HARDINGTON GARDEN CLUB
NEWSLETTER - JULY 2010
CLUB NEWS
OUR SPEAKER THIS MONTH AND OUR MEETING IN SEPTEMBER
Tonight: Pollination with Illustrations by Dr. Anne Bebbington
22nd September: Gardeners’ Question Time (see below)
Potato Growing Competition
The results were as follows:
1st Trevor Cherry 1.836 kg
2nd Vivienne Ford 1.73 kg
3rd Sue de Boehmler 1.44 kg
Bishop’s Palace Gardens, Wells
Our visit to this garden last week was unfortunately marred by the weather. However, we enjoyed a pleasant supper in the Undercroft restaurant followed by a conducted tour of the garden, in the rain, with Rob, one of the three plantsmen or gardeners who work at the Palace. This is a lovely garden with much of historical interest. The beautiful walls of the former banqueting hall give a wonderful backdrop to borders of unusual plants. Many large specimen trees are a feature of this garden including Juglans Nigra (American Black Walnut) ; Davida Involucrata (Handkerchief Tree); Ginko Biloba (Maidenhair Tree) and Morus Nigra (Black Mulberry). It is also the setting of the wells that give Wells its’ name. Certainly worth a visit if you weren’t able to join us last week and I’m sure many of us who braved the rain will go back to see it in better weather!
Gardener’s Question Time
Our September meeting is a Gardener’s Question Time with a panel made up from our expert members. It would be helpful to have some questions in advance and there is a board at this evening’s meeting for this. Alternatively, please email your questions to Rachel on darkray@firenet.uk.net or give them in paper form to any member of the committee. We will take questions up until Monday 13th September.
Hardington Village 68th Annual Flower & Craft Show – Saturday 28th August 2010
We hope to see many of you entering the Flower & Craft Show this year. Schedules are available at Springfield Stores. Those of you who have grown a fuchsia for the club competition can enter it in the show (class 36). Whether you enter or not, do come along on the day and support our local show.
Rachel Moulden
THE GARDEN IN JULY
Towards the end of July the garden seems to stop and hold its breath. It can be a coming and going sort of month, where a number of early perennials like the hardy geraniums are looking straggly, and yet the late colour provided by asters, rudbeckias and sedums is still a little way off. So it’s vital to include some midsummer star performers to keep an ornamental border looking vibrant right now.
The first thing I do to freshen things up is to cut the hardy geraniums right back. They will quickly produce a fresh mat of green leaves and may flower again later on. Alchemilla is sprawling all over the place, so it gets a severe haircut as well. This gives me a chance to reassess the borders, and is a time when, after taking photos of good and not-so-good plant combinations, I can start planning for next year. I’ve earmarked some plants that have got too big and thuggish - shoving more polite neighbours aside - which I’ll take out in the autumn. But one of the borders is looking distinctly ‘between seasons’ and needs some oomph injected for July.
In the meantime, elsewhere in the garden, my midsummer stars are putting on a real show. For me, this year in particular, clematis have been spectacular. I have quite a number! Clematis ‘Etoile Violette’ has produced hundreds of its dark purple flowers, which, as well as covering a goodly portion of the fence, has draped itself over two rugosa roses in differing shades of pink. ‘Minuet’ has travelled over two climbing roses and a pink jasmine and is working its way up the autumn flowering cherry, meeting ‘Purpurea Plena Elegans’ on the way, while ‘Betty Corning’ is beautifying the shed. That’s just a few of them. Oh, and I must mention the wine-red ‘Mme Julia Correvon’ which climbed up its wigwam and joined on to the silver birch. It’s surrounded by an enormous clump of soft pink campanula ‘Loddon Anna’.
In my revamped section of the garden next to the greenhouse, achilleas in shades of red and terracotta are looking sparkling planted with helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ and a double pale orange calendula grown from last year’s seed . The crocosmias are beginning to flower now, so more vibrant reds and oranges are appearing in the hot-coloured border. All these are excellent plants for a sunny border in July, so if you’ve got the midsummer blues because your borders look a bit jaded, try some hot colours for pizazz.
