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| Notes from meeting at Joan
Avery's house, 7th May, 2012 This meeting was short of a number of members and started with a walk around Joan's garden. This is a terraced garden mainly concentrating on flowers and using gravel as a weed suppresant. The plants are in excellent condition, especially given the earliness of the season. The talk concentrated on current activities and included discussion of how to make bug boxes (see http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/wildlife-gardening/how-to-make-a-bug-box/166.html) . Hedgehogs and how to encourage them were also discussed, members will research for the next meeting. Permaculture was also discussed but was generally not felt to be appropriate for small gardens. Tea and coffee were served accompanied by cheese biscuits and muffins. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from meeting at Mike and Anne's house, 9th April, 2012. This meeting was held on a very wet non-gardening type day and proved to be very lively. In wide ranging discussions on gardening and non-gardening topics. As promised, Graham has planted excess tomato and cucumber plants that are now ready for distribution to group members. He also reported disappointment with the mini greenhouses purchased from Lidl since these proved to be useless. A discussion on runner beans elicited the 'rule' that they shouldn't be planted before the 17th May, although some members routinely plant them before then. It's the season for slugs and snails and how to deal with them was again discussed. Surrounding plants with sheeps wool or copper was thought to be effective, building small walls around plants and scattering slug pellets within the enclosure also apparently works. Vaseline smeared around the tops of pots helps prevent slugs entering pots. Grit, ash or bran also works until the rain gets at it. We all agreed that despite commonly held advice, dafs do not need to be dead headed or fed. Plants to encourage bees include cosmos, marigolds, cornflower, foxgloves, poppies, love in a mist, verbena and zinnias. As discussed in our last meeting, mixed wild flowers are also effective and most members are sewing wild flower mixed seeds in some part of their garden. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from meeting Mike and Paula's house, 12th March, 2012. At this meeting members gave short presentations of their current gardening activities. Most are involved in preparing veg plots, clearing winter dead growth and seed planting activities. Some members are much farther ahead with seed sowing than others and it is to be hoped that a prolonged cold period is not waiting around the corner. Some of the key points were: The use of Hungarian Rye grass as a green manure looks to have been successful. Members planted in the autumn and cut it down now for digging into the soil before planting. Growing veg in pots has been successful for most people who have tried it. Large pots are filled with compost/soil mix of John Innes compost. Adding a slug pellet into the trough beneath each potato planted is thought to reduce the damage caused by slugs. Physalis (Cape Gooseberries) have grown and cropped well in polytunnels. Other members will try growing this exotic fruit. Details of the best way of preserving seed after cropping are given on the Real Seed Co web site http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedsavinginfo.html Wild flower beds and meadows should be encouraged to help pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Most members plan to plant some wild flowers this year. Recommended tomato varieties include Moneymaker, Ailsa Craig with Kelvedon Wonder for peas. Hellebores are growing well in local gardens as is physocarpus diablo. Several members of this group are involved with the newly formed friends of Dolerw Park and are trying to influence the Powys County Council's management of the park. They will try to get a meadow area reinstated at the end of the park. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from meeting Mike and Paula's house, 20th February, 2012. This was a well attended meeting with all members present. We discussed future activities, notably visits to Penarth Winery (not much interest) visit to Cwm Harry, date to be agreed for later in the spring/summer. Members were told about the Cwm Harry seed exchange, taking place in Newtown on Sat 25th Feb. The felling and trimming of trees and shrubs was again discussed. PCC will again be contacted. The incidence and danger of the invasive weed, Datura stramonium (thorn apple) was described and discussed. The members supplied seeds for our own seed swap and look forward to plant swaps in due course. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from meeting Mike and Paula's house, 12th December. This meeting started with a discussion of the future activities of the group. Most members felt that the group was funcrioning well and should continue in a similar fashion. Some suggestions were agreed, however, regarding future meeting. It was decided to cancel the January meeting, since there is little going on in the garden and to hold the next meeting in February. It was also agreed to try to set up visits for the group sometime next year to the Penarth Winery and to the Cwm Harry compositing facility. As usual the meeting went through gardening jobs needed for this month and members also watched part of the recent Gardeners World programme. The sections of particular interest were those relating to the growing of grapes in the UK for wine and the winter gardens at Dunham Massey in Cheshire. Several members expressed anger at the wholesale removal