membership of organizations

[Aberdeenplotter]

Get away with you. Hold up a twenty pound note and let it blow away. What could you buy with it? As Paul Daniels would have said - not a lot, not a lot.

[More basil]

Probably not quite what you meant but I have got to fly the flag for a fantastic charity WFGA that I have joined this year. They do very reasonably priced workshops for members but the most fab thing is a scheme whereby you can go and train in all aspects of horticulture in a big garden for a year under a head gardener. It is sort of an apprentice scheme, you get paid a nominal training allowance and get taught in all aspects of gardening from soil maintenance to herbaceous borders, veg growing, indoor and outdoor propagation, pruning etc etc etc. I am just about to start my year's training in a fantastic garden and have had incredible support in making the leap into a career change to horticulture from their fab local coordinators.

From their website http://www.wfga.org.uk/

The WFGA is for anyone interested in gardening. Join the WFGA to make gardening friends, to visit gardens - for the day, for the weekend or for a longer tour, attend workshops on a large range of skills, make gardening contacts, be eligible for a fund to help your career change, to pop a question on the interactive Forum and don't forget the WRAGS horticultural training scheme - a unique opportunity for those who want to change direction in life.

[Alison]

I think many of us have different experiences with different societies. I joined NVG one year at a show and was totally disappointed with it. Although I love growing veggies I found it it to be very biased to showing which doesn't interest me at all and at the time, a lot of the local advice seemed very chemical heavy whereas it us important to me to have a much more natural approach. I am a member of Garden Organic and the Heritage Seed Library and whilst it is a bit expensive for what I get, I strongly support their aim of keeping old and open pollinated varieties alive in thus world of increased forced standardisation. Actually I think my hatred of standardisation has something to do with my dislike of the show bench - variety makes my world go round