Apart from arriving in daylight, the weather for our April meeting this year made us think it was still mid-winter. As ever it included the Michael Jefferson-Brown bulb competition for which, somewhat surprisingly, there were a large number of entries. This year the shield was awarded to Margaret Stone for a beautiful display of mixed bulbs.
Our information table contained details of the various local horticultural events we can enjoy in the next weeks and months including several plant fairs and talks.
A copy of this year’s show schedule was available for every member at the meeting and will soon be available on this website
Our speaker was Charles Dowding, a well-known exponent of no-dig vegetable growing about which he has now written four books. With the help of his excellent pictures he demonstrated both his techniques and his success. He creates his four-foot wide beds, in the open garden and in polytunnels, by covering the area with cardboard on which he places a layer of manure and/or compost. In this he grows a wide variety of vegetables, often with two and even three plantings a year. The soil is kept weed free and the vegetables are planted very closely. In this way, from his one acre plot, he produced vegetables with a wholesale value of thirty thousand pounds last year.
At our next meeting on 6 May our speaker will be Gareth Davies who will be telling us how to use a small greenhouse. At that meeting, and again at our June meeting, we will be holding our annual bring and buy plant stall and we should plan to arrive, with our contributions, labelled if possible, by 7pm.
Margaret White
Notice: Fruit cage 10’x6’x6’ Steel tubular framework Details from Margaret Skelton 0168 4541441