or unsympathetic pruning of shrubs and trees in Dolerw Park and elsewhere in Newtown. It was agreed that the relevant authorities will be contacted on behalf of this group to express our concern. A marrow bake was served (recipe below) and members were provided with sample of Komatsuna greens and Jerusalem artichokes. Savoury marrow tray bake 125g plain flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon caster sugar 1 teaspoon salt 50g freshly grated Parmesan cheese (at least) 2 tablespoon minced fresh herbs – parsley, basil, oregano or whatever you have 4 eggs 125ml olive or vegetable oil 1 onion, chopped 450g grated marrow, squeezed dry Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, Parmesan cheese and herbs. Beat together the eggs, oil and onion; fold into dry ingredients just until combined. Fold in marrow. Turn into a greased 20x30cm baking dish. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and set. Cut into squares. Variation: top with grated cheddar when done and grill for a couple of minutes for extra cheesy taste. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from meeting at Joan Avery's house, 14th November. The group was very impressed by this garden and what Joan has achieved since moving in around 4 years ago. It is a steep, terraced garden with established shrubs at the rear with a gravelled front containing shrubs and ornamental grasses. There is even a productive veg plot at the side of the property and water butts and compost bins in various corners. Joan showed before and after photos. The main feature was lack of weeds anywhere! We discussed activities for the month and also reviewed successes and failures during this growing season. The main reported failures were calabrese, french beans and celery. Successes included mange tout peas, potatoess, swedes and sweet peas. Tomatoes, particularly outdoors, were variable. Samples of Linzer potatoes and Komatsuna greens were distributed. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from visit to the Dingle Garden Centre, Frochas, Welshpool, 3rd October. This meeting was held at the Dingle Garden Centre and comprised of a group walk around the extensive gardens. The gardens, established over many years by the Joseph family, contain many established trees and shrubs. There are well laid out paths and steps winding through the gardens and around the two lakes. Many of the plants are labelled so identification is possible. The last winter apparently caused damage even to some of the long established plants, such as eucalyptus trees and pampus grass. One of the real treats was seeing a large heron on one of the lakes. The stock for sale was also viewed and produced a lively debate on the plants to use in different locations. One of the themes of the visit was the great variety of hypericums available. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from visit to Derwen Garden Centre, Guildsfield, 12th September. This meeting was held at the Derwen Garden Centre and started with an individual tour around the garden displays. These typical gardens were looking somewhat dowdy due to the lateness of the season but still provided some ideas of what can be achieved by garden design. The meeting was then held over coffee and, as usual, reviewed activities for the month. Several members purchased plants and took away free plastic plant pots for seedlings. The next meeting will take place a week earlier than usual and will comprise a visit to the Dingle Garden Centre, also in Guildsfield. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from meeting on 8th August, 2011 This meeting was held at the Pont Hafren facility in Newtown. This is a charity organisation providing facilities for people with mental health issues. Their web site is at www.ponthafren.org.uk. They have extensive gardens on ground sloping steeply down to the river. This has been terraced and stocked with flowers, shrubs, ornaments, a pond, etc and is a delightful place to wander. The top flat section is a very productive fruit and veg plot with a greenhouse and large garden store. Beans, peas, strawberries, kale, etc are all in full production with apples, some of them espalliered will provide a good crop very soon. The well attended meeting continued inside the building with tea and coffee provided. A lively, wide ranging discussion took place that covered many of the topics of current interest to the members. It was agreed that the idea of having meetings at external locations during the summer was a good one and the next one will be at the Derwen Garden Centre at Guildsfield. It was also agree that we would plan to visit the Smallholders show at Llanelwedd which will be held on 19th and 20th May in 2012. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from meeting on 11th July, 2011 This meeting was a departure from our usual format in that it involved a visit to a private garden not belonging to a member of the group. This was the garden of Noel and Joyce Benbow at the Felindre Mill, Llanidloes. This is a very large, diverse garden on the banks of the Severn. In more than 20years the owners have transformed the property into a delightful series of areas connected by paths and steps. Excellent use has been made of ground cover plants and the original conifers have been replaced with well placed specimen trees. There are also many hostas, geraniums, rhododendrons, trilliums and lillies. The vegetable plot is incredibly productive featuring broad, french and runner beans, peas, courgettes, onions etc and a series of blueberries that are laden with fruit. The secret in the productivity of the veg plot is the use of large quantities of well rotted manure. They also use blood, bone and fish meal mixture and slug pellets early in the season. Their approach to weed control is to use ground cover plants, bark and wood chip mulch and hand weeding before the weeds flower. Noel recommended a future visit to a garden near Leominster called Stockton Berry, which is part of the open garden scheme. Joyce very kindly provided refreshments after the garden tour and we gave a small donation to their favourite local charity, Breast of Friends. All members agreed that this was an excellent informative visit enhanced by the lovely weather. