Heyford Gardening Club – October 2019

Heyford-Gardening-Cluband-allotments
We started our new programme for the year with our annual flower and vegetable
show. These shows are always affected by the vagaries of the weather that has
experienced over the year, and our efforts to balance the classes are frequently
frustrated by events. For example, based on previous poor displays the class for
beetroot was withdrawn last year, only to prompt complaints from members because
their beetroot crops had been particularly good. So for this year the beetroot class was reinstated only to find that there was only one entry! And there were no courgette’s at all, whereas there were ten entries in the tomatoes. However the expansion of the floral classes was clearly a clever move as the displays of arrangements on show were truly impressive, indicating a wealth of artistic talent among our members.

The vegetable section was won by Irene Reeves with Jill Langrish in second place
and Tony Clewett third.

The flower section was closely fought, Mike Langrish came first with Anne Haynes in second place while Jill Langrish, Maureen Wright, Irene Reeves and Lynn Ashbee all took the third spot.

We reduced the plot to plate section down to just a jam or jelly class, which was won by Jill Langrish, with Margaret Ridgewell in second place and Sandy Alderson third.

The overall winner this year, taking into account prizes in our series of bench shows over the year, was Jill Langrish, with Irene Reeves as runner up and Margaret Ridgewell third. So our congratulations to them, the rest of us will just have to try harder next year!

Our next meeting will be on the 14th October when we will have a talk from Malcolm Dickson from Hooksgreen Herbs.

Some Things to do in October
1 Divide and replant herbaceous perennials
2 Give lawns a last cut and trim
3 Prune climbing roses

Mark Newstead

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www.heyfordgardenclub.com

For more information visit the Heyford Gardening Club & Allotments page

Heyford-Gardening-Cluband-allotments

Heyford Gardening Club – April 2019

Heyford-Gardening-Cluband-allotments

At our March meeting we were entertained by Liz Taylor who described the work being done by the Woodland Trust to try and repair the damage being done to our woodlands by development and pests and disease. Apparently they need to plant 2000 trees each just to keep numbers as they are. Working with trees needs a longer time scale; some of their projects have a timetable of 100 years!

The evening also featured our annual daffodil bench show which which this year coincided nicely with the flowers in our gardens, as was illustrated by the 54 entries. This made judging difficult as all the blooms were of such excellent quality.

The single colour section was won jointly by Anne Haynes and Margaret Ridgewell Brian Haynes came second and John Dunkley and Janet Forth came joint third.

The Small flowered section was won by Val Jackson, Tom Wallis came second and Avril Minchin got third place.

The bi-colour flower section was won by Jenny Wilshire, Jean Spokes was second and Lynn Ashbee and Rosemary Dunkley shared third place.

Our next meeting will be on 8th April when we definitely will welcome the return of Patsy Rayner who will tell us about plants and literature. (My apologies for mistakenly trailing this talk last month). Aprils meeting will also have our annual Tulip show, let’s hope for as much success as with the daffodils.

This winter has been generally mild and I have noticed signs of aphids on our roses in sheltered spots. This might seem a bit ominous, but on the positive side there are a lot of ladybirds hidden around the garden and all through the winter we have been finding lacewings in the house. With any luck these predators will help to control the greenfly numbers before they get out of hand.

Some Things to do in April
April is a busy month in the garden when we can start sowing and planting in earnest, but be vigilant for late frosts, particularly if you are planting out tender bedding plants. It’s also a good time to start feeding shrubs and roses.

Mark Newstead

www.heyfordgardenclub.com

For more information visit the Heyford Gardening Club & Allotments page

Heyford-Gardening-Cluband-allotments