On Saturday 17th September, 30 members of the club plus 28 guests got together at the beautiful home of Torunn and Jon Lange to celebrate 25 years since the formation of Clube Dos Bons Jardins, which is the second oldest English speaking gardening club in the Algarve.
We were blessed with good weather so started the party with drinks and canapés on the terrace looking out over the beautiful gardens to the Atlantic Ocean. We then retired into the welcome shade of the enormous garages which had been transformed into a wonderful party hall.
Here, a sumptuous buffet lunch was served which had been prepared by the hard working members of the Committee and was judged to be so good that most of the guests assumed it had been provided by professionals. Geraldine Willcox, a former Chairman of the club, proposed the toast and then Elspeth Flood, the founder of the club, cut the beautiful cake made by Kirsten Augier.
Clube Dos Bons Jardins is a small, friendly multi-national group of keen gardeners who meet monthly apart from in the hot summer months of July and August. Meetings start at 10.30am with light refreshments with the main event kicking off at 11am. This is followed by an optional lunch either at the host’s house or at a local restaurant. This is a great opportunity to catch up with friends, make new friends and swap garden tales and experiences. We have a very varied programme of events including garden visits, quizzes, question and answer sessions, talks on a wide variety of topics and practical workshops. For those of you new to the Algarve or Mediterranean gardening, these meetings are a great opportunity to tap into a wealth of experience and knowledge.
We will be having a stall at the annual autumn garden fair organised by MGAP (Mediterranean Gardening Association - Portugal) which this year is on Saturday 29th October in the gardens of the Museu do Traje in São Brás de Alportel. We will have plants for sale and will also be actively recruiting new members.
You can follow us on Facebook: Clube Dos Bons Jardins and contact us via email:algarvecbj@gmail.com.
