`5
'bringing gardeners together'
NEWSLETTER June 2017
Hi All,
Well, as usual, the weather isn’t necessarily as we might wish but thankfully, and I hope I speak for all of you, last month’s frost damage is becoming a distant memory as affected plants start to recover.
If you didn’t make it to Bryan’s Ground on Saturday you missed a treat. They are open each Sunday and Monday afternoon should you fancy a day out.
Simon Dorrel, garden designer and artist, who owns Bryan’s Ground very kindly dug me up a clump of the beautiful variegated Ground Elder (above) that I so admired in the garden. It is reputedly not as invasive as common Ground Elder but having since read up on it on the web I’m not so sure. Time will tell!
Do any of you have any plants that, with hindsight, you wish you hadn’t planted? If so please share with us.
There are still one or two outstanding payments for Highclere so to secure your place can you please send cheques made out to KDHS to me at Yew Tree Cottage, Gibraltar, Kinver, DY7 6NE. (£28 each) or drop them in to c/o Marilynn Ferris at 19/20 High Street asap. If you can’t make it for any reason please let me know on 01384 873321 so the seats can be offered elsewhere.
Many of you will recall the trip last year to the fabulous Wollerton Old Hall. This month we’re in for another treat when their head gardener comes to talk to us.
Happy Gardening,
Carole
Chairman - Mrs Geraldine Wooddisse. Treasurer - Mrs Rosemary Pope.
Secretary - Mrs Carole Lacy email Tel 01384 873321
www.kinverhorti.org.uk Charity No. 701258
Last meeting:-Our speaker was Wade Muggleton whose garden in Stottesden is held up as a good example of permaculture on a domestic scale. Wade based his garden design on the book by the late Permaculture guru Bill Mollison. It is a design system, not a technique in itself. Like our other recent speaker, Caroline Corsie, Wade emphasised the importance of caring for our soil by feeding and protecting it, adding organic matter such as compost, leaf mould, wood ash, mushroom compost and manure (he has his own chickens). He advocates covering the soil in winter to stop nutrients from leaching out and liquid feeding with Comfrey and Nettle teas.
Diversity of crops he says is the key as, even in a bad year, you will always succeed with something sighting the Irish potato famine as an example of monoculture that went badly wrong.
He reminded us to be respectful of water and showed images from his own garden illustrating his wide array of water collection of vessels, including a commercial pickle container and disused cesspit with a hand pump. He delights in the imaginative recycling of discarded items such as an old shower cubicle put to use as a cloche and reusing double glazing panels and pallets to make cold frames. Besides being good for the environment, this approach he says helps empower people without money to successfully grow produce for the price of a packet of seed.
Importantly he says grow what you enjoy eating and what might be expensive to buy – although he himself draws the line at asparagus which had a poor return for a large space.
Wade’s book ‘The Apples and Orchards of Worcestershire’ will be out soon.
Competition winners this month. Photograph of Garden Wildlife - Rosemary Pope
The Flower of the Month 1. Rosemary Pope 2. Kate Harrington 3. Rosemary Pope
Don’t forget Kinver Open Gardens on 24th and 25th June with two new gardens on offer.
Also a reminder about Bob Brown's, (Cotswold Garden Flowers), talk on Monday 19th June 7.30 for 8pm at Stourbridge Institute. Tickets £4 from June Baker, Wollaston Gardeners Guild, on 01384 378454.
/ Thursday 29th June
7.30 pm
St Peter's Church Hall
Vicarage Drive
This month we welcome
Phil Smith
Head gardener from the fabulous
Wollerton Old Hall
Those of you who came on the coach trip there last year will have happy memories of our visit to Wollerton Old Hall and their unsurpassed borders full of vibrant colour.
Phil will be bringing plants for sale so we can all take a little of Wollerton home with us.
The monthly competition for June
1 A vase of Flowering Shrub. 2. Any Garden Flower of the Month.
Please note the 'Garden Flower of the Month' should be a single stem only.