Visitors are always welcome on the first Monday of the month at Colwall Village Hall WR13 6EQ. We meet for 7.30pm when there is a talk given by a person well versed in their speciality. Arrive early, meet the members and enjoy a free cup of tea or coffee.
On Monday 2nd March we welcomed Pauline Pears who gave a very personal, humorous and instructive talk on why she would have five specific vegetables on her desert island. Drawing on her experience as a garden advisor to Garden Organic and an allotment holder for twenty years, we were enlightened on how to maximise the harvest potential of her famous five. The talk was illustrated with pictures of her allotment by Prickly Pears Productions (no evidence of such in the presenter).
Eat fresh or from store is Pauline’s mantra; with little attention and a long cropping season, her vegetables choices illustrated this ethos. Specifically they are chards, beetroot and spinachbeet eaten fresh from two sowings and stored; climbing French beans fresh (always pick from the bottom), dried or “demi-sec”, leeks stand through the winter, potatoes regular picking and storage in paper sacks; pumpkins fresh and store.
The How To part included propagation with seed from The Heritage Seed Library; using fine fleece to protect leeks from the invading Wolverhampton allium leaf miner and leek moth; cooking over wintered beets in a hay box; growing leek seedlings in “soil assisted” modules; storing root crops in boxes; easy routines to help minimise potato blight. All of which means your writer will now have to rethink his veg garden but it does sound so less time consuming; nearly said easy.
The Percy Picton Memorial Fund continues to benefit from the sale of books from the library of the late Merle Stanning. The PPMF helps support horticultural students at Pershore College. The final selection will be available at our next meeting on April 6th.
The presenter at this meeting, Sally Gregson, who holds a National Collection of Epimediums, returns to delight and inform us with a talk on this beautiful species.
Come early, make/meet friends and discuss your gardening interests (and challenges). There are many experienced and knowledgeable gardeners who are happy to answer questions. Subscriptions, payable in January, are £12.00; visitors are charged £4.00.
Tim Beaumont