry: Free for Gardening Club members. Non-members: £5
Tea and cake (including gluten free): £4 Drink only: £1
A stunning garden situated on the Quantocks with fantastic views, planted for all year round interest. A walled top garden features roses, climbers and unusual perennials. There is an orchard area with a wildlife pond and flowering shrubs. September is a good time to see salvias in vivid hues, plus heleniums; sedums; ornamental grasses; dahlias; ginger lilies and cannas. Contrasts of texture and colour are carefully chosen. Jill and Martin Jones, who have created the garden over the last 15 years, are immensely knowledgeable hosts. There are seating areas to enjoy the magnificent views across Taunton Vale.
For WCGC members the garden entry on this trip will be paid by the Club, with proceeds going to St Margaret’s Hospice. Refreshments charged separately. Jill and Martin have specified a maximum of 25 people, so booking will be on a first come, first served basis, with members taking priority. Email me at marion@garden84.net to reserve your place.
Travel time: 40 mins. Parking is on the road or in the village car park about 150 metres away. However, a parking space can be made available next to the cottage for someone with mobility issues.
Tuesday 22nd September – Lecture
Lady Christine Skelmersdale –
‘Tulips: Origins, History and How to Grow’
There are so many tulips available that choosing what to buy can be confusing. In this lecture Christine will show us how they evolved, from the Central Asian steppes via the courts of Constantinople to the bulb fields of Holland. She will also be advising on how best to use them, from containers to borders. As the former owner of Broadleigh Bulbs, Christine is a mine of information on the topic and a lively speaker.
Tuesday 24th November – Lecture TBA
Trip to Yeo Valley Organic Garden, July 2024
Wootton Courtenay 