Chalfont St Peter Garden Club Newsletter - March 2010

Chairman : Grace Hunter
Secretary : Susan Mills
Garden Hut Manager : Tony Gelder
Assistant Hut Manager : Keith Gould
Treasurer : Robert Bastin
Newsletter : Diana Longshaw

The AGM which will be held on March 17th 2010 in The Church Hall commencing at 8 p.m. when the committee is elected. The committee would like to encourage some more members to join it. Anyone interested should speak to a committee member or phone the Chairman. The committee meets once a month on the first Tuesday at 8 pm in the Community Centre for about an hour.

The AGM will be followed by Ian Currie “Making sense of the Weather”

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

Once again we shall be having a photographic competition during the spring 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.

Jane’s March Garden Tips

Hopefully this month will bring some warm dry weather to enable us to tackle Spring jobs. Some of the areas that will need attention to get them back into shape after the winter are lawns, patio and borders. On a fine dry day give the lawn a high cut to remove the tufty patches that have developed over the Winter, neaten edges. On the patio clean off the mud, moss and weeds with a stiff broom or better still a pressure washer, treat with a weed killer or armillatox. On borders clear away any remaining perennials to make room for new growth, weed and apply a general fertiliser and mulch. If the area to be mulched is large, apply some news-paper between the soil and mulch (bark chippings) to prevent the mulch rotting away so quickly. Finish pruning roses and other shrubs. Get ahead with baskets and containers if you have frost-free conditions in which to grow them on, until they are put out in May, try using starter plants or plug plants from garden centres or mail order.

Fruit trees need some TLC as we expect good crops each year so now is the time to sprinkle Sulphate of potash around the base of the tree, cutting away any grass that has grown too near the base of the tree, mulch.
Sowing Spring vegetables outdoors? Here are some tips: - Soil needs to be warm and well prepared, most seeds need a temperature of at least 70c (45oF) to germinate, if necessary cover the soil beforehand. Before sowing dig the soil well adding compost, remove weeds and stones, when sowing stand on a plank to prevent compaction. If the soil is dry, water base of the drill before sowing. If wet, sand or vermiculite in the drill will help. Sow thinly and evenly along the drill. Cover the seed with fine sprinkling of soil or sterile compost, protect from birds by pegging netting or cloches. It’s easy to distinguish vegetables from weeds if sown in straight lines. Start to sow broad beans, parsnips, carrots, brassicas and successive salad crops. Plant early potatoes and, under cover, sweetcorn, tomatoes, chillies, leeks.

Hut items : Jeyes Fluid 1Lt £8.85, Armillatox 500ml £6.65, Liquid Lawn moss killer & lawn tonic – maxicrop 1lt £3.60; Granular Sulphate of Iron 1Kg £1.25. 3Kg £3.50; 5Kg £35: Composted fine bark 75lt £4.60; Ornamental bark 75lt £6.60; Sulphate of Potash 1kg £2; 3kg £5.59;5kg £8.50; Vermiculite 10lt £4.50; 25lt £9.50; Lime 3kg £2; Fruit Tree Grease £4.30tubs; Fleece to help warm the soil up after planting seeds 1.5m wide by 5m length £2.75; 5m length £4. Early potatoes various varieties 90p for 5 off; up to 20+ off mix and match

The Hut

We will be open every Sunday; normally between 10am to 12 noon but on Sunday March14th we will stay open until 12:30pm for members who cannot make the normal closing time of Noon:
New items in stock will be:
80lt bags of SHL Potting Growing medium £7.80 (horticultural grade as used by the experts).
Standard size growbags (stock should be in by the time you read this newsletter), hoping these will be at the same price as last year (subject to supplier confirmation ). If buying standard size growbags consider using
Ring Culture Pots to help root growth of your Tomato plants (some members inc. myself used these last year and had a larger crop than previous years). Also this year we already have Scotts Miracle-Gro
Large (deep) Vegetable Planter 50lt growbags at £4.50ea.
Seed Potatoes first early, 2nd early, early maincrop & maincrop varieties)
5 for 90p/£3.40 for mixture of 20. Limited supplies as new item, going fast. For a list of varieties left contact: hut-manager@gardenclub.org.uk
Potato planting bags available for growing them on your patio.
'Hessian' Potato Sacks for storing crops in £1.50
Johnsons Quick fix Grass seed with Growmore 7-7-7 box 500g £3.60
Felco secateurs £22:
Adjustable lawn rakes £5.50:
Shovels £6.50 (spades & forks to follow) :
Builders bucket with lip £1.00.
Small garden tidy collapsible bag £5.00 to complement the larger size version at £7.50.
Liquid Moss Killer & lawn tonic – 1lt containers £3.60 apply from March onwards providing no frosts are forecasted. Mix 310ml of Maxicrop moss Killer & lawn tonic (max) to 9 lt of water. Coverage approx 10m2.
Fruit Trees now require a coating of
Fruit Tree Grease £4.20/tub to trap female wingless adults .
Professional Master Gardener Gloves in stock – 3 sizes £4.70/pair (Local Garden Centres charge £5.99 for the same item)
Sinclair New Horizon Organic Poultry Manure 7.5kg now £6.00/tub. Recommended Uses: Flowers, fruit, vegetables, trees and shrubs. Feed recommendations: soil preparation 60gm/m2; Plant feeding 80gm/m2 March is the time to start sowing your vegetable seeds into pots, we have stocks of compost:25lt bags of John Innes seed & No.1; 35lt and 60lt sizes of Seed & Potting bags . Various seed trays, 66mm square pots and Peat pots; many on special offers eg Pot Carrier and 15 off 66mm square pots = £0.75 each set.
March Special Offer: 2 ¼” round Peat Pots packet of 24 =£1 3” round Peat Pots packet of 12 = £1

Keith’s Outings

Our next venue is ‘R.H.S.-WISLEY’ in Dorking on Wednesday April 28th. This gives us an opportunity to get some super plants etc. Central attraction is the huge glasshouse complex, with every type of plant life. As the Club is affiliated to R.H.S. we get in free so I only need coach fare! The coach will leave Church Hall Lane at 9.30am and exit the venue at 4pm. Coffee or tea & biscuits included in the price and served on arrival. Please make cheques out to Chalfont St Peter Garden Club & post to Mr K. Gould, hand in to the hut on a Sunday. Postal bookings will be acknowleged by phone.

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Please book me………seats for ‘RHS Wisley’ @ £15ea. for club members & ……….seats @ £17 ea. for all others. Total of. £…………….

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Events Report

Gerrards Cross Garden Club invited Chalfont St Peter Garden Club to a horticultural quiz evening with other local garden clubs. Our team com-prising of Alan Davison, Marina Long, Jane Campbell & Claire de Carle proved to be the winning team at a very enjoyable evening. Congratulations.

Linda Smith of Waterside Nurseries Nr Leicester delivered an interesting & informative lecture illustrated with very good slides. The nursery specialises in ponds and pond plants and will be exhibiting at Chelsea Flower Show this year having won gold medals at other RHS Shows.
 

© 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.