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from meeting on 20th June, 2011 at Graham and Denise's house, Newtown. This was a return visit to this challengingly steep garden. Trees have been removed from the boundary by the neighbour and this has helped to increase the light at the top part of the garden. There are some notable successes in cultivation, particularly peas, cucumbers, tomatoes and celery with loss of brocoli plants thought to be due to mice. The fruit cage contains cropping blueberries, gooseberries and tayberries. The discussion of current activities included ideas on slug control, beer traps generally not successful, ash or copper surrounding probably work. Garlic water sprays have been found to be more effective at controlling black fly and green fly than soap solution. Garlic granules to deter cats are apparently available from Charlies. Coffee and tea were accompanied by salad lettuce from the garden, curried cheese tart and rice cake. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from meeting on 9th May, 2011 at Sally's house, Fan, near Llanidloes. This meeting started with a tour of Sally's garden and a discussion on the various plants that she is currently growing. A summary of activities that should be undertaken this month prompted a wide ranging discussion on various topics. These included a description of Jostaberry that Sally is growing. This plant looks to be thriving but did not flower last year. The group suggested treating it with something rich in phosphates to promote fruit growth. We discussed the efficacy of using rhubarb leaves or cardboard as weed suppresants. Both have been found to be effective. Talking of rhubarb, it was suggested that it should not be eaten in the summer since the oxalic acid builds up in the plant. Most people present don't follow this dictum but obviously stop cropping late in the summer to provide the plant time to rest prior to the winter. Asparagus growing can apparently be aided by dressing with salt or seaweed. This will be tried this season. Seedlings, specifically tomatoes, cucumbers, and broccoli, were exchanges between members. Finally, after tea and snacks, Sally's allotment in Llanidloes was visited. This is in the garden of the vicarage and contains a number of very productive plots. Sally is growing a variety of veg there, notably beans, peas, cabbage, beets, etc. The rest of the group were quite envious of this facility and agreed that it was in a delightful setting. The next meeting (20th June) will follow the usual format but the following one (11th July) will be held at Pont Hafren or used to visit an exceptional garden belonging to friends of Joan Avery. Details will follow later. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from the meeting – February 7th, 2011, Mike and Paula’s house, Newtown This meeting started with a practical demonstration of pruning apple trees as a follow up to the indoor discussion on the theory from the last meeting. Apple canker was discussed and the treatment is to remove affected areas and, if necessary, treat with Benlate. It was agreed that this demonstration was extremely useful and the group thanked Mike Allen for sharing his vast experience. Mike recommended the RHS book on pruning and as the best general guide to trees and shrubs the book by Hillier, 'The Hillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs,' John Hillier and Allen Coombes, eds., published by David and Charles, ISBN 0 7153 9942 X. Mike also reminded the group of the possibility of catching Legionanaire's disease by handling compost and mentioned the increased incidence of Lyme disease in the area. There followed a wide ranging discussion on seeds and varieties that the members plan to sow this year. There was also a lively debate on the appropriate time to plant in this area. There was an exchange of surplus seeds and it was decided that several members will share seeds to be ordered soon. This is of benefit since many of the seed portions are much to large for an individual home grower. The wide variety of edible flowers were discussed, engendered by a recent edition of Countryfile on BBC television. The site for lists of edible and poisonous flowers is: http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/blflowers.htm. The usual tea and coffee was accompanied by savoury Cheese Cookies, recipe below: 4 cups Rice Krispies About 300 g very strong cheddar 1 cup butter 1½ cups flour 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce ½ tsp cayenne pepper Cream butter and cheese together. Add flour and sauces. Mix. Add cereal and fold in Roll mixture into small balls, place on cookie sheet. Use a shiny cookie sheet so they don’t blacken underneath.Flatten a little to form each cookie. Bake at 300F for about 25 mins. It is hoped that Ruth Bemment will attend the next meeting to share her knowledge of growing onions, leeks and garlic. The date will have to be confirmed but is penciled in as Thursday 3rd March. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes
from the meeting – January 10th 2011, Mike and
Paula’s house,