Sally Norris
THE JULY KITCHEN GARDEN
After our late cold and wet spring, we have recently been battling with baked earth. It’s good to be harvesting some of the fruits of our labours: peas, courgettes, garlic and the first raspberries, tomatoes and climbing beans. My two 2-year old blackcurrant bushes had a bumper crop of my favourite fruit but the redcurrants produced only half a pound this year after a super crop in their first year – although Trevor has a massive crop.
It was disappointing to come back from holiday to find my Sutton broad beans decimated by black fly which are now gorging on everybody’s runner beans. I’ve never seen so many – they are on the cosmos, artichokes…. everywhere and after that hard winter too.
Will, on his virgin allotment at Church Farm is not so afflicted since he has space for multiple rows of marigolds.
I must finish getting my Second Early potatoes out of the ground as they get too big for “new” potatoes for my liking and the slugs will start to attack them. I have lifted some delicious Charlotte, Maris Peer and International Kidney varieties albeit with only about two pounds yield per plant. Judging by the success of the winners of our competition, it seems I do not use enough fertilizer!
CLUB POTATO – GROWING COMPETITION
What are the secrets of our competition winners?
Trevor started by adding blood, fish and bone to the provided compost at planting time. Then he added Growmore to each layer of compost to top up as the plant grew. Every time he watered the plant, he added tomato fertiliser at 25% strength (1/4 of a capful).
Vivienne, last year’s winner, seems to have done what most people do, added a couple of light feeds and gave her plant regular TLC (not defined!) However, Vivienne added that going away for over a week is not recommended and probably contributed to Trevor “pipping me at the post”.
Sue had a similar technique to Trevor: she added blood, fish and bone to the provided compost at planting time but thinks her mistake was not adding fertilizer to each top-up of the compost! She did feed her potato once a week with Tomorite at the same time as she fed her tomatoes. Sue kept her plant under cover to protect it from our late frosts until it got too big for the greenhouse when it was moved to a sheltered spot with lots of sun.
Well, now we know.
Meanwhile, down at Moor Farm (see June newsletter), Mike’s potato trial (10 varieties grown in pots/bags) has not produced sufficient crops to draw any conclusions so far.
MEMBERS’ SUCCESSES AND FAILURES
I would like to know about your achievements in the kitchen garden please. What has done well for you this year? Which varieties of vegetables have pleased or disappointed you? Do you swear by muck or fertilizer, or some other added ingredient? Does companion planting work for you? I’d like to do a roundup in the September newsletter of what did well and what didn’t this year in Hardington.
Send me an email or give me a call.
Rosemary Richards
BOOK REVIEW - Hugh Johnson in the Garden
This book was given to me for my birthday by a very dear friend and fellow gardener. Those of you who are members of the Royal Horticultural Society will recognise the name of Hugh Johnson, who for many years wrote a diary under the name of Tradescant, in The Garden magazine.
The book is a collection of these diary articles covering the years 1993 – 2008. As in the magazine, each entry is for a month of the year and covers a vast range of horticultural topics from single plant species, items on gardening fads and fashions, gardening personalities (both known and relatively unknown, but important people in the horticultural world) to his own gardening successes and failures in his gardens in Essex, France and North Wales.
This is a lovely book for the gardener to have on the bedside table as it lends itself to being dipped into at any time. I often find myself picking it up between novels as a complete change of reading. I always learn something new and often find something to make me laugh such as the following extract:
“Horse Manure (March 1995)
I learned from a local land agent’s newsletter that horse manure is to be classified as Industrial Waste, which means it can only be tipped on a site with a licence to accept noxious materials. I am, of course, taking steps to have my borders classified as such sites.”
