Minutes of volunteer garden meeting Sunday 22nd September 2019
1.Andy’s monthly composting workshops start on 13th October. Only £2 for the whole series. So far not many bookings have been made so we need to publicise that these workshops are very interesting and essential to all gardeners.
2. Dafydd noted that there had been some inefficiency in materials ordering over the year. Please can all concerned carefully check what we have in stock especially building materials, before ordering any new stock.
3.There were at least 3 complaints from visitors about the lower garden being closed to the public for a private function on Saturday 21st Sept. Some senior volunteers also felt uneasy about it although they appreciated that there was probably a large contribution to the Greenhouse finances. Were all the Trustees aware of this action and what criteria for garden closure should be applied in future?
Answer from Kate after meeting: Trustees were aware and this was also discussed at the AGM. But here’s a bit more explanation: On that afternoon, I spent a lot of time with 2 of the annoyed visitors especially 1 of them who I showed around the herb garden. I explained why we had closed the lower garden from midday for the private party (yes it earned BPCG a good income.) With hindsight, as I explained to him and to members at the AGM, we only needed to close the Lower Greenhouse and Lower Decking area off for guests as they didn’t use the Herb Garden anyway. In future, when the gardens are advertised as open to the public (i.e. Thurs to Sun 10am to 5pm) we should aim to keep as large an area as possible open to the public and volunteers. Day time private parties should in the majority of cases be restricted to the lower decking and lower greenhouse. I would like to note that there have only been 2 Saturdays this year when there has been significant restricted public access to the gardens. One for the Gazpacho gathering (all day) and then the 21st September. Both earned significant income for BPCG. I purposefully chose Saturdays because these are normally the quietest days of the week in terms of volunteers coming and visitors.
