Chalfont St Peter Garden Club Newsletter - April 2010
Chairman : Grace Hunter
Secretary : Susan Mills
Garden Hut Manager : Tony Gelder
Assistant Hut Manager : Keith Gould
Treasurer : Robert Bastin
Newsletter : Diana Longshaw
Club Spring Show Schedule for Wednesday, 21st April 2010
Class 1 Polyanthus bowl of 6 cut stems own Foliage
Class 2 Daffodils vase of 3 blooms own Foliage
Class 3 Tulips vase of 3 blooms own foliage
Class 4 Pot Plant in Flower pot not to exceed 6 in diameter
Class 5 Pot Plant Foliage pot not to exceed 6 in diameter
Class 6 5 stems of different Evergreen Foliage in a vase
Class 7 A Floral Arrangement not to exceed 9 overall
Class 8 Any Other Flower, one kind only, 3 or more blooms
Class 9 3 Sticks of Rhubarb may be forced
Class 10 Any Other Vegetable
Photographic competition
We shall again be having a photographic competition
during the show. Photos may be in B&W or colour. Each
exhibitor can only enter one A4 sized mount per class, but
this can contain more than one print. You will be asked to
judge the entries.
Class 1- A Garden Class 2 Spring Flowers Class 3 A
Landscape
Members can exhibit from 7.30pm. Non exhibitors to arrive
7.55-8.00pm Cost for the evening £1 per member (to cover
refreshments) paid on arrival. Exhibitors free. Very
friendly event, a good time for a first try as there is no
pressure.
Events Report
The AGM went well and took only 20 minutes after which
Ian Currie gave a brilliant and entertaining talk on Making
Sense of the Weather. He disproved most of the old sayings
but a few are accurate showing beautiful slides to explain
why. Ian actually forecast last Summers non-bbq weather so
we should listen to him more.
The Hut
The success of the garden hut during 2009 and its
contribution towards funding activities for the Garden Club
was highlighted at the AGM last month. This success was due
to the support of many members who have purchased gardening
products throughout the year and to ALL who assisted in
various ways. For 2010 please continue to support us. Do pop
down on a Sunday morning. We stock the traditional items but
are trying new lines this year. Ask if you want us to get
anything else & we will do our best. Despite the increase in
VAT, due to savings we obtained at the trade show this year
we have been able to hold many of the prices and most of our
products are competitively priced compared to local garden
centres and DIY outlets.
Volunteers we are desperate for a few more
volunteers who can spare the occasional 2 hours on a Sunday
morning. Duties include carrying gardening products to the
members car, weighing out fertilizers into handy bag sizes,
helping members with advice on gardening topics & just
chatting to members. You dont have to be a garden expert.
Those who do help find it an enjoyable time & refreshments
are provided. Please do let me know if you can help out by
telephone 01494 873316 or email me.
Opening hours- The Garden Hut will be open every
Sunday from 10.00 am to12 noon. Very important, you must
show your Membership card to the person on the desk.
- GROWBAGS are now in stock. Traditional size & good
quality Arthur Bowers Grow bags £1.65 each (same price
as 2009 ) New this year, the larger sized (deep) GROWBAG
(vegetable planter) at £4.50
- RING CULTURE POTS £4.00/pack of 8 or £0.55p each)
These fit the grow bags and improve the quality (and for
me the quantity) of tomatoes
- Rolls of fleece £4 for one or £6 for 2 ( the weather
man, speaker at last meeting forecast a very cold spell
in May)
- Rolls of Black ground cover £6.50 for one or £9.50
for two
- Buckets/ shovels /spades/forks, marker pens & labels
& PH soil testers
- Wide range of items to feed your plants including
tomato maxicrop by the litre, Miraclegro, osmocote
granules & tablets ( for baskets etc)
either email your requirements to hut-manager@gardenclub.org.uk
or leave your details in the blue comment book in the hut.
Janes April Garden Tips
This will be a busy month to start off a large variety of
vegetables in a prepared outdoors seedbeds, carrots, leeks,
cabbage, broccoli, turnips, beetroot, parsnip, peas, onions,
spinach, broad beans and corn salad. Try growing some root
vegetables, carrots and beetroot in large containers.
Continue with small amounts of lettuce, baby leaf crops at
regular intervals. Sow tomatoes for outside crops and pot on
earlier grown ones. Start to sow under cover in pots for
transplanting later, French beans, runner beans, courgettes,
squash, sweet corn, which will be planted outside when
danger of frost is over. Plant first early potatoes at the
beginning of April, while main crops can go in at the end of
the month. As soon as shoots appear draw the soil up around
them (earthing up) this encourages new tubers to develop
from these buried sections of stems, giving higher yields.
Give fruit trees and soft fruit a general fertiliser to
promote flower buds and replace nutrients lost in the rain.
Fruit trees will be flowering over the coming weeks,
attracting bees for pollination, but the whole process is
weather dependant and frost can damage the blossom, so if
forecast throw some fleece over the branches of blooms (if
larger trees one you can reach) at night to provide some
insulation, remove during day.
Months of wet and cold weather have caused moss to become
a problem in the lawn, action is needed to boost growth and
improve drainage, the best way is to apply a moss killer,
then use a powered lawn rake to scarify raking out moss and
debris, fork over to improve drainage, apply a top dressing
of compost, re-seeding any bare patches, then apply a lawn
fertiliser.
Clip winter flowering heathers to remove faded flowers
and re-shape plants. Prune forsythia and other spring
flowering plants. Push plant supports into the soil around
taller growing plants. Plant gladioli and other summer
flowering bulbs at regular intervals to extend their
flowering season. Continue feeding with a general fertiliser
established shrubs, roses, bulbs and perennials to replace
nutrients lost during the wet winter, mulching as you go.
Dead head spring flowers - primulas, pansies (to extend
their flowering season) and bulbs. Tie in climbing and
rambling roses.
Keiths Outings
There are still seats left for the April Wisley visit but
dont leave it too late; at just £15 for Members &£17 for
non-Members free entry its well worth it even if you may
have been before - but ring first 01753 884012 . Our next
outing is on Wednesday, May 26th to Waterperry Gardens,
Wheatley with a variety of garden layouts, the national
collection of saxifrages, museum of gardening tools, a
church to view and the garden centre there is lots to see
and do. Usual coffee/tea &biscuits on arrival included. The
coach will leave Church Hall at 9.30am & exit venue at 4 pm.
Cut
cut
Please book me
seats for Waterperry @ £15ea. for club
members &
.seats @ £17 ea. for all others plus £4.50
entry. Total of £
Name/s
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Notes
Mr. Jolyon Lea is opening his own Garden for the Last
Time, under the National Gardens Scheme on SUNDAY 11th APRIL
2010 at 6 Oldfield Close, Little Chalfont, HP6 6SU. Members
have visited this garden before and greatly enjoyed it and
he is speaking to our Club on Wed Jan 19th, 2011 on "Plants
in a Chiltern Garden"
Carol and Don Stallwood of Chalfont St Giles will again be
selling plants at the garden hut on Sundays. There will be
the usual variety of Summer pot/basket, bedding, tomato and
runner bean plants etc They will also continue to donate a
percentage to your garden club funds.
©
Chalfont St Peter Garden Club 2010. Through the medium
of this Newsletter the Club is bringing to your attention
opportunities that may interest you. You must
satisfyyy
yourself that that they meet
your requirements as Chalfont St Peter Garden Club will
accept no legal, moral or financial
responsibility. |