Newtown Notes December 13th meeting, Jo's house, Newtown. This meeting started with a review of tasks for December. It followed with a wide ranging discussion on successes and failures of this year's growing, including loss of broad bean shoots to birds, non productivity of courgettes and slow growth of leeks. Video clips of compositing, winter protection and apple tree pruning were viewed and discussed. It was agreed that meetings would continue throughout the off season, perhaps with visits from specialists in onion growing and tree management. Tea and coffee were accompanied by excellent home made brownies and flapjacks. The meeting closed with a tour of Jo's garden with discussion on activities that could or should be taking place now. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes - November 8th meeting, Mike and Paula's house, Newtown. This meeting introduced a new member, Sally, to the group and gave her a description of our main activities. As usual, we reviewed tasks needed in the garden for this time of the year. A discussion on composting highlighted a number of questions, such as the inclusion of rhubarb leaves, tomato plants and potato haulms into the heap. The consensus was that rhubarn leaves are fine, the other two should be excluded as should perennial weeds such as couch grass and bind weed. Digging versus covering with compost, cardboard, carpet or black plastic showed a number of different views. This topic will certainly be revisited from time to time as results become available from the use of some of these methods. Green manure was also discussed and is being tried at Roseholme this autumn. These discussions were followed by the viewing of two videos, one from Gardeners World, the other from the Victorian Garden. Both were interesting but maybe too involved with flowers rather than veg. Tea/coffee was accompanied by Paula's Devonshire apple cake. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes - October 11th meeting, Mike and Paula's house, Newtown. The meeting started with apologies from members unable to attend. Activities for the month were discussed, highlights included planting of broad beans, cutting back of raspberries and planting spring bulbs. Techniques available for composting grass clippings were discussed together with the merits of composting, even in small gardens. The report that Legionnaire's disease can be caught from handling compost was circulated. It seems as though under very rare and unusual circumstances the disease can be contracted from handling potting compost. The remainder of the meeting was taken up with watching and discussing the videos that have been produced by Alys Fowler for the Guardian web site. These included ones on weeding, harvesting, green manure and allotments. They are excellent, short pieces filled with good ideas. Finally, there was a discussion on edible flowers, such as fuschias, Himalayan balsam and nasturtiams, and non edible flowers such as lillies and rhodedendroms. The tea was accompanied by Paula's spiced zuccini cake. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes - August 9th meeting, Jo's house, Newtown The members toured Jo's garden and made some, hopefully useful , suggestions. French and runner beans are doing well but need feeding. Zucchinis are probably beyond hope due to overwatering. Potatoes grown in bags are also defunct, mirroring Graham's experience of growing potatoes in bags. It was suggested that a damaged water butt could readily be converted into a composter which would help improve soil fertility, particularly in pots and planters. Jo's pond is full of water lillies and, apparently, tadpoles. Hopefully frogs will follow. As part of the discussion on harvesting and dealing with excess produce, the following web sites were suggested: http://www.preservingyourharvest.com/index.html http://www.vegetableexpert.co.uk/ http://www.storingandfreezing.co.uk/ Zucchinis are a classic case of over production with a number of members and recipes were discussed. Members will be emailed a copy of Mike and Paula's cook book which contains a number of likely ways of giving variety to zucchinis. Another web site recommended was aimed at allotment holders but contains a lot of useful info especially for small gardens: The meeting sampled some of Graham's tomatoes, 'Vintage Wine'. These were agreed to be very tasty and well worth growing. This food sampling was folllowed by tea and coffee with large helpings of Jo's excellent home made cake._____________________________________________________________________________________________ Notes from previous meetings -July 12th
2010 meeting, Graham
and Denise’s house,
Newtown This meeting started, as usual,
with a review of garden tasks for this month.
The notes used for this review were taken from Dobies Garden
Centre and
some of them were felt to be more appropriate for a more temperate part
of the
country. Some
of the problems discussed at this meeting included attack of sweet peas
by
moles and infestation of spider mites in glassed in areas.
A tour of the hosts’ garden included an
impressive tomato plant, Vintage Wine, and problems with non flowering
(or
maybe late flowering) strawberries. The
virtues of purslane were discussed and this plant will be grown by a
number of
members. Saffron crocuses were also
discussed, some members are considering growing it.
Some
members attended the Gardeners Question Time event at Gregynog recently. This programme is to be broadcast on Friday
16th on Radio 4. There
is a Green Drinks event planned for 13th July, 7.30 pm in
the Black
Boy Hotel, Newtown. This event has been organised by the Newtown
Action
Committee on Climate Change and will discuss transition town status.
