Our April meeting welcomed the return of Darren Rudge who lived up to his reputation as the Laughing Gardener with part 2 of his talk on using common household items for a more environmentally sustainable approach to gardening whilst saving money, & we agreed that fewer chemicals in the world can only be a good thing! He started with quotes including Mark Twain’s “A cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education” and interspersed his hints & tips with fascinating facts about architects using plant structures as the basis of design - who imagined that the hollow square stem of a nettle could have inspired Robert Stephenson's Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits? He also brought along some unusual alcoholic drink for a few brave (but enthusiastic!) souls to sample & they assured us that the Giant Hogweed Liqueur was very tasty!  It was another informative & lively evening, with fact sheets available at the end. Here's a link to his website: https://www.darrenrudge.co.uk/ 

Before having his cup of tea & chat to members & visitors, Darren drew the raffle & but didn't have to judge the monthly competition as there was unusually only one entry for a decorated hen's egg, a deserving win in any event by Brenda Brittle who had obviously put a lot of thought into it, as you can see! Invitations were distributed for our AGM in May and fuchsia plug plants were handed out to be grown on for the members'-only class in our annual show in August (maximum pot size 5"/13cm). Anybody who was unable to attend the meeting will have their AGM papers delivered & Brenda has the plugs available for collection. We also reminded members to save their spare plant divisions etc for the plant stall at our Open Gardens weekend on 15th/16th June (now with 11 gardens to view!). 

Well the title of the talk might look dry & stuffy but the evening was far from that! Joyce Bullock, a local garden designer, dispensed with a formal presentation & instead divided us into groups to consider the various problems that we come across in our gardens such as the need for more privacy, making them easier to deal with as we grow older, more suitable for children/grandchildren plus the more unusual - how to disguise a structure that looks like a grave! Then we had a general & lively discussion about how we might solve these challenges, with Joyce encouraging all our members to contribute, and adding ideas of her own. She also brought a selection of useful plants from Lichfield Garden Centre & talked us through their advantages, before she drew the raffle & judged our monthly competition of Christmas table decorations. This was well supported again with some good entries but sadly the pesky gremlins were at it so no photos. Well done though to the winner Pam Collins, 2nd Sylvia Nunn & 3rd Anita Harper. Our Christmas social evening for members & guests next month looks to be a sell-out - "Made with Love" buffet followed by live jazz & blues with the Nick Dewhurst Band. We're all keeping our fingers crossed for no snow!

David & Valerie Chant brought a generous supply of produce to our October meeting to demonstrate what we can make from fruit & vegetables that grow in our gardens - one of the pleasures of autumn. They talked briefly about how their original hobby was keeping & flying birds of prey then how they moved into growing food to eat, particularly preserving produce for the winter in the traditional ways. They invited everybody to sample the wide range of preserves accompanied by their delicious home-made soda bread & flatbread, plus a variety of wines, liqueurs & ciders in suitably thimble-sized tasting glasses! They are clearly both dab hands in the garden & kitchen, and make the most of any seasonal gluts (courgettes this year), experimenting with flavours & unusual recipes – one of our members was the lucky winner of a jar of sweet & sour pickled crab apples (some of their recipes are at the bottom of our Links page). They judged our monthly competition of a vase of autumn foliage which was won by Sylvia Nunn, with Judith Daniels 2nd & Pam Collins 3rd.

At our regular meeting on the Tuesday after our show, our speaker was Mike Byford of Hazles Cross Farm Nursery whose original hobby of growing hellebores that started 30 years ago became a passion then a self-confessed addiction! He spent considerable time and money travelling Europe to see the dainty forms and stunning foliage of the species in their native habitats. This led to his collecting seed and growing the plants in the UK, and he now holds the National Collection of hellebores. He shared with us his extensive knowledge of growing & breeding different species & hybrids, and gave us an alternative perspective of the Balkans which are the native habitat of these beautiful plants. He sells plants from the nursery but hadn't brought any with him as he explained that it's not the best time of year to buy them, but he has invited us to visit the collection next spring - a number of members seemed very interested in this so it could be our first coach trip of 2019! There is a photo of Mike with our programme secretary Val Lewis on the left plus the winning entry of our monthly competition for a vase of cottage garden perennials, won by new member Debbie Robertson.

Not long after Sylvia’s open evening we had a beautifully illustrated talk from Howard Drury of Kings Heath on “My Famous Women Gardeners” at our regular August meeting. These were all women who had influenced his career, ranging from his mother in the early days when he started selling lettuces at age 6 to the local shops, through many well known horticulturalists such as Margery Fish & Vita Sackville West to the more contemporary such as Carol Klein & Christine Facer Hoffman (who had an eminent career in medical science before turning to garden design). Some of his photographs were accompanied by classical music & others by his anecdotes from his career, trips & shows. After drawing the raffle Howard had the unenviable task of judging the excellent entries for our competition which was a poem about women gardeners composed by members, eventually choosing Anne Wallbank’s “In Memory of Beth Chatto” as the winner.

As the competition entries didn’t lend themselves well to photography, the snaps shown are Howard with our programme secretary Val Lewis (who finds us all these marvellous speakers) plus Stan Griffin & Vicki Newman from Craig House Cactus who gave a presentation to us November 2013. They won Gold at this year’s Chelsea then Gardeners World in June. There’s also one of the acidanthera bulbs that we gave out earlier this year to be grown for the members’ only class in the produce show in September. The very warm weather appears to have brought them into bloom sooner than anticipated but all members were asked still to enter them even if they’ve finished – and of course enjoy the beautiful display & perfume in the meantime! The last photo is the start of the second flush of roses which has been delayed due to the weather (works both ways) but hopefully bodes well for the show. Full schedules were available at the meeting & can also be collected from our secretary & on the day – the list of classes is on the show page.

As the sweltering summer continues we held our July meeting with windows & doors wide open, which had amusing consequences when a passing dog came in to see what was happening. Our speaker Philip Aubury gamely continued whilst the charming intruder was safely returned to his owner! Philip gave a very informative talk on a survival guide for conservatory & house plants including the best situations for different types of plants, watering, suitable composts, feeds and pest controls. It was interesting that whilst he much prefers organic pest controls, he finds peat-free composts more of a challenge and uses more traditional peat-based ones instead (except for orchids of course!), adding vermiculite or washed sand instead depending on the plant's requirements. He then went on to a practical demonstration of how to increase our stocks with the best propagation methods for various species, and how to pot on plants that outgrow their space. He brought a good selection of plants that we could browse whilst having our refreshments. He judged our monthly competition "Plant in an unusual pot" & the winner was Rosalie Allden's orchid in a Head Gardener mug with Shelley Tunnicliffe 2nd & Sylvia Nunn 3rd. Now we are looking forward to an open garden evening for members & their guests at Lilac Cottage on Friday 3rd August with Sylvia's kind permission (and very hard work!), fingers crossed for the weather. Also if you check out the Annual Show page on this website you'll find the list of this year's classes and full paper schedules for the event will be available at our August meeting. In the meantime if you'd like a word version of the schedule or separate entry form please email me at deborah.gardening@live.com. I hope they'll both be available to download from here soon.