Chalfont St Peter Garden Club Newsletter - September 2004

 Chairman: Charles Flawn
Secretary: Linda Hills-Harrop
Garden Hut Manager: Cliff Thayer 1

Dear Member, Our Summer Show was very well attended and the high quality of the exhibits was a real credit to the enthusiasm and skill of each Gardener. A list of the prizewinners is attached.

Meetings: This month’s meeting will be at 8pm on Wednesday 15th in the Church Hall for an evening
with Mrs. Christie Leary talking about ‘Organic gardening without chemicals’

Summer Show The raffle went very well, however if you bought ’yellow ticket 234 Davis’ then you have won a prize, please collect it from the Garden Hut. We had a total of adult entries of over 490, which is very good in view of the recent variable weather conditions. We had an excellent number of Domestic entries; perhaps frustrated gardeners have taken refuge in the kitchen, determined to enter something in our Summer Show! See you all at our next Summer Show on 20th August 2005

The Garden Hut will be open on Sundays from 10.00 am to 12 noon. Very important, you must show your Membership card. The Hut is well stocked for all your autumn needs. Spring and Summer lawn food can be used until the end of this month. This is also a good time to seed any bare patches in the lawn; grass seed is available in the Hut as well as J.I. Seed Compost for covering the new seed. Your Patio will need cleaning; we have a good cleaner in stock at a reasonable price.

Jane’s Garden Tips
While most fruit and vegetables are best eaten fresh, you will often have more than you can eat and may need to store them. The crucial factor when choosing containers to use for storage is that air is allowed to circulate around the crop, choose boxes with slatted sides or bags with open weave. Crops such as potatoes are ideally stored in hessian sacks or at a pinch in strong paper sacks, avoid overfilling. Onions and garlic are best stored in a traditional string or in mesh bags; these are also suitable for cabbage and marrow. Beetroot and carrots will keep for months with leaves twisted off on sand or peat. Slatted wooden boxes are good for apples and pears, it will help to wrap them in parchment paper and keep cool. Always check stored items regularly. Bring in any houseplants that have been outside during the summer before the nights become too cold. Clear out summer bedding digging the soil carefully to remove roots of perennial weeds, add compost or manure. Cut back lavender to encourage a bushy plant. Now is the time to plant hyacinths for Christmas, use bulb fibre which contains charcoal to stop the soil going sour. For a good display place bulbs close together but not touching each other or the sides, fill the container so the tip are just showing, water and place in a cool dark place for about 6-10 weeks, when they can be brought out and placed on a shady windowsill. Summer raspberries can be pruned now by removing canes that have fruited this year and tying in the new ones. Autumn varieties can all be cut down the ground later on. Rake over or scarify lawns to remove excess moss and apply an autumn feed. (Available from the hut) As crops finish in the greenhouse give it a good clean out (disconnect any electrical equipment and cover sockets). Disinfect the inside including paths, brickwork, staging, pots and tools. Rinse well. Check gutters and down pipes. Dig over the vegetable patch and plant a green manure.

September Coach outing to Cambridge Botanic Gardens has had to be cancelled due to lack of support. If you were at the Summer Show I expect you saw the display advertising for next years trips. If you need further information please ring Keith on.

Goosegogs are delicious. Now is the time to plant Gooseberries, good culinary varieties are ‘Invivta’, ‘Greenfinch’ and ‘Whitesmith’. Dessert varieties include ‘Lord Derby’, ‘Early Sulphur’ and ‘Whinham’s Industry’.. They tolerate some shade, are not fussy about soil provided it is not waterlogged, but benefit from a spring dressing of sulphate of potash and a thick mulch.

Books for presents. An Ear to the Ground by Ken Thompson pub. Eden Project Books. £10, calls itself ‘garden science for ordinary mortals’.

Seeds. We will be putting a bulk order into Dobies for seeds and tot plants. Catalogues will be in the Hut as soon as Dobies send them to us!! Last order dates will be in the November Newsletter.

Cranborne Manor Garden Centre. Has a huge range of plants, many of them propagated from Lady Salisbury’s own garden. This area has chalk soil like ours so the plants are very suitable. Cranborne Manor Garden Centre, Cranborne, Wimborne, Dorset. 01725-517248.

Special Plants in Greenways lane, nr.Cold Ashton, Chippenham, Wiltshire 01225-891686; is open to the end of September. The owner collects plants from around the world; this nursery is a unique place where you will come away with something that you wouldn’t find at any other nursery.

Gardens Open.
Sept 12th Bramdean Ho. Alresford, Hampshire. Tel.01962-771214. “A plantsman’s paradise”
Sept. 19th Whitewalls Marlow 01628-482573
Sept 22nd Waddesdon Manor Gardens and Water Gardens, Waddesdon.

Nursery To Visit. Stubbings Nursery, Henley Road , Maidenhead 01628-825454, I’m reliably advised that this is a good place for pots of all descriptions and topiary trees shaped in unusual forms. A good array of plants and other gardening basics are available, but there is no teashop.

Farmers Market in Maidenhead on Sunday 12th September is a good place for plants from various private organizations, Why not take a look and then go onto Whitewalls garden in Marlow.

Seeds of Wisdom. A bunch of lavender, pennyroyal, cotton lavender and rue hung above the door is the traditional and effective way of repelling summer flies. If your pets are scratching sprinkle some rue in the dog’s bed and some catmint and pennyroyal in the cat’s to deter those troublesome fleas.
A vase of mixed mints on a windowsill can do wonders to freshen the air.

Buyer Beware. Through the medium of this Newsletter the club is bringing to your attention, opportunities that may interest you, however, you must satisfy yourself that they meet your requirements as Chalfont St. Peter Garden Club will accept no legal, moral or financial responsibility.