All
are welcome. Pastry: 75g/3oz plain
flour Filling: 1 tbs oil Make pastry as usual and roll to line a 7 in square flan dish. Chill while preparing the filling. To make filling, fry pepper in hot oil until softened. Sprinkle mango chutney over pastry base and then sprinkle with cooked pepper. Mix rest of ingredients well and pour into pastry case. Bake at 180C/350F/Gas mark 4 for 35 to 40 minutes. Serve warm or cold. ________________________________________________________________________________May 10th 2010, Mike and Paula's house, Newtown This meeting started with the usual review of garden activities for this month. This included lively discussion on topics as diverse as slug control, growing potatoes in pots, dealing with spring bulbs after flowering and mildew on gooseberries. Everyone agreed that late frosts are still possible and need to be catered for. Some seeds, seedlings and plant exchange took place. This included various Chinese vegetables, ground cover plants and onions. It was agreed that more bulk seed ordering should be attempted next season. This was followed by a tour of the hosts garden engendering envious comments on the rhubarb growth. ________________________________________________________________________________ - March 8th 2010, Nick and Jackie’s house, Kerry This meeting started with a review of garden tasks for this month. The notes used for this review are taken from Suttons Seeds site and it was felt that it is not particularly appropriate for gardening conditions in this part of the country. A more relevant source will be sought for future meetings. The main activities in local gardens at this time relate to onions, shallots and garlic. Most members have now planted these, either in the garden or in the greenhouse. There was a distribution of surplus seeds to members and some excess plants were taken from the hosts’ garden. There is a Green Drinks event planned for 9th Feb, 7.30 pm in the Black Boy Hotel, Newtown. This event has been organised by the Newtown Action Committee on Climate Change and will discuss transport issues. All are welcome. Two DVDs 'Top Tips for Small Gardens’ and ‘How to Propagate,' (on loan from the U2A Resource Centre) was shown and discussed. Some of the ideas from the second DVD were thought to be new and useful while the Small Gardens one was not thought to be particularly helpful. For the next meeting we will request a loan of the video ‘Small Greenhouse and Conservatory’ will be requested for the next meeting. Due to travel commitments this will not be held on the second Monday of the month but will now be held on Tuesday 20th April at Mike and Paula’s house Newtown. 225 g dried figs, finely sliced 125 g sultanas 200 ml apple or orange juice 175 g black treacle 175 g golden syrup 125 g salted butter 250 g plain flour 1 tbsp ground mixed spice 2 tsp baking powder 65 g light muscovado sugar 250 g medium oatmeal 1 lg egg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - February 8th 2010, Graham and Denise's house, Newtown As
usual, this meeting started with a review of garden tasks for this
month.
There is not a lot going on in the garden but there are still
things that
should be done, as weather permits. These include pruning of
apple and
pear trees, planting shallots, chitting early potatoes and
spreading
compost on beds ready for spring planting. It is important to
continue feeding birds at this time. - January 18th 2010, Roseholme, Newtown This meeting started with a review of garden activities for January and included discussion on the raising of onions and leeks. Specifically, when is the best time to plant onions, one suggestion is to plant them now in the greenhouse, harden them off in March to plant out in April. Leeks that are not developing into reasonable diameter plants were thought to be short of nutrients. It is likely that results will improve if the seedlings are placed in large holes filled with compost. Some of the group are yet to buy seeds for this seasons sowing. Two suppliers that are recommended are: The Real Seed Company - http://www.realseeds.co.uk/ Kings Seeds - http://www.kingsseeds.com/ A list of required seeds will be prepared and checked for price and availability from these two suppliers. Discussion on compost and the various types available and recommended for different applications concluded that the RHS book 'Encyclopedia of Gardening' contained all the required information. Another source of information is the University of Nebraska at http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/index.jsp The Cwm Harry Trust is a possible source of compost for the Group. Joan will approach them to see if someone is willing to talk to the Group at a future meeting. The DVD 'Brilliant Gardens', on loan from the U3A Resource Centre, was watched by the Group. This 1 hour DVD gave an overview of the history, development and work of eight of the premier botanical gardens in England and Scotland. This included Kew, Chelsea, Glasgow and Edinburgh but, unfortunately, none of the Welsh gardens. This was felt to be a very interesting DVD and encouraged lively debate. It was agreed that a future meeting, probably around April, should be arranged at Pont Hafren to see what they are doing with their community garden. It was also agreed that the feasibility of making a group visit to Acton Scott farm in Shropshire would be explored. |
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| Contact: Mike (& Paula) email: cariad_uk@tiscali.co.uk | |
