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 WRAG scheme - a unique opportunity for those who want to change direction in life.

Now is the time to join the Women's Farm & Garden Association - download and fill in that application form and send in (with your cheque!) and join today. This step could change your growing life forever. We look forward to hearing from you.

STOP PRESS: The Garden Recruitment Network, or The GRN, was announced at our AGM. This is intended to fill a niche market for Garden Owners seeking part-time (or full time) skilled, experienced gardeners - i.e. the majority of WFGA members. Garden Owners will be able to advertise their vacancy on the WFGA members website where members will be able to search the entries, for free, to check for jobs in their area.

We are looking for funding to develop a payment facility online but for the present, although details of jobs can be sent in to the office by email, payment will be taken the old fashioned way by cheque.The cost of a website advert is £25 for 40 words - a very reasonable rate compared to all the main recruitment sites. The advert will be online for members to access for a period of one month. Any queries please email or ring the office in Cirencester.

To view pictures from recent events please visit www.wfga.wordpress.com

In the following you can view a National Trust video with a WRAGS trainee talking about her training:

The Women’s Farm and Garden Association is the charity to join if growing is your concern in life. If your need is for education, then cultivate your skills with this specialist organisation and register for the unique partnership ‘Women Returners to Amenity Gardening Scheme’. Training, employment and advancement for those working on the land have been the key aims that have underpinned the WFGA for over a hundred years. Members of the Association have been the ‘movers and shakers’ of their generation and have included Gertrude Jekyll, Eve Balfour, Brenda Colvin, Beatrix Havergal, Katherine Courtauld and Louisa Wilkins, the member credited with the concept of forming an army of women working on the land to combat labour shortages during the First World War. Royal patronage has been awarded to the work of this organisation – our first President was Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll. In 1959 Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, visited in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee and Prince Charles is one of our Garden Owners on the Women Returners to Amenity Gardening Scheme.

So many schemes and opportunities have been set up over the years – the Employment Bureau, a bold and innovative step at a time when it was considered a daring experiment to employ a woman gardener; the Women's National Land Service Corps which formed the basis of the Women's Land Army; an Outfit Department - supplying boots, shoes, overalls and breeches in small sizes not available elsewhere; a Smallholdings Project - where members gained practical experience of commercial growing; a Garden Apprenticeship Scheme for school leavers; the Careers Advisory Service; a Travel Bursary; the Women Returners to Amenity Gardening Scheme; the development of Specialist Activities and now the launch of the Christine Ladley Fund – supporting members to further their education, learn specialist skills, travel and design projects to help schools and local communities.

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Photographs copyright of Sharon Pearson (www.sharonpearson.co.uk)