Hugh Johnson is a wonderful writer and very easy to read – his style makes you want to carry on from page to page. I would recommend this book to anyone not just those interested in plants and gardens, although I’m sure those not of a horticultural persuasion would soon become hooked!
In keeping with the times Hugh Johnson now writes Trad’s Diary as a blog which you can find at www.tradsdiary.com
Rachel Moulden
PHYLLIS REISS
For several years I worked for the National Trust at Tintinhull House, which is world renowned for its small but perfectly formed garden.
Dr J S M Price, an amateur botanist, originally laid out the garden in a scheme in part attributed to Harold Peto. Phyllis Reiss and her husband, Captain F E Reiss purchased the property in 1933.
Phyllis Emily Lucas was born at Ashlyars, Berkhamsted, Hertford in 1886. She planted her first garden at Dowdeswell Manor near Cheltenham, which was close to Hidcote. Lawrence Johnston was her mentor and his famous garden ‘rooms’, vistas and rich planting were to influence her when she took on the garden at Tintinhull.
She had no formal training, but came from a family of keen gardeners. She was much influenced by Gertrude Jekyll, but favoured simpler planting schemes and large blocks of colour. She described herself as a ‘groupist’ as opposed to a ‘plantist’. Plants were used in a structural way, taking height and density into account. She wanted the garden at Tintinhull to be a peaceful place, where people could sit and relax. She believed a garden should be therapeutic, encouraging those who were troubled to come and enjoy the tranquillity, especially during and just after the war years. She extended Dr Price’s garden, by converting a rough paddock into Cedar Court and in 1945 designed the much photographed Pool garden, which had been a tennis court, as a memorial to a nephew killed in the war.
Despite two radio broadcasts in 1939 and the fact she was much respected by the gardening fraternity, she is rather overlooked in English gardening history.
She gave the property to the National Trust in 1959, but continued to live in the house until her death in 1961. She had always believed that the approach to a garden should be understated, giving little hint of what was to come. In accordance with this view the gates to the courtyard, the main approach to the property, were erected in her memory, as recorded on the eastern pier.
Shirley Heal
EVENTS
Taunton Flower Show – Vivary Park, Taunton
Friday & Saturday 6th & 7th August www.tauntonflowershow.co.uk
Plant Heritage (formerly NCCPG) Plant Sale
Nynehead Court, Nr. Wellington, Somerset
Saturday 11th September 2010 10.00am-15.30pm £1.00 for members £2.00
non-members
JC Plants, Haygrass Nursery, Killams Avenue, off Shoreditch Road, Taunton,
TA3 7BS www.jcplants.co.uk
Dahlia Weekend 14-15th August 10.00am – 4.00pm
End of Season Plant Sale – Sat/Sun 18/19th September – 50% off all plants
Yeovil Chrysanthemum & Dahlia Society Show – Holy Trinity Scout Hall
Sat/Sun 18/19th September – 2.30-5.00pm/1.00-4.30pm
NATIONAL GARDEN SCHEME - GARDENS OPEN IN AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
See NGS yellow books for more details or www.ngs.org.uk
Broomhill, Rampisham, Dorset DT2 0PU
Wednesday 22nd August 2010 2-5.00pm £3.00
Farrs, Beaminster, Dorset DT8 3NB
Sun 29th August 2010 11.00am-5.00pm £4.00
20 Bubwith Road, Chard TA20 2BN
Monday 23rd August 2010 1-5.00pm £2.00
Domineys, Buckland Newton, Dorchester DT2 7BS
Sunday 8th August 2010 2-6.00pm £3.50
Coombe House, Glastonbury, Somerset BA6 8JG
Sunday 8th August 2-6.00pm £3.00
Thanks to all contributors to this month’s edition. Please send items for the newsletter to Rosemary Richards. Tel: 01935 862180.
Our end quote this month follows on from Gerry Norris’ recent article on Thomas Jefferson.
BUT THOUGH I AM AN OLD MAN I AM BUT A YOUNG GARDENER
~ Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book.
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