WORKING PARTY REPORT AND PHOTOS: 28TH SEPTEMBER 2023

FOGG working party volunteers were very pleased to act as hosts to the Glen Goyle – with a planned visit by the chair of South West in Bloom Jon Wheatley.

Here is a report and photo from FOGG member Katie Frost:

Five eager volunteers turned up at 10am on Thursday, 28th September wearing their hi-viz jackets, keen to meet Jon Wheatley who was coming to visit Glen Goyle. The Goyle looked magnificent as the paths had been swept early that morning. Some weeding and tidying was done at the north end whilst we waited.

Just as Jon was being given the tour of the Glen, our own John arrived, so he was able to join in the explanation of all our work.

What an interesting, enthusiastic and knowledgeable man Jon Wheatley is. We could have chatted all day about our work and his ideas to support us. He was very impressed with all that we had achieved and called it a ‘gem’. He said that he would prepare a report detailing some further ideas for planting and suggestions for securing funding. He was very complimentary about the range of plants which had already been planted, saying that they were the very ones he would have chosen.

John and I were amused that, despite being one of the leading horticulturalists in the country, he had never come across our Harlequin Glorybowers. Jon suggested that we keep an area of the seedlings, but lift and sell the rest. He would like a couple!

Jon is passionate about community involvement and the benefits of being outside gardening with a group of like-minded people; it seemed to us that he felt Glen Goyle is an excellent example.